Been a long time.......... MEGA UPDATE!!!

Its been far too long since I updated the Blog and with things picking back up for the 2011 competition season I thought I had better update it quick!

Alot has happened since the previous blog update so will try and list it in reverse order!

Sponsorship

Anyone following the blog and build on www.talkaudio.co.uk will know that Project Big Black is no longer being sponsored by Connects2 as they no longer distribute Ground Zero in the UK. I wanted to say a big thanks to the guys at Connects2 (Andy, Martin, Mike and Mark) for the help with getting Project Big Black to where it is today.  Also a massive thanks to Adam Rayner - the Car Audio Svengali whos caeer I have avoided ruining by making sure PBB made some serious noise, so thanks guys



Propper Dropper Finals

One of the last competitions of 2010 Project Big Black competed in was the Propper Droppers UK Finals held at a very wet Arena Essex Raceway in October  I managed to come in at 1st place with the following scores

153.3@20Hz
157@25Hz
157@33Hz
156.7Hz@40hz
Peak of 157.2@34Hz

156.2 average 

The rest of my highest scores for the year where combined to give an overall loudest install EVER in Propper Droppers

Total Average= 156.8dB

Peak= 157.2dB @ 34Hz
40Hz= 156.7dB
33Hz= 157.0dB
25Hz= 157.0dB
20Hz= 156.3dB  

EMMA ESPL FINALS

On 8th October myself and Ian 'hotwheels' Edgar set off to the EMMA European Finals @ the Ahoy 100% Tuning show in Rotterdamn Holland.  I was entered into the ESPL Master catagory so took Project Big Black over to show the europeans how the UK do Streetbass!

The show was really busy but there was a strict bass curfew enforced by the venue which only allowed 3mins of booming every 30mins!!!  We arrive kind of late on the first day and was only on the Team UK stand for about an hour before I had the install portion of the competion judged.  I knew PBB could make some noise but the install judging was the section I was nervous about.  I dropped only one point for some MDF on display in the amp build - not too bad at all considering the work I had put in to make sure the fusing was all safe!!!.

Here are a few pics from the show plus some videos - Big Thanks to Ian Edgar for the great array if pics you see here

As someone on Talkaudio said to me - you know you have made in car audio when you have bass royalty Mr Ian 'ICEMAN' Pinder holding your doors shut on a bass run.  Ians Van couldn't make it out to the show (He qualified ahead of me in the EMMA UK Finals) but he flew out to support Team UK.  Its a shame the Astra wasnt there as between us it would have been an awesome final in the lanes

More of this video later

 

Here you can see the guys from Debunker Audio giving PBB their seal of approval 

 The actual Debunker Audio Seal of approval

 And some Videos

 

 

On Saturday I managed to put down a huge score doors open (158db I think it was - the oudest EMMA ESPL score ever although it was with the Ground Zero/EMMA mic which seems to read about 6db up on the Termlab)  Also after speaking to Alex I was able to do a full on burp with the mic in place which saw me  doing 164db!)

Sunday saw the Finals and I managed to get even louder hitting 158.5db with the doors open which managed to get me the championship title :)

It was an amazing weekend with lots of new friends made!

Keeping the Sponsors Happy (But annoying their Neigbours)

The Guys at Connect2 asked me to pop along to their offices to demo Project Big Black to their sales team so glad of any excuse to demo the beast I popped over.  as yo uread earlier I killed a SUB at the T-18 meet but the guys at Connects2 had got me a replacement over nice and fast so we fitted that as well

Parked right at the far end of their compound I still managed to get the neighbours calling the reception asking me to keep it down!

Project Big Black videoed for www.talkaudio.co.uk @ T18 meet 2010

T-18 Meet Part 2

Project Big Black - Compliation of tunes and Engine Bay Flex!

Project Big Black - Paul Richardson gets a Demo

Project Big Black @ T-18 - Loud Front End - All That Remains

T-18 - Not so full of Win

In an effort to get my blog back upto date im trying to fill in all of the major events this season for Big Black - so Here goes

the T- Events are the Annual Meet for www.talkaudio.co.uk - this years was T-18 and I was all geared up for a full on booming session (Keeping in mind the SQ guys over the other side of the field of course)


As soon as I arrived I got PBB on charge - I was after a new personal best so the batteries needed to be in tip top condition - when I ran through the lanes something didnt dound right and I was about 1.5db DOWN so had a check of the subs and found that one of them had done this to most of its screws

Causing it to fall out of the wall and pretty much free air - at 155db - @ 33hz

 as you can imagine - this happened to the coil

The silver bit at the top is the magnet - the coil came away from the spiders whoops

Still managed a decent 155.8 but had to drop down to the 139.9 class for bassrace - didnt do so well as a certain Mr Rayner was interviewing me for a future Talk Audio article AS I WAS IN THE LANES!!

Also managed to pick up a full size system diagram from Jon 'Squashed under Big Blacks Roof' Young a gian A0 version of this

Mobile Electronics News Article

Hot off the press is the August issue of Mobile Electronics News  and guess who made the cover!!

Project Big Black gets louder + Bottle Trick Videos

Just got back from the Petrolheadz show at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port - It was a dB Drag show which means both dB Drag and Bassrace competitions.  As you may have seen from my previous post - Paul @ A1 Audio Design helped seal off the b pillars and the step under the subs I was hoping for a little gain from that.

So I rocked up and burped as soon as I arrived

a .3db Gain - was happy with that but I tried a higher freq

Getting better!  at this point I really wanted to hit 157db so I went back on charge and came back with........

Woo Hoo 157db - equalling my personal best

I also did my first real bottle tricks - got a couple of videos

Leather Seats and Facia Finishing

I just got back from picking Big Black up from Paul (A1 Audio Designs) and Phil (Bespoke Auto Interiors) were it has spent the last few days getting the seats retrimmed and the finishing touches put to the B Pillars

A while back a good friend Jon (you may remember him from the roof installation) designed a logo for Big Black.  He showed it to Lou and I and we loved it and decided to get it stitched to the seats this is the logo

And this is how the final article looks - Im so f**king happy with the end product - Phil @ BAI has done a blinding job

During the door builds Paul discovered that the standard seat adjusters would foul the builds and so set about making custom panels
Before

And after Paul's modifications and retrimmed panel -

I also needed to have the B Pillars finished off and sealed up - The step that the subs sit on was open to the rear door and could have been losing me the dbzzz so Paul contoured the B Pillar panels as well as sealing the gabs below the step

The B Pillar and roof joined nice and flush

The top of the windscreen is strengthened with a slab of 18mm MDF which is strong but looks ugly - Paul managed to tidy up the roof and hide the beefy brace baton

The port side of the box presented another challenge - how to trim the side panels without obstructing the port - as always Paul was able to over come this and fixed a baton to the side wall and blended it in to the port wall giving a nice hard edge to trim up to

This join continued to the bottom of the port as well to ensure a nice smooth transition from the port floor to the trimmed step

Im so happy with the work Paul and Phil have put in - As always they where flexible and willing to work to my deadline (getting it done before PetrolHeadz) and budget - the work speaks for itself  - A fantastic pair of guys that can sort pretty much all your install needs in one place. Cheers Guys

Big Black thanks you!

Project Big Black does 156.2db @ 20hz!

After changing my subsonic filter I guessed that it might improve my proper droppers score a little.

Proper Droppers test at 20, 25, 33 and 40hz plus a peak freq and then gives you an average score.

On Saturday I managed the following set of scores

1: Matt Sprigg (PROJECT BIG BLACK) - Mitsi Shogun - 8x 12" Ground Zero - Ported Box- 16.000wrms
Total Average ((((Propper Droppers)))) Score = 155.9dB

Peak Freeq= 157.2dB @ 22Hz
40Hz = 154.2dB

33Hz = 155.9dB
25Hz = 156.1dB
20Hz = 156.3dB

The 1st person in the UK ever to do more than 155db @  20hz  ( I was also the first person to beat 155@33hz to) and im only .2 away from beating Alex 'LoudvanMan' Mitchells record - If i can sort my 40hz score out (which i think was down as my epicenter was partially on) I think i can get there

1: Alex Mitchell (Loud Van Man)  - 6x Digital Designs 3515 - Ported wall- 2x SPL Dynamics S6000D amps 12.0000wrms
Total Average ((((Propper Droppers)))) Score = 156.1dB

Peak Freeq= 158.0dB @ 33Hz
40Hz = 155.6dB
33Hz = 158.0dB
25Hz = 155.6dB
20Hz = 153.3dB


Big Black is really turning into a low frequency beast!!!   I want to thank everyone who has helped me so far - I couldn't have done it without you guys

Ignition Extreme Weekender

25-27th June was the Ignition Extreme weekender show - 3 days in theNottinghamshire countryside just messing about with Modified cars.  RESULT!

Me and Lou got there early on Friday and met up with Adam 'bassbenz' Cope and set up Camp dB Drag while the wife 'supervised' i believe she called it ( I called it sunbathing whilst taking the odd picture!!!)

The genius of a couple of men at work

Both tents up without a problem ;)

We did better than Jim 'Buju Banton'Box did with his tent!
Fail!

Jim managed to sort it out with some help from the camping experts

Later on some more guys turned up - John Daddy-O Aitkin had the Jupiler supplies - happy days

Big Black sat happily playing away all night (well until 11pm when we got told to shut it off

Saturday Morning started with Big Black playing The Top Gun Theme at full whack at 8am  - theyall loved us!!!

I got a shed load of help from Alex 'Loudvanman' Mitchell  And Jon 'WonkyJon' Clements tweaking the individual amps to set them up correctly - My initial setup got me in the ball park but a couple of the subs needed tweaking - you can see the problem in the top right hand sub in the video - moving alot more than all the others


We tested before the changes and I hit 156.1db - a personal best and new UK record

Big Black got a lot of attention all  weekend - It was making some great noise ;)

I qualified with a  perfect 149.9 in Bassrace and 156.1db @ 30hz in db drag - a good day.

Saturday night we decided to order take out and after hearing rumors of a monstor kebab that would feed a family of four - our choice for tea was easy!!

Waiting for dinner

Whilst waiting for food - Tom (lol4fun) pimped a few dubstep tunes - one of which Buju took a shine to - he promptly blew the dustcap off his dd9512 and heated it up a treat but never fear - Wonkys magic glue to the rescue! - this stuff repaired my pair of dd9918s enough that I could hammer a perfect 149.9 bassrace run not 30mins after he repaired the entire surround on both subs!

Adam 'dumdum'Daniels and Alex 'LoudvanMan' Mitchell get caught in the T4/Bandpass portaloo discussing box designs!

Darren 'Loudboy' Millard with our massive food order

Adam 'bassbenz' cope and me with 'The Twins' - Giant Mega Mixed Kebabs

That is A - LOT of Meat - Lamb Donner, Chicken and Beef Shish, Chicken Tikka Pieces plus a Tandoori Chicken Leg in a Naan Bread I could have used as a blanket!

A very happy fat man!

camp db Drag was quite for a short while as everyone tucked in

My camp seat got a little to small so Adam and me moved to the flattest table we could find which happened to be Big Blacks Bonnet

The rest of Saturday night was spend groaning with full stomachs but at 11pm we did manage to celebrate armed forces day with a Big Black style rendition of The Last Post

Sunday morning started with Insomnia by Faithless - at full whack ;)  they didnt get no sleep that morning I tell you!

Sunday was another blinding hot day so some shade was arranged for the Wags

as we where joined by Darren 'dbdaz' Hircock and his wife Helen, Chris 'Chris@Four' Woods ins the Hertz SPL Show Panda, Dave 'VD' Wilkins with his SPL Marbella and DC Sounds powered Mondeo estate and Ed 'edhick'hickling in the Jacked DC Sounds Chevy Blazer

ed and I ended up head to head again inthe bassrace semis - always very nerve racking pulling up next to ed!

Makes Big Black look not so big!

Unfortunately ed bust out and I managed another perfect 149.9 putting me up against adam cope in the finals


I ended up winning both the Extreme os 3+ category and 149.9 bassrace class - a great weekend - thanks to everyone who made it such a nice chilled out friendly show!