I remember a custom Jeep Wrangler that came into my shop mid-July. The owner was furious. He had just spent three grand on a “top-of-the-line” 3,000-watt monoblock, but every time he drove for more than 20 minutes, the music would cut out. “The amp is a piece of junk,” he shouted. “It’s burning hot to …

I remember being at an SPL competition in Florida back in ’12. A guy pulled up in a van with sixteen 15-inch subs. It was a monster. But every time the bass dropped, his voltage plummeted from 15V to 11V. I looked in his back, and it was a nightmare: dozens of 0-gauge cables crisscrossing …

I’ll never forget the guy who walked into my shop with a “top-tier” home bench setup he’d built himself. He was trying to run a 3,000-watt competition amp off a 30-amp generic industrial power supply. He thought that because he wasn’t “cranking it,” the supply would hold up. Within five minutes of a heavy Re-bassed …

I remember a client who brought in a pristine, late-model SUV. He’d spent five figures on a world-class sound system, but he had a “ghost in the machine.” Every time the bass hit, his GPS screen would flicker, and his HID headlights would dim so hard they almost cut out. He thought his new Car …

I remember a 1998 Chevy Tahoe that rolled into my shop about ten years ago. The owner had just finished a DIY install: three 15-inch subwoofers and a 5,000-watt RMS monster amp that cost him a month’s salary. He was beaming with pride, but as soon as the first deep bass note hit, the dash …

The Day the Tahoe Melted I’ll never forget a guy named “Big Al” who rolled into my shop with a 2015 Tahoe. He had just finished installing two 15-inch subs and a massive monoblock rated at 3,500W RMS. He was proud of the build, but he was still running the factory 130-amp alternator. “I’ve got …

The “Disco Lights” Mystery at the Shop I remember a guy named Mike who pulled into my shop about ten years ago in a custom Tahoe. He had four 15-inch subs and about 5,000 watts of raw power, but every time the bass dropped, his headlights dimmed so hard it looked like a disco ball …

I’ll never forget a job I saw back in 2012. A guy brought in a classic Cadillac Fleetwood. He was proud of his “DIY” install—two 15-inch subs and a massive Korean-made mono-block amp. But he had used 8-gauge wire he’d stripped out of an old jumper cable set. As we were doing a demo, I …

I’ll never forget a Fourth of July weekend about a decade ago. A client of mine, Mike, had just finished a beautiful build in his Jeep Wrangler—four 12-inch subs and a massive 3,000-watt amp rack. He went out to the lake with his friends, cranked the tunes for three hours with the engine off, and …