Santa Has Flown Into Lower Hutt Early @ ABTEC!!

Its that time of the year again, Christmas season is in full force again and all the masses are out and about doing their last minute shopping. So in the spirit of the silly season Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell went out and brought a Santa suit for one of us to dress up in… As you can see as soon as the Santa suit went on the camera came out and started shooting and everyone had a few laughs along the way. I think Santa is pointing out what he wants to give everyone for Christmas here! I’m not sure...

Digital Designs 3512 Coil & Basket Replacement @ ABTEC

Most Sub-Woofers have a reasonable lifespan, even after a lot of life shortening abuse I’ve seen Digital Designs Sub-Woofers still pound away where other Sub-Woofers would been burnt out and lifeless. This blog is about a coil/cone/basket replacement on a seven year old DD-3512-D2 Sub-Woofer that looks like it had lifetime of said abuse! You are most likely cringing at the sight of the ripped rubber on this old DD-3512-D2 Sub-Woofer, I remember when I first saw it I kept thinking “Wow, that’s had a hard life!”. Since the Cone and Dust-Cap were never going to be used again Ashley ‘MAD...

Digital Designs DD-512-D4 Subwoofers Hit 153.7dB!!

When it comes to SPL (Sound Pressure Level) results, anything over the 150dB mark is a phenomenal result no matter how you look at it and getting a result above 150dB requires a lot of time, testing and in some cases money. In most cases people go out and buy high-end Sub-Woofers designed for SPL that usually net good results but come at a high cost to your pocket! We at ABTEC set a little challenge to ourselves, this challenge was to prove that you can get results over the 150dB mark with Entry-Level Sub-Woofers! It took a lot of testing with different...

ABTEC dB Drag Soundoff & Sounds Alive 2012 October Update

Last Saturday on the 13th of October ABTEC had yet another dB Drag Sound-off Event at its Lower Hutt Workshop. Due to the weather I did expect the turn-out to be on the lower side of things but was quite pleasantly surprised when it hit 2pm that the workshop started to fill up very quickly. With the Sound-Off being held on a Saturday instead of the usual Sunday, setting up the dB Drag Trailer and Workshop was a little more chaotic then usual due to the Workshop being open till the Sound-off started. Soon after 2pm most of the competitors had turned up...

Digital Designs Z18 Cone Replacement/Upgrade @ ABTEC

Its not very often we do cone replacement’s on Digital Designs Sub-Woofers yet alone on a DD-Z18! So when Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell told me that he was going to cut up the DD-Z18 my heart nearly stopped, I had a head full of questions and starting ranting on like some sort of madman looking for any excuse for Ashley not to cut up the Z18. After what felt like a four hour conversation/debate Ashley convinced me that what he was going to do was for the greater good of the Z18 and reassured me that he hadn’t become a sick...

A new Dual 12″ Sub-Box to House Two DD-512-D4 Sub-Woofers

About two weeks ago I had a request for a Sub-Woofer box to be made for a Nissan Stagea, this seemed like a very easy request at the time until I had the measurements text messaged to me. Being one who likes a challenge I got right onto it, first ringing our box builder and seeing if he could work with the dimensions provided already knowing he would have a drawing right quick! Since the box profile could only be so tall the Sub-Woofer choice was quite slim, so after a few conversations the choice was a DD-512-D4. The DD-512-D4 is Digital Designs entry...

ABTEC1 @ ManZone North City Shopping Centre 2012

Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell has now been supporting ManZone at North City Shopping Centre, Porirua now for six years. This year was a touch different though with ABTEC1 having its audio set-up completely changed, a set of 20″ rims added to it and also was my first year at ManZone! Before I carry on about the weekend spent at ManZone North City I’m going to give a brief description of the changes to ABTEC1. The first change was the wheel’s, I had briefly waved the idea of changing the wheels to Ashley about a month ago explaining how a change...

Digital Designs EVO X Demo Car!

Not everyone is lucky enough to have owned an Mitsubishi EVO let alone two of them, Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell has however been this lucky and he even owned them both at the same time for a while there too! Even though the Mitsubishi EVO IX was Ashley’s favourite car to drive, he said the Mitsubishi EVO X was favourite for Sound Quality out of the EVO’s! In 2007 the Mitsubishi EVO X became available to the public and Ashley was lucky enough to get his grubby little hands on the first one available to the NZ public making it the...

SQ Vs SPL, Whats The Difference?

What is the difference between SQ (Sound Quality) and SPL (Sound Pressure Levels) ? What is better? And what do you as a music lover prefer? These are questions I get asked all the time and in the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference. In this blog I am going to try explain it as well as I possibly can and also give my own personal opinion on this subject! First of all, SQ (Sound Quality) is about having clarity and fidelity while being able to hear every single frequency of the song nice and clear....

Our First SPL Demo Sound Truck!

Back in mid 2000 Ashley ‘Mad Bass’ Burrell brought a new company vehicle, this vehicle was a Isuzu Wizard. The Wizard spent many a year doing everything from daily duties, driving rep’s around to hauling audio equipment around NZ. After 6 years of work duties Ashley thought it would be good to give the Wizard a bit of an overhaul, including a full SPL audio install, some sign-writing and the biggest wheels they could find at the time! First thing on the cards was getting it sign written and getting the biggest set of chrome wheels available, I’m personally not a fan...