Sound Offs - Showing Off Your Car Audio System

Sound offs are not new to the World of car audio. In fact, they have existed since the early eighties and have continued as an annual event. Although this event started in California with probably only a number of fanatics, it has now expanded all over the world, since the evolvement of the manufacturers in the competitions.

Today, car audio manufacturers help shape the rules of the car 'sound off', as well as sponsor individual competitors. With the improvement of audio technologies, also came the focus in these competitions of sound improvement. For instance, with large subwoofers and powerful amps many car audio fans have competed for high quality sound as well as intense volume. Up until the 1990's, the chief focus was volume, but this changed around 1990 with the improvement of audio technologies and the nationalization of car audio competitions.

Although most competitions are very similar, there may be a different style of viewing the car audio system, depending on the type of competition and judges. For instance, you may drive through to a special booth for them to check out your gear, or they make walk around the grounds viewing each car individually.

You may also find specific differences between completion, depending if it's local, regional or global. Usually, the bigger the competition is (for instance global) the stricter the rules. Because the competition is much stronger, the rules are much more hard lined.

In the competition there are two main focuses, the installation quality and the sound quality. 'Sound offs' put much more emphasis on the sound quality, however, technical knowledge is still an important component to the competition. Besides this, a sound off competitor will be judged on frequency response and sound pressure levels. However, these are not as heavily weighted in the point casting system, as technical installation and sound quality.

Sound off competitions are often managed by car audio manufactures, who make the technologies used. Hence, it is expected that competitors use the newest technologies and the best out there, in turn creating the best audio system possible. It not only shows off some of the best audio systems and the competitors' technical knowledge and skills, but allows manufacturers to see what they can improve upon.