Skill or Not?
 

Who thinks it takes skill to do SPL?
Just curious what people think.

Skill or money ;)

Knowledge isn't skill, unless you're depending on how bad of a box you can build.

Its skill if you build your own car yes.

But with so many people out there paying other ppl or relying on other ppl to build their car I dont consider that skill if all they do is push the button.

It's true^^ I could teach my wife how to press play/pause on a remote
But it's just like any other car race team, usually the driver is just the driver and it's the crew who puts the car together to get it to be faster than the others

what costs more? the time it takes to learn how to get loud by trial and error or buying expensive equipment?

Depends if your adding hours of Labour to the question.. Even at 10$/hr It WAY more expensive time wise... At least it probably should be for most very serious competitors

nice..

yes it takes skill if you do all work, and compete with it yourself. Not everyone can build, nail, glue, cut, screw, weld, ripapart vehicles, and put them back together..

Never mind the electrical part if your trying to run many many amps, and batteries..

It's probably no rocket science... but for those who take it to the next level it can require lots of skills... welding, fiberglassing, upholstering, concrete forming, steel fabrications, plastic molding and of course to think "outside" and "inside" the box.. haha

Good equipment helps but knowledge/skill is way more important. Take street cars for example, they have a limitation on power due to battery restriction. It takes skill to get the most out of the battery and it also takes skill to use that power to produce a big number.

I say skill, just cause anyone can build a box, but knowing how to tune, what to tune to, and knowing what your car will and won't do.

i knwo it's a skill cuz i used to put it on my resume

^^^^^^ hahahahahahahahaha classic

I'd say skill.. Just like everything else in competition. Those with the most hours in, which requires dedication, generally become the best.
Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky ,Lebron James, ... Yuli :eek: lol
Like being a electrician's apprentice, you gain the skill with the time you put in:thumbsup:
Having a good coach helps too. :cheeky4:

maybe if its AWD automatic ^^ ,
or that nascar crap were u nap while u race.

id say there is skill involved, and patience. money is a factor obviously as well, but u can have the best equipment on the planet, have no clue what ur doing and ull end up building a flop machine, or you'll pay someone with the right skills and patience to build it. either way if you buy it YOU didnt do it and have no skills or knowledge, the other people do.

I say it takes making friends with the local spl guys on your car audio forum then absorb as much as you can from them. but yes, its a skill...one I don't have. but I've got awesome nunchuck skills

its a skill. i remember my days only hitting 136db with an 18 and 2k hahah man what a noob. However since i have joined the site and talked to the right people with the skil i have learned alot now. Thank you CCA family!!

humm, good discussion.

define "spl skill", because sometimes a person can't build anything nice looking and still is loud.

you mean there was a point when I was louder than you??? niceeeeeeeee

Murillo I think it has to do with the ability to get loud on a regular basis. for example, I remember way back when Yuli posted the phrase "its all about loading". at the time I had no idea what he meant, and then one night while testing with Peter and Joell, Peter said literally that he can make me louder by moving my box around. all we did was rotate it 90 degress and move it to one side and my score went up a db. or in another case where I think it was Les who posted that doubling the power going to a the same speakers in the same box should yield an increase of approximately 3 db (I think it was him on this forum, but I don't remember 100%). needless to say when I changed from my old amp to my other old amp I doubled the power I had and my score went up by 3 dbs, something I never would have guessed.

lol.. since when did spl have to look nice? Is this speaking from experience murilo? :smokin:


Either way no question you get vehicles loud... that's skillz...

it also depends on your setup in my opinion. If you have a rex doing 150 db with a street B setup for instance...I dont consider that skillfull at all...chances are you have just copied someone elses design.

However if you got a festiva or a car that isnt used as much in spl to 150 db with the same gear then it would require more skill because you need to understand the car and the setup a bit more as opposed to just copying people.

I think too many of the new age SPL guys are just out to copy someones design and go from there rather than doing what the older spl guys mostly did which was build dozens of enclosures and dont stop tuning until you get thru all of em. Then put the loudest one in. I also think too many of the new age guys are afraid of competition and purposely go in classes which dont have many guys in it. But this could just be a problem out west I cant speak for the eastern guys.

What is a skill is to constantly be progessing, nothing is ever finished, set in stone. Yes it is impressive that you can hit a 150, but can you up the ante and hit a 150.2?

So you're saying the new age guys are lazy and just go the easy route, do what they are told and acquire no skill in doing so.
I agree

How do we differentiate new age, vs old age... Am i new and old cause i stopped and then jumped back in?
Am I Lazy cause I took over a built SS with a bandpass? I say NO. I just ripped it all out, and cutting apart the whole metal cage, because to MY "spec" it wasn't big and beefy enough..
Oh well.. some of us will lead, some will follow, some will fall off the side of a cliff like lemmings.

i dont think it is defined on how loud you are or how fast u got that loud.

to me spl skill always ment consistency in increasing your number. the more consistent you are from show to show with respect to your number going up the more skill you are gaining in my eyes.

basically spl skills = consistently getting louder. regardless if you start at 145 or 165.

VERY well put Yuli I think this best describes this debate right here IMO

oh thank you.

A lot of people do copy other designs, and get somewhat loud, but in the end it's the ones that maximize, and modify the copied designs for their own car, and then start to do their own thing that show the true skill

For crx's, lots do have skills, but it's getting harder to see that skill since so many are done up, and so many are around the same numbers. It's easier to see the skills for the people that are getting loud with other vehicles.

Waggy and Yuli got it right. It takes no real skill to buy a popular car and build a popular box and move it around 1/4" at a time until you find the sweet spot. Yay, you are a 'me too' competitor.

True skill is being able to grab a random car (or go with a new box design), build it, hit a competitive number out of the gate, and then be able to increase that number consistently until you max the gear out.

If we had clamped power classes (or limited gear, limited budget, etc) I think would be way nicer for street kind classes.

I remember messing with the street B (street B, that is 2x 12s and one battery), you couldnt do much, had 1 ton of power wire on the floor, damping everywhere, a very heavy box and low power SPL gains most of the time wouldnt keep up with 12kW+ burps.

My SS car is much better, you have a 60 cubes box to play with...

Can you imagine a class for a single 10, with 1000W max, how fun would it be? You could try some crazy boxes.

The league I'm in is fun because we have a 5k limit for the class. It's a nice middle ground for the rookies stepping up, and one step below the heavy hitters.

skill for sure , knowledge and thinking outside of the box also
money does help

A skill most definitely. Money, this is a definite once you've got the skills. As for the new age guys buying a rex and getting it loud, I laugh at that comment. It would have weight if that person has had no other car before it to work on and get loud. If he has had another vehicle before it and had gotten the vehicle loud, then went out and bought the "loud car" then I see nothing wrong with that. That comment sounds like "hatin on the new age guys." It also helps to ask questions from the vets as well. You get an idea and expand on it.

As for the money, once you've gotten those type r's as loud as possibe in the rex then you go after the real spl equipment. I know that there are alot of haters out there who downplay TF ONE'S and say it's an ordinary sub but once I've maxed out them then that's when the money will come into play by going after neo subs.

Thus the reason why I say it helps to have the skill first and foremost, then the money to hone those skills and upgrade in order to be even louder.

P.S. TF ONE FTW!!!!!:smokin:

I do but, not the way I've seen it done on most of these posts. Looks like everyone is guessing, by playing with their aborted high school science projects in their trunks. Numbers are great, but at least a little cosmetic enhancement wouldn't hurt.
I vote yes for those that do it right.

SKILL and some deep pockets if your goals are high :)

It takes skill to look good while doing it!

That's why the model is #1 in my books. he has it both. :smokin:

darn right, that's why he started an acting career.

http://mizzstrangelove.files.wordpre.../08/batman.jpg