How to turn heads and score points with LIS Audio.
A show-ready system is something that’s unfortunately overlooked in many builds looking to tackle the show circuit. If you’re chasing some extra points that could make the difference between you going home with or without hardware, beefing up your audio game is a great place to start – and no, you can’t just slap in some new speakers and expect to pick up some ICE love from the judges. Coincidentally, our friends over at LIS Audio just so happened to finish an install on a customer’s Nissan 350Z, and we thought it would be the perfect example of what to shoot for.
When LIS Audio’s Cameron "Chimpo" Powell and Justice "JAX" Berry first saw Brennen Vail’s “LeBrennan.Z” 350Z, it was up on a lift in his father, Marvin’s, body shop having a custom widebody done-up. After chatting about their goals and vision, which included being a neck-breaker via wood grain, suede, and fiber optics, the LIS guys took the Z33 into their own shop after the widebody was finished and started to work their magic. Chimpo and JAX tell us all about how it went down.
Photography by LIS Audio (@lisaudiokc)
SPEAKER DOOR POD
“We chose to omit the rear speakers and add them to the front of the vehicle only. We added two sets of Audio Dynamics 2100 Series component speakers for a full and rich sound that would encompass the entire cabin of the Nissan. The long teardrop shape was agreed upon after rendering the flow of the factory door panel, taking into consideration the components to be mounted and the allowance of space around moving parts. This made for a sleek, yet eccentric, speaker door pod. The door panels were finished off with black and red suede, as well as birch wood on the pod fascia for accent.”
SOURCE UNIT
“The main source of media derives from the 10.9-inch iPad Pro with Pandora, Spotify, and iTunes, hosting libraries of content. We needed to integrate the iPad into the system so we built a dock that would allow it to stream music and charge, while being able to slide in-and-out of the dock. The main source unit is a single-DIN Kenwood KMM-BT518HD media receiver which is tucked away behind the slider that distributes signal to the Audio Dynamics speaker and subwoofer amplifiers. The entire bezel was wrapped in red suede for a clean finish.”
UNDERBODY & WHEEL LIGHTING
“The Z33 is nothing short of a light show! On the exterior, we added some complimentary underglow and wheel lighting. We utilized Heise’s 5050 multi-color LED strip lighting and Diamond Audio’s DARGB8A eight-output RGB controller, which is Bluetooth enabled via the EZ LED app. Across the exterior of the Z33, we incorporated a total of nine runs of Heise lighting. The interior lighting is controlled via a toggle switch next to the Air Lift controller. We chose Heise 5050 red LED strip lighting for the interior accent color to play with the already red dash iPad slider and door pods.”
AMP RACK
“In the amp rack, we added Audio Dynamics Premium Series 1000.4 and 1200.1 amplifiers, wired up with Stinger OFC zero-gauge wire and 6000 Series RCAs, plus three Shuriken reserve power cells. We added an Xbox One to the amplifier rack as well, which is finished with a birch wood fascia and LED plasma-style accents in the amplifier windows. In the hatch, we built a false floor to hold the KC Kulture air tank and cover the reserve batteries and two compressors mounted in the spare wheel well for the air ride system.”
SUBWOOFER BOXES
“For the sub stage, we decided to use the middle section of the vehicle due to the Air Lift system in the rear hatch. We removed the middle section storage compartment behind the passenger seat and factory subwoofer components located rear of the driver. This left us two vacant spaces for a pair of black-anodized aluminum Audio Dynamics 2100 Series eight-inch woofers. We designed a pair of identical sealed woofer enclosures to fit in the middle section compartments. We finished the enclosure fascia with black carpeting to keep the interior consistent.”
SOUND DEADENING
“During the process of this extensive audio installation we added some much-needed sound deadening. Our primary deadener of choice is HushMat Ultra. We used roughly 120 square-feet of the Ultra sound deadening material to line the interior panels of the vehicle. We covered the doors, floor, roof, and middle section of the Z33 to compliment the previously covered rear hatch. Covering the entire cabin of the Z33 made a sizable difference in road and engine sounds.”
HEADLINER
“The headliner originally started out as a light shade of grey, but that changed quickly. We pulled the headliner and had it reupholstered in a deep black suede. Once the new suede had been applied and the adhesive had time to dry, it was time for the fiber optic kit. The fiber optic kit we constructed into this headliner featured a 100-plus strand count. The headliner lighting kit is controller via IR remote and has hundreds of different color combinations.”
