2007 Jeep Patriot - Jazzed Up

What you see here is the result of a lot of work over the four weeks Kaoss Audio & Video took to finish the Jeep. "The design was built and rebuilt four times because we were not happy with little things from the look to the position of the speakers," Nguyen reveals. They re-fabricated the lower half of both front doors to make two separate enclosures for each, using MDF, fiberglass and ABS. The door panel became an infinite baffle for the 5.25" midrange from the TS-C520PRS set. Since they didn't want rear fill for this SQ Patriot, they had an additional component set to play with. A separate sealed enclosure holds the TS-C720PRS's 6.5" woofer.

Nguyen and his team had two sets of tweeters but decided to use only one in the A-pillars. "We thought that using both sets of tweeters would make the sound too harsh," he says. After finagling to get the correct angle, they molded the tweeters into the pillars using the supplied housings. Wanting to maintain a stock look, as with the doors, they textured and painted the pillars to match.

Although an attractive airbrushed mural wouldn't matter in the SQ judging, the Patriot sports a New Orleans themed paint job. We're sure the pretty picture didn't sway the IASCA judges (Will Adcock, Moe Sabourin and Harry Kimura), who awarded this Jeep 486.2 points to win the competition! The Patriot may usually park outside Kaoss Audio & Video to educate customers (listening to jazz CDs and the IASCA disc, of course) on what an ideal system sounds like, but an enthusiastic Nguyen is ready to bring it to the broader competition: "With a little tweaking, I'm confident I can break 500 points."

The judges saw a very well put together install. In addition to Dynamat covering every place they could get to, the installers used expandable foam and polyfill to hit the spots they couldn't. They meticulously ran and mounted down the Stinger wires, and also put to good use Stinger Expert series ANL fuse holders for each of the Stinger SP680 additional batteries and the factory replacement SP1500D. Distribution blocks, ground blocks and more Stinger fuses also have their proper places.

Subwoofers, Pioneer provided two TS-W3001D4 12" subwoofers, which the team decided to put into separate 0.84ft3 sealed enclosures. Following the contours of the spare tire well, a box was created from MDF and fiberglass. For aesthetics, a double layer of colored acrylic, along with a cover panel of silver-painted 31/44" MDF, sets off the flushed-in woofers. The only hiccup was the lack of proportionality in the cargo area. On the driver's side a storage pocket cut into the space, so the installers performed some surgery to match this panel to the other side before beginning work on the subs and amp structures.

Amps, For the lows, Nguyen mounted each PRS-D1100M mono amplifier behind the sub it supports. Despite the consistent double layer of colored acrylic that covers them, they don't match the rack style of the PRS-D4100F 4-channel amplifier, which powers the high-frequency speakers. "We wanted to elevate the highs to give more of a 3-D appearance," he says. Unfortunately, the original rack was damaged during the build and the team had to quickly make a replacement. The finishedtongue-in-groove design disassembles easily, especially when the judges want to check out wire management and other installation details. Nguyen relates, "I was asked to break down the install and it only took me 45 seconds to take everything apart."

Shop Box:Kaoss Audio & VideoKenner, LA

Installers: Vinnie Nguyen, Cedric Calais, Robert Nguyen, Donny La, Nick Del Bianco

To handle all processing duties as well as the audio source, Nguyen (and all the other competitors) was given a DEH-P880PRS head unit, which has crossovers and EQ controls built-in. Nguyen dropped it in the stock location, custom molding the display for the tire pressure sensors underneath. For ease of use, he also integrated the factory steering wheel controls to it.

To handle all processing duties as well as the audio source, Nguyen (and all the other competitors) was given a DEH-P880PRS head unit, which has crossovers and EQ controls built-in. Nguyen dropped it in the stock location, custom molding the display for the tire pressure sensors underneath. For ease of use, he also integrated the factory steering wheel controls to it.