Reporting back: DLS SQ Show 23 May

To sum up the Sound Quality show/competition held on Sunday, 23rd of May 2010, at the City Lodge on Barbara road in Johannesburg is actually very easy. So easy in fact that one word is all I need, fantastic!

The day kicked off bright and early with a crisp autumn chill in the air and enthusiastic chatter of no less than 15 eager competitors ready to have their vehicles subjected to the extremely strict scrutineering of Peter Flodqvist, one of the head Emma training judges in Europe and technical support guy for DLS “worldwide”.

The listening format used on the day was a shortened version of the standard Emma one with only track 1 and track 6 of the competition disc being used while the full installation format was used. The competitors were divided into two classes namely Open Class, where the competitor could have any combination of DLS equipment, and Entry Class, where the vehicle had to meet a specific component combination to qualify.

Judging started at 9:00 with Peter using the official Emma disc to find the strengths and weaknesses present in each of the vehicles. Judging was strict but the feedback given to each of the competitors was extremely helpful and a great resource to fall back on to improve the sound quality of each of the vehicles. Sean Blignaut, South African DLS importer and owner of Bass Waves in Port Elizabeth, took care of judging the installations in each of the vehicles. The good and the not so good were pointed out to each competitor and advice was given on how to improve and score full points next time.

Together with Peter and Sean we also had the South African Emma team lead by Anthony Croft taking the trainee judges through their final training in an actual competition environment.  The competitor’s cars were judges according to the full set of Emma rules and again valuable feedback was given to the competitors. There is no doubt in my mind that the team of judges know their stuff and the upcoming Emma competitions should be a great success.

The day closed with prize-giving at 14:00 where the winners in each category received their prizes, a set of DLS R55- and a set of DLS D3 home audio speakers to the value of R20 000. A big congratulations from us to Kevin from Payntwagon Audio for winning the Open Class and Rob  from Motor Technique for winning the Entry Class. The competition was tight and the show was a resounding success. Big thanks go out to Peter, DLS South Africa, the spectators and each of the competitors who helped to make this a truly remarkable day.

Hope to see you all again at future competitions.

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