Classic Ford Thunderbird

Ford Thunderbird

Custom Autosound control head perfectly fits the dash nosepiece opening and 

 shaft width. The FM/AM receiver controls and trunk-mounted CD changer.

Custom kick panels house 6 1/2-inch component 

speakers and angle-mount the tweeters.

Dual JL Audio subwoofers in enclosures are concealed by matching facades.

Trunk-mounted amplifier, dual subs and CD changer.

Under the deck a Boston Acoustics fan-cooled amplifier and changer. Vents 

allow bass radiation to flow through the rear bulkhead and into the interior.

To see more of our custom installs, check out our galleries here!

Earmark has been locally owned and operated since 1980. While operating two stores, Earmark considers itself more of a car audio boutique. If you’ve been doing something successful for 34 years, obviously you’re doing something right. Our reputation is built by people who have chosen mobile electronics as their vocation and who have real passion for the work they do.

To learn a little on the guys that drive Earmark, check out their biographies below:

Odin (in Plano) has been with Earmark since 1992 and has worked in installation, sales, purchasing and management.  A musician since 1984, Odin combines his love for music with a technical understanding of audio extending beyond mobile electronics.  Odin has performed with local band Southbound since 1999, worked as the in-house sound engineer for hundreds of local and national touring artists at local music venue Hank’s Texas Grill since 2004 and collects and restores vintage amplifiers.  With his vast mobile electronics technical experience and pro-sound, Odin has an incredibly deep understanding of audio. Other hobbies include cars, guitars, shooting and bass fishing.

Joe (in Lewisville) has been with Earmark since 1984 and in the home and car audio business since 1975. Prior to Earmark, Joe was with Pacific Stereo here in Texas at a time when Pacific Stereo was a division of CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Systems). During this period, Pacific Stereo was the largest home electronics specialty retailer in the country with over 100 stores. There was no better place to work if you wanted an education in everything audio. The CBS training was second to none. Joe is widely acknowledged as Dallas’ premier European auto specialist in car audio and related electronics. He is a graduate from DeVry Institute of Technology in addition to numerous audio and electronics training certificates. Joe is a ten times member of Million Dollar Sales Club, a member of the Garland ISD District Wide Education Improvement Council since 2012 and a Wildlife manager for 4,000 of the 68,000 acre North Texas Neches Co-op. Other hobbies include hunting, fishing and anything outdoors.

David has been with Earmark since opening in 1980. He is the technical advisor and marine specialist for Earmark. Prior to entering mobile electronics, David was a draftsman for electronic, hydraulic and mechanical control systems. David began his mobile electronics career in Tucson, Arizona. Other hobbies include home HiFi & designing and building home speakers. David has an intense knowledge of just about everything audio.

Come swing by one of our two locations and say HI to the guys!



Dodge Viper- Complete Custom Overhaul

Dodge Viper

The suede was continued up onto the side door panels for continuity.

The factory center console was wrapped in suede. The new 

Kenwood dnx9980hd was installed and wired remote was 

mounted in the cup holder location.

We made a custom start up screen and uploaded it onto the 

Kenwood. We also made custom accent lighting on either 

side of the screen with RGB lighting.

Police lights and siren were added for fun and the 

controller was mounted in the center console.

Police lights hidden in factory headlights.

The factory sub and speaker were removed and replaced with custom 

laser etched plexiglass inserts and was then wrapped in suede.

Rogue Status logo.

The Viper is also lit up with RGB LED's.

The entire trunk was wrapped in suede with vinyl accents.

All panels in the trunk were replaced and custom made by us.

Rogue Status raised lettering was placed under the suede.

Rogue Status logo laser etched on plexiglass.

Custom hand made Viper logo was placed as a grille to the 

hidden JL Audio 13TW53. Grille is also lit with RGB LED's.

RGB lighting set to blue.

RGB lighting set to purple.

RGB lighting set to green.

Accent RGB lighting was installed in the speaker grilles.

Passport p9500ci display was mounted in rear view mirror display.

Why Would You Trust Your Vehicle To The Lowest Bidder?

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With most products and services the ‘low bidder’ is associated with the lowest quality. The lowest bidder still has to make a profit and may make just as much profit as the high bidder. But the costs for the low bidder are lower. Cost of personnel such as technical consulting, installation technicians, infrastructure, shop facility and level of preparedness all factor in. With the low bidder it’s generally a matter of roll the dice and hope for the best. That may be okay if you’re buying a toaster oven but are you really going to trust your expensive vehicle to the low bidder?

Earmark has been locally owned and operated since 1980. You don’t make it in business for over 30 years without being pretty good at what you do.

We aren't trying to be the biggest mobile electronics retailer in the nation. Our focus is on being excellent at what we do in the sense of a boutique operation. After more than 30 years in business, Earmark remains a specialist. National or chain operations lose the attention to detail in a service and technically intensive industry. Just look at Circuit City, Ultimate, Federated, Pacific Stereo, CMC, Highland Appliance, Incredible Universe and Tweeter to name a few. Without exception, these companies lost the quality of execution as they got larger. And, where are they now?

 

Earmark received winner of the ‘best installation’ in the world car stereo finals, and multiple national titles throughout the years. Nationally recognized for being the best in installation in such publications as Car Stereo Review, Cars, Installation News, Car Audio & Electronics and Autosound & Security. 

If you are a homeowner then you have discovered that the low bidder usually means ‘builder quality’. Whether that is applied to exterior paint, roofing, fencing or flooring, it’s not usually a good thing and you learn that if you stay in the home for more than a couple of years. Do you want the absolute cheapest paint job for your car? Not likely unless it only has to look good long enough to sell the old clunker.  

David

Earmark Car Audio

www.earmarkcaraudio.com

Pontiac G8

Pontiac G8

We removed the factory glove box and installed an Alpine navigation.

We had to come up with a creative mount for the 

Alpine radio because the factory radio could not 

be removed because of integration reasons.

We angled the radio towards the driver for easier sight and use.

We also installed Alpine headrest monitors using 

the Alpine navigation as the DVD player.

Do You Need A Subwoofer?

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Before I give you my opinion let me state that I am very conservative in my taste for bass. I am by no means a basshead. I am not a fan of RAP played at such intensity that my kidneys bleed and my heart skips every fourth beat, although I know just how to achieve that effect if desired.  Now, I am a major proponent of a subwoofer…IF it is a realistic sounding one.  I’m not a fan of the subwoofer that just HITS. For me personally, the sub has to do much more than create BOOM, THUMP or relentlessly and monotonously make unmusical and indiscriminant bass. On the other hand, I can’t live without one of those melodic Paul McCartney Hofner guitar runs or the vibrancy and attack in the bass guitar of Yes’ Roundabout or the really deep bass tracks in Genesis’ Selling England By The Pound. I want to hear the exact difference in pitch as the bass guitarist moves up and down the musical ladder. I want to be able to distinguish between a bass guitar being plucked or picked or the difference between an electric bass and a kick drum on the same song. I don’t want to miss out on the fundamental subsonic frequencies that add weight and sole to the original recording.    

So, the first reason for a subwoofer is the realistic reproduction of the music in its entirety. As you go lower into the musical scale you pass a threshold where the sound transitions from more of an audible sensation to more of a tactile sensation. What was strictly audible gives way to what is also feelable. How are you going to reproduce a 32-foot pipe organ without moving some serious air? The pipe organ certainly moved some air and can be felt deeply. And for plausible bass, if you are trying to reproduce a real instrument, then both the subwoofer and sub amplifier have to be working well within their limits. Exposing the limits of either speaker or amplifier quickly ruins the bass quality. You cannot reach these lower registers and get true authoritive bass with coaxial/components.

The second reason and maybe even bigger than the first, is that once you place the coaxial/components in the highpass mode (meaning the very lowest frequencies are filtered out) and relieve them of the longer bass excursions and notes that they can't effectively reproduce anyway; suddenly the fullrange speakers deliver far more clarity, dynamics and a sense of transparency. It also helps to limit the fullrange amplifier’s bandwidth and responsibility. Now there is more power and dynamic space available to reproduce the fullrange. Those long and wasted excursions by the coaxial/component midbass driver smear the midbass and midrange content.

In any playback medium, every higher frequency and upper harmonic is inherently modulated in a lower frequency. When you bi-amp with a separate subwoofer you are simplifying the signal that each amplifier and speaker is asked to reproduce and you are significantly raising the quality level of the fullrange.  

David

Earmark Car Audio

www.earmarkcaraudio.com

Cadillac CTS-V Audio System Rescue

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This 2009 Cadillac CTS-V was brought to Earmark after the customer had a complete audio system and sound dampening installed by another local shop. Earmark technicians inspected the vehicle and we immediately discovered the installation was a mess and would need to be completely redone in order to satisfy the customer.

The customer complained that the audio system would make loud popping noises long after the stereo was turned off, the subwoofer was not centered in the enclosure/port, the "custom" tweeter installation looked terrible and the general cosmetic fit & finish of the installation was not acceptable.

A detailed explanation with photos will show the problems we found and what we did to solve them.

TWEETERS

First, the "custom" tweeter pods. The previous installer built in the tweeters using lots of bondo and left a very rough, uneven surface to the door frames which was simply spray painted black. Bondo is OK as a filler, but it has no structural integrity and will not adhere to molded plastic. 

The result was a rough, unfinished look that did not fit in with the refined interior of this Cadillac and would definitely not last very long before separating and cracking. Also, the driver and passenger side tweeters were not pointed in the same direction due to sloppy construction of the tweeter mounts. 

 

Earmark rebuilt the tweeter mounts to be correctly aligned and recovered the entire door frames with black suede to match the interior of the vehicle.

DOORS
Next, the door speakers and sound dampening. The sound dampening material had been applied randomly/haphazardly and was covering the power window motors and much of the factory wiring. It was not properly applied and was falling off the doors in many places. 

Look carefully at the door speaker crossover. It appears to be mounted to the door...

...but when the sound dampening material is pulled back we discovered that the door speaker crossovers were not mounted at all!

The previous installer had mounted the crossovers to the sound dampening material ONLY with a piece of metal back brace and clips. This crossover would soon fall into the door cavity, scratching the window and damaging the crossover.

Here's another look at a door with the inner skin sound dampening material removed (it mostly fell off). Note the exposed wire connectors in the top left of the photo, these went to the tweeter. The speaker wiring was draped loosely in the door panel with crimped connectors exposed to the metallic backing of the sound dampening which should easily cause a short in the speaker wire.

Also, the 3-layer wooden speaker baffle that adapted the speaker to the door was barely screwed together, but not glued together, and was only painted on the face. This baffle would not last and would soon be moisture damaged and come apart.

And a look at one of the rear doors, with sound dampening material placed randomly over factory wiring and power window motor.

Here's a shot of a door after Earmark technicians applied Blackhole Tile to the outer door skin and Hushmat to the inner door skin (the Hushmat is black, not silver, so it blends in on the black painted surface of the door). The Blackhole Tile is a coated water-resistant multi-layer high efficiency acoustical absorption pad applied in a "checkerboard" pattern to the outer door skin. The Hushmat, a sound deadening and absorbing material that also insulates against heat, is neatly applied to the inner door skin surfaces. These door speakers will show a noticeable improvement in sound quality with this treatment, and the interior of the vehicle will be noticeably quieter on the road.

Note the wiring - Earmark's speaker wires are soldered and heat shrunk and tied neatly to the factory wiring path. Also, the crossover is securely mounted to the door with a metal bracket that our technicians fabricated.

A closeup of the crossover mounting.

A closeup of the speaker wiring.

Earmark also added a set of speakers to the rear doors. Note that the crossovers are securely mounted directly to the door panel and all wiring is neatly run and connections are soldered and heat shrunk.

All 4 doors received Blackhole Tile to the outer door skin and Hushmat to the inner door skin.

SUBWOOFER ENCLOSURE

The subwoofer enclosure that was installed in the trunk took up a lot of trunk space and did not allow the customer access to the spare tire well which contains the emergency air pump in case of a flat tire. It was not possible to remove the tire well cover panel to access this storage area.

And now I'll let these photos of the subwoofer enclosure tell the story.....

Earmark fabricated a new enclosure of correct internal displacement that was wider and shallow enough to allow access into the spare tire well area.

The finished product is very clean and blends into the Cadillac trunk, giving no indication that there is a high end audio system hidden inside. The facade that covers the front edge of the amp rack has a plexiglass window back-lit by white LED's to allow viewing of the amp rack, and the JL Audio and Cadillac logos were added to the window for an etched glass look when lit.

INTERFACE & AMPLIFIERS
The Cadillac CTS-V has a factory installed audio & navigation system with a motorized LCD monitor in the dash and audio controls integrated into the steering wheel and dash cluster. The customer understandably did not want to replace this system so he needed an interface device. 

The previous shop installed an Audio Control LC6i interface, which Earmark replaced with an Audison BIT TEN D interface after cleaning up the wiring and returning the factory wiring to stock specifications. The previous shop had left factory control modules hanging by their wire harnesses, attached with sound dampening material or just shoved behind a carpeted panel. There were bare exposed wires, wires that had been cut and spliced many times, and just a general mess.

This was the mess we encountered when we removed the trunk panel to access the speaker wiring. The audio interface was hanging by a zip tie and was in close proximity to several factory modules, which could cause interference or noise in the audio system.

Earmark re-wired the audio system and properly mounted the Audison BIT TEN D interface to the amp rack, where it was away from any possible interference from the vehicle's electrical system. Note that all wires are neatly routed and secured with strain relief cable clamps.

The customer also upgraded to the new JL Audio V3 Slash amplifiers.

A factory-neutral or "stealth" installation, at which Earmark excels, typically does not show all of the detailed work that goes into an involved, high quality installation. So what looks good on the surface can be ugly on the inside, and what looks simple on the outside can be very complex on the inside. This is why it's important to take your vehicle to a qualified specialist with a proven reputation for excellence.

And this doesn't even take into account how different an audio system can sound when the installation is done by a qualified expert as opposed to someone who just knows how to hook up the wires. At Earmark the job isn't considered finished when it's playing, we take the time to properly set up the gain structure of the system components, adjust the crossovers to suit the vehicle and equipment, and tune the system with select program material so that the end result is a system that not only looks great but also sounds great. That's why you bought the system in the first place, right?

www.earmarkcaraudio.com