Matt Billmeier's Super Stealth '95 Ram

What do I do when facing a knowledgeable customer? I take very good care of them.
Working retail isn't for the faint of heart. At any given moment, the most challenging customers are sure to walk through the door. But no matter what, you must always be ready to be of great help.

Mobile Sound Competition Magazine
Annual '96 Winners cover

Sometime during the spring of 1995, a father and his son walked into our Stereo West store in Omaha, Nebraska. Rod Hash, the store's super salesman, quickly identified that he was facing something very special. His new customers had just driven from Carroll, Iowa and we're looking for a subwoofer box. But Rod felt there was more to the story. So he run back to the installation bay where he found me. Knowing that Rod was a self-sufficient expert who didn't need to share commissions with anybody, I knew there had to be something special for him to call me. Rod knew I was as good as him at handling our best customers.
As I approached the father and son, I offered my help. The father jumped right in front of his clearly eager son to tell me that they wanted a box for a pair JL woofers they just purchased elsewhere. He then went on to specify the box's thickness and materials. Next, he told me the internal volume and the speaker orientation. I could hardly get a word out. When he finished prescribing every aspect of the enclosure, I asked them if they had a carpenter that they could trust in Carroll, their home town. He replied "yes, but why." I told him that it was clear they didn't trust us. I said I understood and that it was perfectly fine for them to feel that way. I then described that I would measure their vehicle, draft all the pieces that needed cut, including all angles and dimensions, and give it to them so they could take it to their favorite carpenter in town. To this, he asked "how much will it cost me?" "Nothing", I replied. I'll take me no time to get the measurements. "We are really good at what we do", I said. "In this way you will be most happy by giving the work to someone you trust."
Surprised, the father said "why don't you show me why we should trust you then." And just like that, a relationship was built.
Our Stereo West store in Omaha had a road that crisscrossed through the middle of it. Later one Mobile One in Louisiana and South Texas would copy the idea, but ours was special. Our road was better built and long enough to handle three cars. Surrounding the road where different specialized showrooms. Two for head units and co-axes, two for surround and video, and a huge one for woofers and separates. It was like being at the mall. Every winter, our top customers would bring their cars to be placed inside the store. This kept them protected from the snow while giving us an opportunity to showcase real vehicles.

Matt Billmeier's Super Stealth '95 Ram
One of the best sound system's ever created.

So I began to give the tour of the store, making sure to stop at every one of the custom cars. First was Eric Venta's red Civic with ten 15's and focal speakers on the floor. The car was impressive no matter what angle you look at it from. Not able to withstand staying quiet any longer, the son asked if this was a store's demo car?. I said no. I explained the car was built for a customer who had to save every penny for the construction. I then took them to the aqua Cavalier sporting six 15's and waveguides on an all Rockford system. This time, the son asked me how old was the guy who owned the car. I told him it wasn't a guy. I said it was a girl's car and that she paid for it herself. Then I dropped the bomb. I said she was barely 18. While his jaw dropped, the real pain was felt by his ego. Dad was in trouble and he knew it. And for the coup d'état, I showed them the many magazines our cars were in.
I explained our method. I said that they needed to come up with a budget, then they would bring in their vehicle, and I would spend one day designing the system, all at no cost to them. They would only decide whether they wanted to have us do the job or not after looking at specific plans for the car. So, besides being a risk-free offer, we'd also guarantee not to exceed their budget, no matter what. If for whatever reason we ended up doing more work than originally planned, we would pay for.
While I don't remember exactly how much the budget was, it is safe to say that it went above $35,000. Those were real dollars back then. That was also way more money than the truck was worth. Not bad for a high school graduation present.
While the son was ecstatic, I could just see a hint of deep pride on the dad's face. It was clear that this man loved his son more than anything and that he really enjoyed giving him such a great gift.
Of course that the son I have been so cryptic about is Matt Billmeier. He and his dad dropped the truck off the next day. It took me all day to design the system. Because I hated standard installations and because a full-size truck tends to be too wide for proper imaging, I knew I had to do something special to extend the path length of the sound. I had played extensively with the speakers on the floor in Eric Venta's car. My car also had a pair pf midbass drivers under the floor. As I've mentioned before, this was my friend Chris Owen's idea.

The engine compartment with upgraded battery,
stiffening capacitor and battery isolator;
all protected by super thick acrylic
(standard in all my cars)

Also, I had been working quite a bit with waveguides as of late. So it was natural for me to decide to use waveguides on the floor. Waveguides control dispersion better than all the other speakers and the floor location results in the longest path length possible, which further improved stage symmetry. But looking underneath the truck revealed that there was not enough space to make the waveguides point straight up. All sorts of things got in the way. That's when I got the idea of firing the speakers forward. To this day many people have no idea how it works. Installers everywhere think that the only way you can get height out of your high frequency speakers is by placing them high above the dash. But a cursory understanding of physics would reveal that so long as high frequency energy was not absorbed down below, the sound would do what it always does. After bending 90° twice, sound arrives to the listeners' ears. And the path length was mega long. Once again, physics proved correct. The sound was transparent wide and well focus. Better yet, no one could see where the speakers were. This was the best disappearing act I ever witnessed.
It took me longer to deliver the truck than originally promised. Thankfully, I was forgiven for my miss calculation. I was nonetheless embarrassed. Good thing that the Stereo West team and I made it all happen within budget.
In the end, the truck went on to win and win. A big problem that we had to contend with was the fact that many small-show judges thought the truck had speakers in the factory location. After jumping into the truck and firing up the sound system, there was nothing that screamed world champion at them. And we all know that many judges evaluate with their eyes rather than their ears. As a result, the truck received average sound scores at some shows. Fortunately, install scores were massive enough to keep all competition far from becoming a risk. Inevitably, after the truck would do great in install, enough to get a best of show, sound judges would come back to ask to listen to the truck again; after they had realized there was magic in the sauce. After a couple of great shows, the word went out and we no longer had to worry about the problem.
Yet, the 1995 USAC finals at Houston was to bring up problems once again. You see, I had moved to the Lincoln store. Politics in Omaha caused by Greg Pauley were getting the best out of me. In the end, it was all for the better. I would have never gone to Europe and my professional career would have never gone into hyper speed if it weren't because Greg had made it impossible to do my job. Still, things got rough in the mean time.
Joe Cavanaugh wanted to make sure that the Omaha customers stayed with the Omaha store regardless of where I was. I must say that I agree with his take on the issue. Why make the business pay for our meager problems? So, the change meant that Chuck Barbosa came with me to Lincoln and Matt stayed in Omaha.
I don't remember why but Matt and Chuck ended up competing against each other at USAC finals that year. What I do know is that things got very nasty. Greg kept trying to make sure that Chuck went through the lanes before Matt. In his little mind, he probably thought that it was his best way to make Chuck and I lose. Everyone wondered why people from the same store were fighting with each other.
In the end, both cars placed; with Chuck edging Matt. In all fairness, Matt's car was simply not as mature as Chuck's. Car sound systems are like wine. They get better over time.
Besides, there is something to be said about the fact that I didn't tune Matt's truck for finals. Moreover, I didn't do any more work to Matt's truck to help him do better at finals either. While my team at the Omaha store was definitely of the highest caliber, there is no doubt that they simply lacked the degree of ultimate sophistication I brought to the table. History serves as the best witness here.
If given the choice, I wouldn't have made Matt compete with Chuck. Both had a chance at being concurrent champions. But politics got in the way of a good thing. Lesson learned! I never again allowed idiots like Greg to negatively affect the work of great employees through such nasty and cannibalistic tactics. As a result, corporate performance everywhere I went after I left Omaga skyrocketed during my tenure to historically highest levels. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson too late. I was not able to do more for Matt.
Nonetheless, Matt's truck was remarkable. Two magazine articles covered it right after. I hope you enjoy the first of these two articles below:

As you can see, the standard cab
was used to its fullest potential

Mobile Sound Competition 
Annual '96 Winners
Street Beat
In his first year of competition, Matt Billmeier has already done what many aspire to do even in their veteran years: win three regional events in a row in the USAC realm and for other regular-event firsts -not bad. Perhaps it's the enthusiasm generated at the young age of 19, or maybe the fact that he's a mobile DJ to begin with. Or maybe Matt just likes to compete and win. Whatever the force that drives him, motivation or skill, it sure gets results.
Matt competes in USAC. and IASCA with 300-watts, placing him in IASCA NOV 151-300 and USAC NOV 251-500 classes. His plans earlier on this year were to simply qualify for both Finals and compete in them, just to see what happened -no lofty expectations. But now Matt has qualified, and he has the gleam of future glory in his eye.

Phoenix Gold equipment is displayed behind removable
Plexiglass panels with JL Audio woofers
massaged in there as well

And he's got the rig for it too. The installation crew of Stereo West was given the job. For those of you who've been around, you'll know how strong a system that these guys can build: Many titleholders owe them thanks. The four-man team of Alberto Lopez, agreg Pauley, Jay Butterfield and Bill Gass dug into the brand-new '95 Dodge Ram shortbread with gumption. And they had to. Incorporating all of the electronics and a pair of JL Audio subwoofers into a standard cab is no easy job. But they were able to squeeze in all of the Phoenix Gold equipment and the woofers with full range of movement on the seat. And it actually looks good, too!
Matt will be making the rounds again this year, so be sure to check out his ride. Chances are that it'll be up on the stage.

Article's full page

Product Profiles
Installer: Stereo West
Source Unit: Alpine
Signal Processor: Phoenix Gold
Amplification: Phoenix Gold
Front Stage: Image Dynamics, MB Quart
Sub-bass: JL Audio
Security System: Alpine
Special: All equipment in cab with fully functional seats.








In a future article, I will transcribe Car Audio and Electronic's latter coverage of Matt's truck. While it is unfortunate that credit for my work was stolen during the writing of the article by uber-insecure and utterly-useless Greg Pauley (after I left the country for my next professional challenge in London), the fact remains that Matt is a fantastic guy and that his truck was awesome. So kudos to him and his dad for giving me the opportunity to work for them.