IASCA Worldwide announces success of World Finals, Champions, prepares to celebrate 35th anniversary

With close to 175 entries, IASCA Worldwide conducted its annual World Finals at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center this past October 14th and 15th, 2023. ISPLL, MASQ and EMMA joined IASCA Worldwide at the facility to host their events as well, bringing the total entries to almost 300.

IASCA Worldwide would like to thank its trophy sponsors for this year’s event, which include Italia Hi-Fi (https://italia-hifi.com/), JL Audio (jlaudio.com), Mobile Toys Inc (https://www.facebook.com/mobiletoysincBCS/), Sundown Audio (https://www.sundownaudio.com/) and XS Power (https://4xspower.com/).

On the sound quality front, over 50 competitors competed for the top spot in their respective classes, as well as the coveted Triple Crown Award. In the 1 seat Triple Crown, Jeffrey Hald emerged victorious with a score of 75.5% and in the 2 seat Triple Crown, Brian Mitchell once again took top honors. IASCA Worldwide also invited Sound Quality Champion and owner of Mobile Soundstage Engineering Mark Eldridge to conduct sound quality training seminars for competitors and Judges alike. Two reference systems were set up to teach advanced audio and how to make car audio systems sound their absolute best. “It has been several years since I have had the opportunity to be at the end of year finals event, and it is a very refreshing time for me!” said Eldridge “I listened to more car audio systems in two days than I have in a long time!”

World Champions were crowned in both Sound Quality and SPL. The SPL portion of Finals was held in two locations; BJCC and the Oregon State Fair and Expo Center in Salem, Oregon on October 1st. Competition was fierce at both locations and 13 SPL World Records were broken over both weekends in both IdBL and Bass Boxing.  IASCA would like to thank the Salem sponsors; Crystal Audio Solutions, DC Audio, R/C Plus, All Clear Audio & Glass, Northwest Lithium, Divine Heating & Cooling, Kamilche Dental Center, Legion of Boom and Team Sundown Audio.

Of course, none of this year’s event would have been possible without the hard work of the Judging staff. IASCA Would like to thank the following people for their dedication to making the event such a great success; Harry Kimura (SQ), Keith Turner (SQ), Scott Welch (SQ), Mike Myers (SQ), Jeremy Price (SQ), Andrea Paulson (SQ), Sammy Vega (SQ), Justin Silva (SQ), Shazad Rahaman (SQ), Kyle Mohammed (SPL), Scott Sinde (SPL), Ray Pimley (SPL), Joey Perry (SPL), Christle Perry (SPL), Mike Astin (SPL), Jen Astin (SPL), Jeremy Taylor (SPL), Frankie Smith (SPL), Salvador Vargas (SPL), and Drew Chin.

Along with World Finals event, IASCA Worldwide launched its inaugural 2024 event, which kicks off IASCA’s 35th year of bringing competition to the car audio community.

“I’m very excited to be at the helm of the longest running car audio competition organization in existence, now celebrating its 35th year of bringing car audio competition to the world” said Travis Chin, President of IASCA Worldwide “Every day, we raise the bar in competition making it exciting for everyone in car audio, whatever their passion is, sound quality or SPL. We have a lot of exciting plans for 2024!

For more information on IASCA Worldwide and the 2023 IASCA World Finals, visit iasca.com or contact President Travis Chin at [email protected].

IASCA Worldwide announces date and location for the 2023 IASCA World Finals

IASCA Worldwide has set the date and location for the 2023 IASCA World Finals for both SPL and Sound Quality. The event will take place at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center in Birmingham, Alabama, from October 13th to the 15th, 2023.

Sound Quality competition will take place in the East Hall along with EMMA and MASQ and SPL competition will take place with ISPLL in the North Hall. Set up October 13th with competition taking place on the 14th and 15th.

After several months of research and discussions with multiple venues, we’ve decided on a venue that is more than just a venue.”  said IASCA President Travis Chin. In the recent past, we were focusing on just the facility, where competitors came for only the event and nothing else.  Now we have a venue where you can find a restaurant or a park across the street, all within walking distance.”

The venue features two hotels connected to the Convention Center in a newly developed area, with a recently added City Walk. All is directly across the street from the Uptown Entertainment District of Birmingham. The Uptown District features seven great restaurants, a family owned coffee shop  and a traditional English Pub. The restaurants include Mexican food, a Brazilian Steakhouse, a Pizza House and two Grill and Bar restaurants.

Other amenities in the area include Top Golf only 2 blocks away and a short distance to downtown Birmingham. There are also several hotels just a few blocks away.

“We’re very excited to host our Finals event with EMMA, MASQ and ISPLL at this venue.” Chin continued to say “Now there’s more than just the event to take in.”

Pre-registration for Finals, hotel info and more will be posted in the coming weeks.

For more information on IASCA Worldwide and the 2023 IASCA World Finals, visit iasca.com or contact President Travis Chin at [email protected]. Information on the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center can be found at https://www.bjcc.org/.

IASCA Worldwide hosts first of its kind Advanced Sound Quality Training seminar at Mobile Soundstage Engineering in Bixby, OK

IASCA Worldwide hosted the first of its kind Advanced Sound Quality Training Seminar for 11 top IASCA SQ Judges on March 11, 2023 at Mobile Soundstage Engineering in Bixby, Oklahoma. IASCA’s Advisory Group selected specific experienced Judges to attend the seminar by invitation only.

The training was conducted by IASCA President Travis Chin and IASCA World Finals Champion Harry Kimura at another multiple IASCA World Finals Champion, Mark Eldridge’s, facility. Travis Chin presented IASCA’s mission and goals for the future, Harry Kimura reviewed recording differences, Judges’ conduct and rules changes while Mark Eldridge provided the systems, his NASCAR Cup Car and system, and invaluable experience and knowledge to the participants.

The training focused on many factors in sound quality listening and judging, going far beyond the basics of traditional IASCA Sound Quality Judges’ Training seminars. Multiple reference systems from the MSE facility were utilized in the training to highlight the differences between variable listening experiences. The systems have the ability to “inject” errors into the playback that mimic common issues in the competition lanes, allowing Judges to hear the difference. Even the multiple IASCA Championship winning NASCAR Cup Car built by Mark Eldridge was dialed in for in car demos.

IASCA also approved new sound quality judging material for competition, that will replace the current IASCA Sound Quality Reference CD next season.

“Having this level of advanced training has been in the works for the past couple years now.”  said IASCA President Travis Chin. “Harry Kimura’s and Mark Eldridge’s knowledge, experience and history with IASCA was extremely beneficial to the group and using Mark’s facility worked perfectly to achieve our goal. IASCA Worldwide endorses these Advanced Sound Quality courses for anyone, individual, competitor or Judge, who wants to learn more about true sound quality; these courses are invaluable!”

“After visiting MSE last year, I realized that this would be the ideal place to have an IASCA Judges Training, with the availability of multiple external reference sound systems, Mark’s NASCAR Cup Car system and live instruments.” said IASCA Judge Harry Kimura.  “As an IASCA Judge since 1994, I can vouch that it’s a complete evaluation environment for Judges! Well trained Judges are one of the highest valued assets for any sanctioning organization as it maintains the highest levels of integrity within an organization.” Kimura continued to say “IASCA has made a commitment to ensuring that their training is second to none and with that, integrity is ensured.”

“I was approached by IASCA President and top IASCA Judge Harry Kimura last year regarding the project.”  said MSE President Mark Eldridge. “It was an amazing day; we put together a full day of listening, discussion and demonstrations. I know there have been IASCA Judges Trainings in the past, but nothing at this level. I loved every minute of it and look forward to the next seminar!”

With the success of this seminar, plans are to make this training an annual invitation only event.

For more information on IASCA Worldwide and the Advanced Sound Quality Training seminar, visit iasca.com or contact President Travis Chin at [email protected]. For more information on Mobile Soundstage Engineering, contact Mark Eldridge at [email protected].