All posts by Saro

New Car Audio Hardware

Projects

I know a friend of mine will be enjoying this post, as she’s into car audio (I think) and will probably be glad that I’m not writing about supplements for once!

For the longest time I have been driving around with some good audio hardware, but it’s due for an upgrade. My first car audio setup included components in the front powered by a separate amplifier, an aftermarket head unit and dual 12″ subwoofers in the back (I kept the rears stock). I ran the entire setup with 2 and 4 gauge wiring. If anyone is interested in the hardware that I used, here’s the list:

  • Pioneer Premier DEH-P770MP headunit, 70W RMS
  • JBL GTO75.2 II, 2 channel amplifier, 60A, 90W RMS per channel
  • JBL GTO606C components in the front
  • JBL GTO1201.1 II, subwoofer amplifier, 120A, 1300W~ RMS
  • 2x JBL W12GTi Mark II subwoofers, 700W RMS each
  • Tsunami 5 Farad capacitor, including 2 and 4 gauge wiring where appropriate

This setup served me well as an introduction to car audio. My friend and I spent a Sunday afternoon once installing this gear in and the overall experience was awesome (for me anyway). The sound quality was superb comparing it to my stock radio; driving my then Camry was always a pleasure! Now that I have a brand new car, it’s time to install some fresh new gear and make more heads turn. 🙂 I will be keeping this car for four years, so I can’t live without some proper, clean sound. I drive my car everyday and travel all over Montreal servicing clients, so I would like to keep my ears happy. The stock system in the car is terrible: distortion reigns all over. The highs are severly lacking, and there’s no such thing as clean, distortion-free bass. The stock CD/MP3 player was garbage; scrolling through songs was a long, pain-staking process and the overall quality of the sound was butchered up. Thankfully, I managed to replace my stock radio with the Premier DEH-P770MP. That’s one upgrade down, a few more to go!

This month, I should be acquiring my new hardware. This is what I’m getting:

  • 2x JBL Power Series P650C components, 90W RMS
  • JBL Power Series PX300.4, 4 channel amplifier, 123.7W RMS per channel

This time around, I will be replacing the rears of my vehicle with some components to keep the passengers in the back happy. I am keeping the subwoofer setup the same, but seriously considering adding another GTO1201.1 II and driving separate amplifiers to each subwoofer (so each driver has its own proper amplifier, a full 1300W RMS available at all times). I will most likely have to add another battery to my car soon along with an alternator upgrade if I ever go down that route.

That’s it for now. I will be posting installation details (along with a guide) once I get the gear and do the setup… but I’m pretty discouraged right now as it’s cold outside and the first few snow flakes have already dropped. Anyone have an indoor garage with enough room to perform a car audio install? 🙂

Controlled Labs GlycerGrow Review

Reviews and Rants, Supplements

I would like to inform everyone about GlycerGrow by Controlled Labs. I’m beginning to sound like a paid spokesperson for the company now (I assure you I am not!) but I love this stuff. I wish I had found about this supplement sooner as it’s giving me an incredible amount of a “pump” while I train. What is GlycerGrow you ask? Here’s a short blurb from the manufacturer’s website:

GlycerGrow is the most advanced standalone cell volumization breakthrough ever to reach the market. GlycerGrow combines a proprietary and synergistic blend of pharmaceutical grade ingredients to increase cell volume, aid the osmotic effects of creatine, and enhance the natural anabolic responses of weightlifting. 

Basically, the “cell volumization” is what’s giving you the pump while you train. You can just say it’s rushing more blood through your veins, hence the volumization part. Controlled Labs claims that stacking this with creatine (Green Magnitude or Bulge in this case) is an excellent way to increase your intensity while you train. I have to totally agree with this last statement, as it’s doing wonders for my workouts. I come home after work mentally exhausted everyday, and I feel discouraged from training. Luckily for me, I force myself to go and I end up not regretting my decision. An hour before I leave for the gym, I take 5 scoops of GlycerGrow and mix it with some fruit yogurt. It’s a bit of a challenge to mix this supplement with water, so the yogurt way is a great method (you also get a bit of protein from it too, why not!). Within 30 minutes, I can feel this tingling sensation in my body and before I know it, I’m wide awake and ready to pump some iron ala Arnold. Really now, it gives me this mental focus I have only experienced with caffeine (reminds me of NO-Xplode, that was crazy). While not as intense, GlycerGrow definitely is giving me this small rush of energy to go out and train, and I really enjoy using it. I stacked it with Green Bulge for a bit and the effects were a bit increased. Since I finished the creatine last week (ordered a new batch along with White Blood) I am still having some great workouts and I can’t see myself training without it, like Purple Wraath. All in all, I give this supplement a 9/10. I just wish mixing it wasn’t such a nuisance, but I’ll live with the yogurt method for now.

Final Take on Controlled Labs Purple Wraath

Reviews and Rants, Supplements

Last week, I managed to finish my Purple Wraath tub (all 2.39 lbs of it, see the first initial review) and I must say training without it is totally different. Since I stopped using it this past week, I noticed a slight decrease in endurance and stamina. I could very well say I was more tired than usual after my workouts, and I really didn’t feel like doing any cardio on the teadmill whatsoever. I also realized that I wasn’t sweating as much. I am very well aware of the thermogenic properties of the supplement, so Purple Wraath definitely is doing some magic there. I never knew I would be saying this, but I really do miss its taste now, even though I had said it is incredibly disgusting. The trick to consuming Purple Wraath is to mix it with a lot of water (I put a scoop with 32oz of water in a bottle) and then let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour (so prepare your workout drink an hour before leaving to the gym). You will quickly get used to the taste, so don’t fret. You will also realize how great it is for post-workout cardiovascular exercise (it gives you energy!). I am so happy with this supplement that I am going to try another batch. I placed the order on Bodybuilding.com a few days ago, so I should be receiving it tomorrow morning in the mail.

Birthday Celebration at Stereo Nightclub

Montreal, Nightlife, Reviews and Rants

Yesterday night I went out to celebrate my birthday. A friend of mine invited me to go to club Moomba, so I agreed to join her (since I had nothing else planned). I got into the line at about 11:45 PM and waited for about 40 minutes until I decided to leave and meet up with another friend (I was too impatient to wait in line for any longer). I wasn’t really in the mood to go clubbing anyway, so I just left, even though another 15 minutes could’ve gotten me inside. I met up with Raf at Foufounes Electriques for some cheap beers and it was probably the best choice. Since it was Daylight Savings Time today, we managed to benefit another hour of drinks. It was nearing 3 AM now, so Raf and his friends had to leave (Raf worked the next day). I was really loaded at the time and I was so hellbent on going to an after-hours that I just did that. It had been over a year since I last went to Stereo, and since it was close-by, I walked to it from Foufs. Cover was 40.00$ as Derrick L. Carter was playing as the main attraction. I quickly tried to recall who he was and if he was any good, but I didn’t care really. Fourty dollars on the table, I was walking into Stereo afterhours. Remarkably, there were a few people inside already dancing away. I picked up a can of Red Bull from the bar and started chugging it down. Within minutes, I was on the floor dancing to some wonderful house music. Man, it had been a while! Stereo hasn’t changed much (and so hasn’t the clientele) and that’s a good thing. I would have to say that Stereo is a one-of-a-kind place: the people, the music, the staff and the overall vibe is amazing. You don’t need the drugs to enjoy it either. I was sobering up fairly quickly at the time, but with the caffeine kicking in, I managed to last until 6 AM when I decided to call it quits for the night. Overall, I had a great night at Stereo, and I’m considering going back there every weekend or two for the experience.

booq Boa.XM Backpack Review

Reviews and Rants

My birthday is coming up in a few days, so I decided to spoil myself with a gift. I had always wanted a new backpack for my Dell 700m laptop and gear, one with a lot of compartments and made of a high quality material that wouldn’t rip so easily. My current Wenger backpack was starting to shred to pieces: the shoulder strap is on the brink of detaching itself from the bag, large ripped holes have appeared overnight and the whole thing is lacking space for my accessories (everything is pretty much just dumped in there). And oh, there’s no separate compartment for my papers, so they end up getting all jammed up with the power cords and whatnot.

For the longest time, I always wanted a Boa.XM backpack by booq, as they offered plenty of storage compartments, padding for my laptop and came in what seemed to be in a high quality material that wouldn’t rip up for a few years. The overall style of it looked nice too; very professional and sleek, something that is a bit important for me as I deal with customers in person everyday (I take my laptop with me when I go around the city seeing clients). I didn’t want to show up with a ripped up backpack anymore, so I went ahead and ordered the Boa.XM from Sozo Distributing, a Canadian Booq distributor located in British Columbia. The total came up to 217.30$ CDN.

My Boa.XM backpack came in the mail within a week, delivered by Fedex. It arrived in a large box, packed inside with crunched up paper in plastic bags. I eagerly took the packaging out and right away realized I had made a good buy. The overall feel of the backpack is sturdy and the design is superb. You know the material that airplane seat belts are made of? It’s on the bag. The shoulder straps are lined with this stuff, and I’m pretty confident to say that they won’t be ripping off for a long, long time.

After removing all the packaging material, I inspected the bag to figure out where all the cool compartments are. Man, this bag is loaded with them! A zipper here, a zipper there, the Boa.XM has plenty of room for everything you can imagine: power cords, PDA, audio/video cables, CD case, pens, paper, notebook, hand sanitizer, headphones… the list goes on. I managed to stuff all this in there, believe it or not, in respective compartments. As of writing this review, I just found another zipper that I completely overlooked (a better place for my headphones!). This brings me to say that everything is nicely “hidden” away or placed with aesthetics in mind, so the bag looks business and professional. The laptop compartment is well padded and definitely a secure place for a computer. The sides and bottom of this section are hardened to prevent any damage to your device if you ever drop the bag to the ground by accident. I wish my previous laptop bag had this… it could’ve prevented the small crack that is now present on one corner of the laptop when the bag slipped out of my hand. Since then, I have been extra careful with my backpack grip.

The next test was wearing the backpack. I noticed that everything was balanced, as in, I didn’t feel like I was carrying much. This could be because of the strong shoulder straps and comfort padding that outlines the bag. Call me crazy, but it really does feel like the bag manages to balance the weight you carry on your shoulders by evening the load. Or maybe I’m just a big strong guy and it’s simply relative for me. 🙂 Either way, the straps were adjustable so a big guy like me wore it without any problems.

I recommend this backpack for anyone looking for quality and comfort with a professional style. This baby has plenty of room for all your gadgets and accessories. With a price tag of 217.30$, it might be expensive to some, but this was a gift and a “business expensive” for me at the same time. Instead of dumping 50.00$ every year on a cheap backpack, this one should last for a while and help me organize my accessories. The Boa.XM also comes in a larger model (the Boa.XL) for those with a laptop greater than 14″. All in all, I’m happy with my new toy.