2000 BMW 740i

Everlast Knows A Little Bit About High-Quality Sound.After more than ten years logged in the recording industry, he takes his music listening seriously. The fact that he has spent the better portion of life creating and listening to music means that he knows what his car audio system should sound like.

Since releasing the platinum-selling, genre-hopping "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" in 1998, Everlast has appeared on Santana's massively acclaimed comeback album "Supernatural" as well as releasing his own follow-up disc, "Eat at Whitey's," last year. The last work features a bevy of talented, well-respected guest stars, including Santana and Warren Haynes.

Beginning with his days as a member of House of Pain more than seven years ago, Everlast has relied on Kove Audio President Gary Kovner to take care of all of his car audio needs. Kovner has masterminded the audio systems in three of Everlast's previous vehicles, and the work has been exemplary. Now Kovner has worked his magic on Everlast's newest car, a stylin' custom caramel 2000 BMW 740i. This is the car he likes to take out when he's clubbing in Hollywood, attending a Lakers' game, or simply enjoying a beautiful California night.

Before work on the audio system began, a few stylish mods were made to the BMW. The factory bumpers were replaced with carbon fiber kelvar bumpers by Racing Dynamic, and the factory steering wheel was replaced with a custom import wheel from Germany.

The work on the audio system was performed by Soundwaves in Canoga Park, California. Kove Audio's technical director Tony Branco and Soundwaves' master installer, Manny Zamudio, collaborated on the system's design. The main goal for the system was that it had to reproduce live sound extremely well. However, Everlast also wanted his new system to be hard-hitting and highly precise so he could use it for listening studio source material. After laying down new tracks in the studio, he likes to take a copy on the road and give it a real-world listening test.

The BMWs source unit remains the original factory Alpine navigation model that is integrated throughout the rest of the car. An upgrade to the head unit would have benefitted the audio system, but it was determined to be more trouble than it was worth because of possible integration problems. They decided to leave the factory head unit intact and build the best system possible around it.

The building process included a Hart EQ4 equalizer that was custom mounted in the glove box compartment. It controls the sub-bass frequencies along with full sound equalization, providing total separation of the front and rear speakers and subwoofer.

As for the front stage, it consists of a simple Kove Audio KC510 component set mounted in the factory locations in the front doors. The set features two 5.25" midbass drivers along with 1" silk soft-dome tweeters. A second identical component set is used for rear fill and is found in the rear doors. "The rear tweeters reflect off the rear glass for delay effect, and since we are using a 4-channel ZX504 amplifier, the rear channel could be easily attenuated to proper level," explains Branco. Maintaining vehicle integrity was a must. This set required minimum modifications to the interior panels so it was a natural choice.