2001 CLK 55 AMG Mercedes Benz

When James Betz was younger, he spent every available moment working to get enough money together to build a great audio system for his vehicle. When he finally had enough money saved up, he raced to the license tag offices to get personalized plates that read, "Kicker". Now ten years later, he can afford his dream system for his dream car, a 2001 CLK 55 AMG Mercedes Benz, and his tags now read, "Pure SQ"!

Betz didn't want to turn his new jewel over to just any installation team. He decided to go with the wizards at Stereorama in his hometown of Clearwater, Florida. They have been in business for more than 33 years and were just crazy enough to tackle the complicated project. Jeff Head masterminded all facets of the project while Bill Holzhauer helped with the system's design; Matt Prescott assisted with the installation.

"When the Mercedes first arrived, we had a pretty good idea of what direction we were headed. We knew the toughest part of the install would be to blend our custom work with the original look," says Head. "So [to the horror of the people at the Mercedes dealership] we completely tore down the vehicle." The seats, lower dash, carpet, and console were all stripped down to the bare metal. Then the metal was cleaned and 72 square feet of Dynamat Xtreme and a half-gallon of DynaSpray were applied for sound damping purposes.

SourcesBetz chose an Eclipse 55090 AM/FM/CD/DVD player to handle his car's audio and video output. The unit is mounted in the dash along with an Eclipse 6-disc, in-dash CD changer, which is located below. Both pieces are mounted with custom brackets and trimmed with a hand-built acrylic bezel. Four video monitors make viewing movies convenient for anyone in the vehicle. Front passengers have access to 5-inch screens in custom fabricated visors. These monitors will only operate when the Mercedes is in "Park." The other two screens, which are on-command operational, are found in the back of the front seat headrests.

ProcessorsBelow the two Eclipse units in the center console is a Zapco SP7-SL 7-band pre-amp EQ and balanced line driver with master volume control that gives Betz some quick adjustability for minor tuning. For more extensive tuning, two pairs of Zapco EQ30-SL 1/3-octave EQs are mounted to the roof of the trunk. They motorize down for easy access. Each bank of EQs is tuned for a completely different sound. One is used for sound quality competition, and the other is what Stereorama calls a "street tune" for everyday use. The two can be easily switched by simply pressing a button located in the center console. Along with the SP7 EQ up front, this gives the Mercedes a massive 127 bands of equalization.

Front Stage Interestingly, the audio system features a front stage only (no rear speakers are used). Multiple Canton speakers reproduce the mids and highs up front. Head decided to use three 6.5" midbass drivers per door to draw the sub-bass to the front of the car. To accomplish this task, he had to refabricate the door panels. Head rebuilt the door panels and kick panels using a combination of fiberglass, vinyl, and "some materials that are small and look like an evil science project," according to Holzhauer. Head then added some beautiful 3-layer acrylic trimming and sweet grilles to finish it off.

Two component sets, each consisting of a Canton 4" midbass driver along with a 1" aluminum tweeter, are located in each kick panel in a diappolito setup. This setup consists of a driver, two tweeters, and another driver mounted on top of one another, making the highs meld into the midrange so that it sounds like one large driver. One problem the installer encountered involved the factory E-brake (emergency brake) which was in the way of the area where the new kick panels needed to be. To solve the problem, a custom E-brake activator was installed in the driver's side floorboard, with controls in the center console and the factory status light control still functional.