Xact Sound

Philip Petracca is an audio competitor, a 15-year veteran of the soundoff wars. He's steadily worked his way up the competition ranks, starting in 1991 with a Chevy Baretta equipped with the then-standard winning combination of an Alpine source unit, PPI amplifiers, MB Quart full-range speakers with the foundation provided by JL Audio subwoofers. His current ride, a no-compromise Mercedes-Benz 560SEC, mates classic eighties style with cutting-edge technology working in concert to provide the definitive in-car listening experience.

Currently, Petracca has what must be considered one of the dream jobs in the industry as the head of product development for XACT Communication, one of the primary suppliers of Sirius Satellite Radio hardware. He's held a number of positions with Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sirius Satellite Radio.

With the interior gutted, and with the seats moved rearward, the speakers, mounted in their own test enclosures, were moved around the cabin in order to establish the best possible placement before the interior was reinstalled. Eldridge believes that this is the reason why the system sounds as good as it does.

Petracca purchased his dream ride, a 1987 Mercedes 560SEC, back in 2000 as he began competing at the national level, gaining a degree of notoriety. But a little over a year ago he decided it wasn't enough to just compete at the highest levels-he needed to win. To do so, he assembled an installation dream team of industry veterans, Gary Biggs, Kent Buller and Mark Eldridge, who translated his radical designs into a vehicle that now rivals some of the legends of the genre.

No Compromise, No Limits
As Petracca tells it, his car is the very rare case in which a mobile sound system installation is taken up to, and beyond, the edges of the conventional envelope. For most enthusiasts, the time, technology and finances required simply would serve as the firewall between a great-sounding car and one that could compete against the world's best. And these days, it's even rarer to experience a system that is purely dedicated to the pursuit of audio excellence.

For starters, there's no video in this system to distract attention from its audio excellence. In an era where many people believe good sound is compressed audio coming from an iPod experienced through cheap ear buds, listening to this particular Mercedes is a revelation. There was only one restriction on the design brief, not to destroy the car as it is still drivable. But while the functionality of the car couldn't be compromised, it wouldn't get in the way of the sound, whether the traditional 2-channel programming as well as all the flavors of the multi-channel world: Dolby Digital, DTS and DVD-Audio.

The layout of the system is deceptively simple. Dead-center of the radically restructured dash, sits an Alpine F#1 Status DVI-9990 AM/FM/CD/DVD-Audio source unit, the flagship successor to the legendary 7909. Two PXA-H990 processors installed in the back deck handle the signal processing chores while the trunk has been redesigned to accept six Zapco custom hand-built amplifiers: four 4-channel amps with a pair of 2-channel amps bridged into mono. One 2-channel powers the JBL W10GTi 10" sub in a sealed enclosure in the center stack while the other powers the companion W15GTi 15" sub in the ported enclosure where the rear seats once resided.

The all-important full-range speaker requirements were also filled by Zapco with an all new line of separates. Zapco, a subsidiary of ARPA of America, turned to Italy and corporate cousin ESB, for the line of hand-built separates that will form the basis of Zapco's new Competition Series. The speakers feature ESB's latest technology and will arrive at Zapco dealers in the first quarter of 2006.