By James Chevrette
Howard Cantor and Robert McIntosh, the founders of MASQ, the Mobile Audio Sound Quality sound off organization, wanted to create a platform to showcase the highest level of car audio performance.
This idea came out of an event called “The Red River Shoot Out” near the Texas and Oklahoma border in the town of Plano, TX in 2016. Competitors from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kansas would come together to find out who was the best.
The vision of the founders of MASQ was to reward people that have achieved something exceptional in their vehicles. For example, when listening to a car stereo, does the music seem to come from beyond the windshield. When a car stereo is installed at the highest level, the music will seem to extend past the boundaries of the vehicle. If the sound appears to originate from halfway down the hood of the car (3 feet as a reference), it might achieve a 10/10 score in some organizations. But what if the sound extends further down the hood? MASQ wanted to reward competitors for going beyond the average car audio boundaries.
Cantor explained MASQ’s judging philosophy, “We want judges to score to the scoresheet, not the car. If judges use the scoresheet as their reference, competitors have a roadmap for improvement.” In the example above, the scoresheet awards points for sound emanating 1 foot past the windshield at 1/10 points and 3 feet past the windshield at 3/10 points, etc.
Like many organizations, MASQ is struggling to find judges. It offers a different philosophy to encourage new judges to get involved. Cantor said, “We are encouraging judges to just listen to the cars by shadowing a certified judge. The next step is to use a scoresheet with the judge they are shadowing.”
McIntosh said, “I believe competitors appreciate that every year we review our scoresheet, our format evolves, as needed, based on competitor feedback.”
MASQ said its format is available at all prestigious events around the country, including Aggieland in College Station, TX; Steel Valley Regionals in Wheeling, WV; and The Unified Finals in Birmingham, Alabama, AL.
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Paul- you’re always willing to share your wisdom with others based on the experience you’ve gathered over the years.
You, SBN and the early IASCA days are what got me into this industry we all love!
Hopefully MASQ can bring the next generation of people into the fold as consumers, enthusiasts or ‘pros’. Realizing it’s a marketing vessel for consumers over ‘pros’ is definitely the first steps. Without consumers we are all out of business!
Over the years there have been umpteen sound orgs that have come and gone. In this instance, as it deals with SoundQ only, more power to MASQ. NEVER FORGET that sound offs are industry marketing tools to stimulate sales. Sure they’re fun, but are judges designated to offer sound upgrade suggestions like IASCA would do (mostly:-). Maybe this could be a resurgence of Dealers holding small events focused on sound because that’s what we sell. An afterthought: if MASQ is hailing the Best of the Best in SoundQ, what more is there to sell the competitor? If the event is done in front of masses of potential buyers that have interest, that works best, I might add proven…