High-Performance Nissan Xterra Sound

It's no secret that, on the aftermarket side, manufacturers like Rockford Fosgate are constantly stretching the design, technology, and installation envelopes to one-up its competitors. The battleground is the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center every January at the Consumer Electronics Show, when virtually all major names roll out a new, high-profile demo vehicle to attract as much attention as possible.

For the past two years, Rockford Fosgate, headed by Senior Vehicle Designer Bryan Schmitt and Vehicle Fabricator Jason Digos, have taken top honors with the Nissan Xterra, their latest creation.

This Xterra is packed with many of Rockford Fosgate's state-of-the-art '02 products, including the single-DIN RFX9210 AM/FM/CD. The RFX9210 can read MP3 files from consumer-recorded CD-R and CD-RW discs, an essential feature in today's Internet-driven music landscape.

Naturally, the front and rear speakers are all RF, but the main attractions are the two, RFD3118, dual-voice-coil 18-in. subwoofers in the unique vented enclosure. In-vehicle multimedia comes courtesy of Rosen, who supplied the DVD player and an LCD monitor mounted in the overhead console.

The dominant elements of this installation are the dual subwoofer enclosures in the Xterra's original cargo area. We asked Schmitt about his inspiration: "The subwoofer tubes are the heart of the installation and everything else was built around them. The idea of the floating subwoofer tubes shaped like a jet engine was motivated while flying back from a trip I took last year to Shanghai. We sat toward the back of the plane, and I had a pretty good view of the 747's twin engines on each wing. My goal was to make this vehicle look as futuristic as possible—films like 'Terminator II,' 'Star Trek,' and 'Blade Runner' contributed to the design."

With 5000 watts of power on tap from the four RF amplifiers mounted under and between the subwoofer enclosures, this system is capable of clean, undistorted output of over 150 dB, well in excess of that produced by a 747 at takeoff from just 150 feet away. Although it's capable of eardrum-shattering noise levels, when tested with demanding music, be it a CD of quality production or dynamic DVD, the system sounds like a home theater.

With almost 4000 invested hours in its design, fabrication, and installation, the tab for labor alone, if it performed at a neighborhood mobile-electronics emporium, would run nearly $200,000 at the industry-standard $50 an hour. Add that to the combined retail cost of the various components, coming in at about $10,000, along with the $27,499 MSRP of a 4x4 SE S/C model, and you're looking at the world's first $250,000 Xterra.

On any rational level, this is hard to justify—that is until you're standing 20 feet in its wake, and you're hair is standing on end when Schmitt hits full throttle on the volume. It has to be heard to be believed.