VACAVILLE, CA (09.29.23) – The 2023 West Coast Finale event, titled “2023 WCA Finals, EMMA California State Finals, IASCA CA/NV Last Chance Points” was held on Saturday, September 23 – Sunday, September 24 at ADi – Aegis Distribution Inc. in Vacaville, California. 26 unique competitors from Arizona, California and Nevada participated in the three organizations to compete for the “Best Sounding Vehicle” or BSV title exclusive to Sound Quality events officiated by Papasin Sound. With a three organization weighted average, competitors could see how their vehicle ranked among the other competitors. Mark Bruno was crowned the first West Coast Finale Regional BSV winner. Acrylic laser cut awards such as the BSV trophy sponsored and created by ADi, the host of the event.
In their inaugural year, Papasin Sound set out to provide the car audio community with high caliber experiences at car audio events. Papasin Sound’s mission statement states their primary focus is putting community first to bring car audio enthusiasts together and providing what the car audio community needs to thrive and grow. Their approach is to work closely with competition orgs, audio manufacturers, retail shops, teams, and individuals while emphasizing that each plays a vital role for a thriving car audio community and industry. The 2023 West Coast Finale event included three orgs: West Coast Audiophiles (WCA), EMMA USA, and IASCA as well as support and sponsorship by 12 volt manufacturers: ARC Audio, Morel America, TRU Technology, and U.S. Acoustics. Each manufacturer brought to the event unique contributions that are meaningful and inspirational to the car audio community.
ARC Audio is WCA’s sponsor for the John Fisher Champion’s Cup, a perpetual cup that is awarded to the highest scoring vehicle at WCA’s annual finale event. The cup is a tribute to John Fisher who passed away in 2017. He was one of the original members of WCA (when it was a team) and was also on Team ARC Audio. John won multiple World Championships across multiple orgs. ARC Audio’s sound quality team captain Brian Mitchell (who traveled with John to several of the World Championship runs) has been a staple presence in the Sound Quality community. What better way is there than for ARC Audio to be the sponsor for this special WCA perpetual champion’s cup John’s honor.
Morel America has been a tremendous supporter of Papasin Sound for the entire 2023 sound quality competition season. For the 2023 West Coast Finale event, they sponsored three Morel Hogtalare (MSRP ~$549 each) speakers for the Top 10 for the Best Sounding Vehicle. The intent was for two to be bundled together so that the prize winner can run them in stereo. So one competitor in the top 10 took a pair home and another took one. https://www.morelhifi.com/product/hogtalare
In addition Casey and Natasha Thorson of Morel America has helped Papasin Sound throughout this season by sponsoring the East Coast Audiophiles (ECA) launch event back in June 2023. Morel America will be the ECA sponsor for the Michael Silverman Champion’s Cup, a perpetual cup that will be awarded to the highest scoring vehicle at ECA’s annual finale event. The cup is a tribute to Michael Silverman who passed away in 2020.
For the majority of the 2023 season, TRU Technology has sponsored most of the WCA events by providing cash prize for the BSV (Best Sounding Vehicle). Whether they were large multi-org events, or smaller ones, TRU did so to help encourage competitors to join all the formats irrespective of organization. John Yi of TRU helped cement relationships and contributed to the SQ community. For 2023 West Coast Finale event, a TRU Technology L8-S line conditioner (https://www.trutechnology.com/line-8-v2) and $500 were among the top 10 prizes offered by TRU.
Mike and Lanna Nicholls of U.S. Acoustics have supported the California car audio community for years. For the 2023 season, U.S. Acoustics commitment to the SQ community was no different as they provided cash prize to the most improved competitor at several WCA shows including the 2023 West Coast Finale event as a way to encourage competitors to continually strive for excellence. Also provided by U.S. Acoustics was a U.S. Acoustics Barbara Ann amplifer as one of the top 10 prizes. https://usacousticsca.com/barbara-ann-4-channel-amplifier
WCA, a Papasin Sound SQ competition format, was judged by two West Coast and two East Coast judges. Nick Adams and Fred Lynch were the West Coast judges. Cassie Hall and Mike Myers were the East Coast judges. This offered competitors feedback from a wider variety of judges from different regions and a competition scoring using a four judge average. The WCA SQ competition format was designed to be complementary to other premier internationally recognized Sound Quality organizations such as EMMA and IASCA. By partnering with these organizations, this helps competitors to get points to qualify for the various orgs while also helping to provide additional feedback to prepare the competitors for competition in all orgs. The EMMA USA format was judged by Linda Kobayashi and IASCA format was judged by Richard Papasin. For the 2024 season, Papasin Sound is planning to expand to include Mobile Audio Sound Quality (MASQ) as part of their sound quality competition offerings.
The two day event was the first of its kind to offer West Coast sound quality competitors a larger scale event that offered multi-org formats and top to bottom down ranking determined by 6 judges’ scoring and feedback. Papasin Sound is working to provide the same kind of high caliber experience to the East Coast with East Coast Audiophiles (ECA). In the 2024 season, both WCA and ECA will be running simultaneously with a culmination to respective regional and season finale events similar to the 2023 West Coast Finale event.
For more from Papasin Sound, WCA, ECA, EMMA USA, and IASCA
https://www.facebook.com/papasinsound
https://www.facebook.com/mrspapasin
https://www.facebook.com/groups/westcoastaudiophiles
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eastcoastaudiophiles
https://www.facebook.com/emmausaorg
https://iasca.com/
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