# Magic Bus Review from ANT



## ANT (Oct 15, 2005)

Last weekend Buzzman arranged a nice get together for the Phoenix DIYMA members. It was held at Signature Audio in Scottsdale and we had a nice turn out. One nice surprise was that Jon Whitledge showed up with the Magic Bus.
He drove all the way out from California to spend the entire day with us. Everyone that wanted an audition got one (as long as they wanted) and Jon was among the last 3 people to leave the event.

I sat in the vehicle and listened to an arrangement of music. Jazz, funk, pop and percussion. Without a doubt this is the best sounding audio system I have heaver had the pleasure of listening to.

So when Jon asked if I would mind shooting a short video response to my audition I was more than willing.
Here is that video:






To view the Magic Bus website you can click here. Welcome to Whitledge Designs!

Thanks so much Jon, for driving out to our event and sharing your passion with the Arizona DIYMA guys.

ANT


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

Will watch this later


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

Quote from Ant: "Really?....should I even bother?"  

WOW.
Thanks for the video review.


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## ousooner2 (Jan 6, 2011)

Lucky!


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Amazing video. What a great review for the Magic Bus. Congrats Jon!!!


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

Thank you for posting your thoughts. And thank you Mr magic bussman for the opportunity for the diy mobile audio community to audition your work.


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

As someone who recently got to audition this thing, i back up everything ant has said about it. At JT's latest diyma gtg in anaheim, Jon was one of the first people there, and the last to leave. He never cut demos short, and spent literally hours explaining what he did in the build and why. Then after the meet, he went out to dinner with a few of the people that stuck around as long as he did, were talking around 11pm.


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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

Great video, Jon and Ant! Jon is always so open and generous with his time when he's able to come out to the meets. 

The bus is awesome and something not to be missed if you have a chance to check it out.


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## Bayboy (Dec 29, 2010)

Dangit, wish I could audition.... To those who have, what was the most impressive aspect?


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

For me, it was the accoustical treatments, followed by the fact that i could stare at the subs and still not "hear" where the bass was coming from.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

would be interesting to see what it is he did exactly. his website is a bit underwhelming.


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## hilander999 (Jul 6, 2011)

TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL said:


> For me, it was the accoustical treatments, followed by the fact that i could stare at the subs and still not "hear" where the bass was coming from.


Did you look over the build pictures of that MONSTER???

It's insain, period, hell you would have to beef up the suspension for that monster. Damn I'd love to sit in there and listen to "Tom Sawyer", which at this point is one of my favorite tunning tracks due to the awesome variety of musical resonance created by RUSH, not to mention that I'd bet Neal Peart's precussion would rattle your bones.

Hell it sounds awesome in my car and I've only got an 8" sub paired with 2 tactical transducers... not a 300lb monster that had to be installed with a cherry picker.


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## Bayboy (Dec 29, 2010)

Just can't imagine the amount of thought & labor that went into all that! Doesn't look like much until you scan the build pics. I'd probably off myself within weeks of starting!


:hanged:


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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

minbari said:


> would be interesting to see what it is he did exactly. his website is a bit underwhelming.


Jon's website, at least as far as the current acoustical treatment, is admittingly a little dated, but, is far from underwhelming in terms of a build log. Maybe only the old school Alpine CES demo cars had more build pictures.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

I will have to look again, all I saw were ads for sponsors

Sent from my Motorola Electrify using Tapatalk


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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

minbari said:


> I will have to look again, all I saw were ads for sponsors
> 
> Sent from my Motorola Electrify using Tapatalk


oh, then you did miss some. here's the pictures...

Audio System Photo Diary


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## WLDock (Sep 27, 2005)

The bus needs to make it out to the midwest.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

It's to date the best vehicle I've ever heard. He played all kinds of music in it and I can only describe it as perfect. He's using the Esotar 110 tweeter but the other Dyns besides the 1200s are not the current models. I would love to see what some Esotars could do in his build but there are no Esotars in the sizes he uses. I guess there's no reason to mess with perfection.


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## cflannery (Mar 5, 2008)

The Magic Bus was truly magic. The whole experience, listening to John explain his goals & objectives and then getting to hear the results was really an excellent experience for me. Thanks again John for sharing your passion with us!


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## Bayboy (Dec 29, 2010)

After auditioning the Bus, does anyone feel the need to further improve their install or do you think that your system is well within reason from a SQ standpoint? IE, did the experience set a new standard for your own goals?


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

My build doesnt really count, as i already had plans to significantly upgrade my first build. But listening to the bus did add some things to my to do list, mostly in the form of room treatments. 

Patrick just started a thread on "Dry bass", this is something the van does very well through room treatments.


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## Bayboy (Dec 29, 2010)

Dry bass?? Will have to subscribe to that! Thanks


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## asawendo (Nov 22, 2009)

Wow interesting thread!

I wish one day I could hear the Magic Bus up close and personal!


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## michaelsil1 (May 24, 2007)

Dry Bass: not sloppy, bloated or over exaggerated.


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## yvettebro (May 22, 2012)

sounds good.. ok


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## jon w. (Nov 14, 2008)

dear friends,

thanks for the kind words and support. again, i'd like to thanks ANT for his support. 

perhaps you'd like to know that my website is undergoing construction and significant improvements. the link that ANT provided no longer works. the new link is:

Welcome to Whitledge Designs!

the new website is currently under construction, and requires significantly more work. it now has over 800 photos of my entire build. i hope to finish it by the end of the month. 

warmest regards,
jon whitledge


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

I've been offline for a bit, and see what I miss... dang...


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## hemimaddness (Jun 2, 2008)

By far the best installation i have seen and read through !!!! Thank you


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## ndramountanis (Apr 23, 2013)

Looks pretty rad...Seems like you need to build your website a bit to represent your product a bit better....


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

edited


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## Angrywhopper (Jan 20, 2010)

I really wish I can experience this..


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