Dak Kinard, an owner at Cartunes of Atlanta, became the second US retailer to sell the new $37,800 super Hi-Res Audio AlpineF#1Status system (click here for dealer no. 1).
Emran Alborno, his partner and General Manager, went to Las Vegas in February to hear Alpine demo the system and “by the time he was on the plane coming back, Dak had the system sold,” explained Alborno.
The build took a month a half in a 2022 BMW M8. The fee was $75,000 for the audio portion including the F#1Status, a second subwoofer, door panels, speaker pods, amplifier housing as well as an ESCORT MAXCI360 laser and radar protection package with integrated rear view mirror display. The full build added AG custom carbon fiber wheels, XPEL stealth paint protection, Fusion ceramic coating, carbon fiber hood, side skirts, grill insert, Akrapovic full titanium exhaust system, Dinan tuning for additional power, Dinan intakes, and LED highlights. The total build, including accessories, reached $130,000. The installers were Mike Ingram and Phillip Hellen.
The basic AlpineF#1Status system offers the highest audio resolution of any car audio system in the world at 384kHz/32bit playback, which is more than 17 times greater than CD playback (at 44.1kHz/16bit).
It includes a head unit, digital audio player, audio processor, two 4-channel amplifiers, two 7-inch mid bass drivers, two 3.3-inch midrange drivers, two 2.8-inch tweeters and two 11-inch subwoofers.
The heart of the system can be said to be a special “clock” which keeps all the components in the system in sync without timing errors (jitter).
For the BMW M8 build, the rear seats were removed so that amplifiers, processor and sub enclosures were mounted in the car cabin instead of the trunk. Two Alpine regional reps (Colin Vargo and Dan Greenwood) came to the shop and spent two full days helping to tune the system.
The second day of tuning, the customer showed up so the system could be adjusted to his liking.
“We never had that before with anybody, where the factory shows up and helps tune it,” Alborno said.
Cartunes plans to sell more F#1Status’ and its goal is to be the number one shop in the world for the system.
The BMW customer was impressed with the outcome. “He’s used to loud systems so doing a sound quality build was a little different for him. Once he heard it, it was mind blowing,” said Alborno.
The customer tends to fix up cars, drive them for a couple of years and then sell them, so he may be back for another F#1Status in the future.
Car Tunes of Atlanta was founded in 1978 by Richard Grimm who remains a partner. In addition to Alpine, it carries brands including Focal, JL Audio, Kenwood and Escort. Typical sales range from a simple $200- $300 pair of speakers to the $37,000 AlpineF#1Status. The company says it provides audio services “from the economic to the esoteric since 1978.” The average sales ticket at Cartunes is in the $4,000 to $6,000 range.
Click here for a video of the build.
