Dustin Hart AM

Not necessarily. Generally audio quality relies a lot on what is powering the speakers and the quality of the source. Typically any kind of integrated player unit or home theater in a box (HTIB) setups are meant to power really low end speakers and don't drive more conventional speakers properly. Your sony's might be more set up for traditional audio receivers than the HTIB player mentioned in your first post. I think if you were to really drive those speakers at high volumes with that unit you'd probably run the risk of over-stressing the amp before you'd mess up the speakers. If you're anywhere near a major city you might be able to find an older but still solid 5.1 receiver from companies like Denon, Yamaha, Marantz, etc. for a decent price. Just feed the receiver an optical or coax cable from your preferred source and you'll be good to go.

Make sure your speakers have matching impedance to what that player puts out. A lot of speakers are 8ohm's so you might be alright but mismatching can lead to issues especially with lower end power sources like that Sony player you're looking at. If that matches up then you can power those speakers I just wouldn't expect a lot from them given the source is probably meant to drive much smaller satellite speakers. Basic speaker wire will do the job which like Bobamatic said can be found locally or online through amazon/monoprice.

From when I was in St Louis this winter the staff there didn't seem concerned. Like you said they still do a number of events with large conventions. Without the Rams there's some impact but it also opens the door for different events to come in during the NFL season that otherwise wouldn't have. While it may not be the fanciest of the fancy stadiums like your new high end NFL stadiums but it's still a nice building and one of my favorites to do. Aside from having to refuel outside it's one of the more convenient venues for monster trucks.

Pretty sure the state shut down the Izod Center. There's no reason to do an arena show in a city you already do two stadium events at. The markets where they do a stadium and an arena those shows are in different seasons with arenas first quarter and a stadium in the summer but those are rare. If there was enough demand for another Detroit show they'd find a way to do another stadium date. I'd imagine the tires it had been sitting on were dry rotted from sitting for so long. Probably just went out back and found a set of old tires that were good enough to use. I think the BKT ride truck used to have some Michelin's that had BKT spray painted on the side so maybe that's where they pulled them from?

Only way I see that ever happening is if Monster Jam suddenly stops doing Ford Field for some reason which I don't see happening.

Completely agree. It was George's persona and BJ Johnson was probably the only other person I could've seen continuing on if George stepped out. Curious if Bryce is going to have to rock a mohawk? Doesn't seem quite his style. Solid driver though. Got to see him in Raleigh and he's pretty good on the hybrid floor and he was very good in his interviews as well as working the crowd.

Best Quoute: Michael, bring me my truck! - Gregory Wichenbach

I couldn't remember for the life of me what that thing was called. I knew it looked like a Roy truck but I kinda expected a bit better considering the money pumped into their street vehicles. I haven't kept up with whats on the market these days but surely there was something better out there than a Roy truck?

Hit the nail right square on the head. Everybody is interchangeable/replaceable. Don't be surprised if a majority of the fleet looks different in the next two years.

Uncle Mark may not go out there and cartwheel the truck but he'll put on a solid show. I'll be interested in seeing Devin's new truck on a stadium floor for the first time. I was kinda surprised to see Zimmer put in for that show because I thought he was going over to Australia to crew and help maintain the fleet over there. With that being said I haven't talked to him in a few months so I guess those plans have changed. Also if you're not aware yet, not all sides of the company talk to one another on a regular basis. The internet/social media department isn't exactly filled with people I'd refer to as industry insiders.

You're kinda comparing apples to oranges in terms of impacts and chassis. Both chassis are completely different and have seen different levels of wear and tear. Keep in mind 10 was like 20 years old before getting retired. 18 is what 5-6 years old? Looks like the front end probably dug in and the tabs or the rod ends for the 4-link bars are what gave way on 18 in this instance. May just be as simple as replacing those and re-installing everything else. I can't see all the shocks but the shafts still look straight on 3 out of the 4.

I very seriously doubt they're concerned about a fair show with like 5-6 trucks. It may just have played out that the Cardinals had a bye week or were away that weekend and their stadium is much easier to convert back and forth because the field is completely removable. Is it even an official thing yet? I haven't bothered asking anyone I know if it's absolutely happening. Wouldn't mind working out there though, it looks like a cool stadium.

I am happy to see the GoPro I stuck in the arbor wasn't too painfully obvious haha. If only I had found something to pin back that cloth at the top so the flowers didn't get blown behind it. I'm definitely a better caterer/photographer than decorator.

No he actually was going to drive in Bristol but he told me Shane asked if he could do it and Randy decided he had earned it after driving all year. Darrin unfortunately had a back injury outside of the truck and has been away for about a year now.

Stoked for JR. He's been chomping at the bit to get some seat time. Glad he's getting a chance to run. Cory's an awesome dude and glad he's getting back behind the wheel for a little bit also.

Definitely had it for Nashville and Foxborough.

Not always true. It varies event to event whose truck gets pre-cleared for backflips among the company fleet. Even then, sometimes that just goes out the window and drivers do one anyway. On the FS1 tour the last two years all trucks were cleared to flip. For the fleet it comes down to budgets and damage control basically. A lot of the drivers cleared to flip are the ones that want to anyway.

The burn out factor would probably be my best guess. The amount of people that are willing to keep up with the scheduling that they go through are very few and far between.

3. The first Barbarian was replaced a few years ago with the current chassis.

So they stole a pic from a Monster Nation show to use for their advertising material. Classy.

I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it was to watch Adam do that and then I really laughed when he told the world what he called it. Can't help but love that guy.

Those guys can both wheel trucks with the best of them however they've both been a second driver for independently owned trucks most of their time behind the wheel. You give the Basl brother's the greenlight to go for it and I have no doubt they'll turn some heads. They're both very good drivers, it's just a different set of circumstances for those guys. The parts bills for those tours have been astronomical in comparison to season's past with normal events.

I get where you're coming from and no animosity towards your point, I just think the photos might be a little deceiving sometimes. For whatever reason even on nights of sell outs the stands aren't full at the beginning but tend to be packed when you get into the middle of the show. My panorama was taken before freestyle started so some of those gaps might've gotten filled in a bit with more people trickling in following intermission.

I didn't think the crowd was bad at all or at least it didn't seem like it. I was crazy busy most of the night so I never got to really look around but the panorama I took on my phone before freestyle showed a decently packed house on the side opposite of me.

The exchange rate on your two cents is low my friend. The advances in driver safety has made things a lot better for today's drivers than what they were experiencing just 10 years ago, much less throughout the 90's. Even if they weren't going "as big" they weren't nearly as well protected and took a beating as a result of that. If you find some old on board videos you can see footage of drivers getting slung around like rag dolls where as today you don't see the drivers moving except for their limbs. Outside of driver safety aspects the trucks haven't changed that much since the 90's. They've just gotten fat. They went from being relatively lean racing trucks to the bulked up and much heavier trucks we see today.