EVERY Saturday night, between 200 and 300 music lovers gather in Sapan Hin to pay homage to the car stereo. The event starts at 9pm and goes on until early morning. Between 50 and 70 cars and trucks arrive during the night. Some the cars are even decorated with speakers. The event is organised by Sapam Sound Phuket, a local and well established car stereo shop and is attended by customers of similar shops from all over Phuket.

“This is not a competition among car stereo shops, it is a meeting place for people who love car stereos,” Khun Somyot of Sapam Sound said.

Most of his customers are middle-aged males. “Although the usual cost is from 50,000-150,000 baht, some of the customers can pay up to 600,000 baht to have a stereo fitted,” K. Somyot said.

In 2005, Sapam Sound held the world record for the loudest car stereo, measured at 174.3 dB. Recently they were beaten by a team from America who had a system costing seven million baht, which pumped out a whopping 179.5 dB. One of K. Somyot’s customers, Somchok Pairot has a BMW E46 and has just had it fitted out with two 12 inch special modified speakers and 8 pairs of 6 inch speakers. These are driven by one 3000 Watt and two 1200 Watt Formula X amplifiers. The total conversion cost him 140,000 baht. “There are not many people have the courage to do that.” K. Somyot said.

“I love modifying cars and I love loud music," he said. "I think it’s cool and the girls like it.”