In early 2026, the soon-to-be founder of S2i Audio purchased an Acura Integra Type-S and found the factory "Premium" audio system lacking. Vocals were unclear and shouty, bass was one-note, treble somehow sounded rolled-off and harsh at the same time, and the system's optional "3D" feature didn't do much to correct the low, unfocused image.

As a lifelong car audio enthusiast, Ash wanted better sound without losing factory infotainment controls. The common low-fi approach is to tap and feed the factory amplifier's high-level outputs into an aftermarket DSP which converts the channels back into digital so the installer can then remove the factory time-alignment, EQ, crossovers, and all-pass filters, just to sum the signals back into a mere starting point for system tuning! This approach is not only convoluted, but it affects sound quality due to the lossy factory processing. Garbage in is, after all, garbage out.

Unsatisfied with this option, Ash searched for a digital integration solution for his Integra... but found none existed... so he decided to build it for himself. This kind of endeavor requires deep knowledge of proprietary digital decryption and circuit design, and while a Materials Engineer, this still wasn't in his expertise. Still, Ash's worldview is that anything is knowable, so he dove into R&D, and after many iterations and scrap, he eventually built a functional prototype.

Then, Ash had an epiphany - if his device could become a drop-in consumer product it would elegantly solve the same problem for others. So Ash redesigned it into a fully plug-and-play digital system integrator, using automotive-grade engineering capable of withstanding the extreme temperatures, humidity, and vibrations of the challenging car audio environment.

That's when PURE, S2i Audio's first product was born.