It's getting harder and harder to find good installers.

[Steven2002]

I installed all my own gear and it saved me a ton of money but getting someone locally to build a box is practically impossible. I wanted a box for one ported 12 originally. My goal was to get a real good high rms sub and jam the hell out of it with power. I ended up settling for 2 sealed Kenwood 12s. Kind of hard to have a stereo installation shop without the ability to build custom boxes. Is that pretty much everywhere now? Not to mention they are telling people it will be 3 weeks before they can do installs yet they have no cars in the bay. Kind of sounds like to me they are about to go under or just don't care. Has it got that bad for installers these days with the boom on internet sales?

Click to read more...

 

[naughtyca 10+ year member]

the good ones with good prices stay open, i found some shops nowadays share installers and tint guys. not many shops do custom box themselves its hard to beat the price of prefabs and some prefabs are good

here's one, the owner also custom builds and he is reasonable in price. this place is like a factory of enclosures, they build them by the 100s

Bright Star Car Audio

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

I dont know how far up in Arkansas you are but I use a shop called the audio edge in bossier. They do a great job and they're super professional.

 

[blockburner 10+ year member]

I'll sell you a SMS custom box for a single 12. black and red with plexi back and red l.e.d's inside. 2.3 ft^3 at 32 hz. $175 shipped

 

[Steven2002]

I'll sell you a SMS custom box for a single 12. black and red with plexi back and red l.e.d's inside. 2.3 ft^3 at 32 hz. $175 shipped

Well, in a Trans Am you got to go custom pretty much. There is a decent amount of room but you got to use that cubby and build forwards to get more airspace. The cubby alone is about 2, if you build up a little bit maybe 2.5. I honestly did not want to run sealed at all. I ended up getting a cheapy box from 3 kings audio that had issues with the top coming apart. I fixed it(well mostly) but there is still a touch of air coming out of the rear side and the screws are literally unscrewing themselves out of the subs.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Bring it up to our shop, we'll load that bish.

 

[bbeljefe]

This is one reason why I'm opening a shop in Shreveport. Not to bag on people but, most installers these days are young guys who love car audio but don't have any education in electronics, fabrication or acoustics. That's not to say they can't learn but to be sure, with prices what they are in electronics these days, one can't afford to hire well educated, skilled craftsmen to do $50.00 amp installs.

All that said, I built my first speaker box in 1984, went to college to learn electronics and have worked in virtually every field of electronics since then. Car audio has always been a passion and a hobby of mine... so I'm going to finish my working life doing something I enjoy.

If you get this far south, I'll be happy to build you any kind of box you like, finished any way you like it.

 

[Steven2002]

Bbeljefe, you're really not that far off. 90-100 miles. I may do that when I get time.

 

[Steven2002]

You know, if I had just a plane old hatchback I could just buy a prefab and I did buy a sealed one for this car but it was put together crap. All stapled and hardly any glue and I just don't really like the sound of a sealed box much anymore. Been listening to ported boxes for way too long to get used to that upper bass range a sealed box gives off. I guess if it was a bigger sealed box it would go lower but still, ported is better to me.

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

You know, if I had just a plane old hatchback I could just buy a prefab and I did buy a sealed one for this car but it was put together crap. All stapled and hardly any glue and I just don't really like the sound of a sealed box much anymore. Been listening to ported boxes for way too long to get used to that upper bass range a sealed box gives off. I guess if it was a bigger sealed box it would go lower but still, ported is better to me.

The audio edge I posted about did mine in my fire bird. If you want me to see some pictures of.it you can pm me your number.

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

This is one reason why I'm opening a shop in Shreveport. Not to bag on people but, most installers these days are young guys who love car audio but don't have any education in electronics, fabrication or acoustics. That's not to say they can't learn but to be sure, with prices what they are in electronics these days, one can't afford to hire well educated, skilled craftsmen to do $50.00 amp installs.
All that said, I built my first speaker box in 1984, went to college to learn electronics and have worked in virtually every field of electronics since then. Car audio has always been a passion and a hobby of mine... so I'm going to finish my working life doing something I enjoy.

If you get this far south, I'll be happy to build you any kind of box you like, finished any way you like it.

When are you opening a shop. I live in Bossier and would love to come check it out.

 

[bbeljefe]

The business is already open so far as legal BS and me building and selling boxes, etc. My original plans were to run the business from my home since I have zero interest in trying to move a lot of over the counter product. WIth internet sales what they are, that's simply not feasible for a small business. I'm also not interested in putting cheap radios and GPSs in for cheap arsed car dealers.... because I was raised by one and know how tight they are, lol.

But seriously, I'm only interested in custom work but not having a storefront has been a problem where getting access to dealer status is concerned, so I'm looking for a storefront now.

I already have some boxes on display at Dreamwerks which is a custom shop that does some car audio but mostly performance stuff.

If you PM me I'll give you details on how to reach me and get a demo of some of my work. I'm not a paid vendor here and I don't intend to break any forum rules by advertising phone numbers, etc. on open threads.

 

[Steven2002]

Using your home isn't a bad idea to cut down on overhead. Getting local sells on gear will be difficult with internet an all. I know it's played a part in killing off local guys.

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

The business is already open so far as legal BS and me building and selling boxes, etc. My original plans were to run the business from my home since I have zero interest in trying to move a lot of over the counter product. WIth internet sales what they are, that's simply not feasible for a small business. I'm also not interested in putting cheap radios and GPSs in for cheap arsed car dealers.... because I was raised by one and know how tight they are, lol.
But seriously, I'm only interested in custom work but not having a storefront has been a problem where getting access to dealer status is concerned, so I'm looking for a storefront now.

I already have some boxes on display at Dreamwerks which is a custom shop that does some car audio but mostly performance stuff.

If you PM me I'll give you details on how to reach me and get a demo of some of my work. I'm not a paid vendor here and I don't intend to break any forum rules by advertising phone numbers, etc. on open threads.

Are you pretty good. Considering going.bigger and getting a box built on my back seat.

 

[bbeljefe]

Are you pretty good. Considering going.bigger and getting a box built on my back seat.

You probably shouldn't ask me or my wife that question, because we're biased.

But seriously, yes I am and I have work and references to show it.

One of my next builds is an 8KW Yukon with four DD 9518s. I'll be ripping out a 6th order wall that's less than a year old and building this truck to the show quality it should have been to begin with.

But talk on the internet is just that.... talk. I can demo my truck for you, show you some other boxes I've done and give you references from both car audio installs and remodeling work I did before I decided to get back into the audio business.

Shoot me a PM and if you're available, I'll demo my truck and a console box I did for a friend tomorrow. I have no plans to be drunk at the lake... I'll be working.

Here's the thread on the console box.