dayday 10+ year member
Junior Member
Long Read, Short Rant, Couple ?'s
New member here. I recently got back into the aftermarket stereo world after a 20 year absence. I recently downsized to a '09 Pontiac Vibe for a daily driver and decided to add a system. I purchased a Clarion VX400 with Nav, JL HD 900/5, JL C2 coaxles for each of the 4 doors and a JL 8w7 in a sealed box.
I didn't feel like spending the time installing the door speakers and wiring so I took it to a local shop for install. I had already installed the 4ga power and 6ch of RCA's for the amp before taking it to the shop. The shop installed 4 door speakers, ran 9 conductor wire back to the dash for the door speaker wiring behind the head unit, mounted and hooked up the power and RCA's to the amp under the front passenger seat and did hush mat in the spare tire area.
My first issue was the fact that it took 7hrs to do this work. I have not done an install in quite some time but this seemed a bit excessive. Due to this unexpected time, I was rushed to get home after the work was completed. After I had some time to check out the system and install this is what I found:
The Rear RCA's were plugged into the Front channel of the amp.
The Front RCA's were plugged into the Rear channel of the amp. (My RCA cable ends are even labeled)
The amp was set to 2ch input.
The system sounded like ****, especially the sub at anything over 50% volume.
I corrected the RCA's and set the amp to 6ch input.
I found that the Infrasonic filter was ON, JL recommends OFF for sealed box.
I found the Low Pass was set at 12db, JL recommends 24db.
I metered the sub output using a 40hz sine wave and found the output to be 69.9V. JL recommends 38.7V for the 3ohm sub.
I metered both front and rear channels using a 1KHz sine wave and found them set at 10.0V and 10.2V, JL recommends 20V for 4ohm. (I was only able to get the F and R up to 16.2V)
I'm returning to the shop on Thursday to try and get the extra mounting items and allen wrenches that came with the amp. When I called about these items I was told that they normally just throw these items out. WOW, I thought they were mine not theirs to throw out. When I told them about the RCA mix up I was told, "You should have never switched anything", and that they had everything setup and "I" could damage the system. I was told they warranty everything for life, yet I never received anything other than a "verbal" warranty.
I'm really uncomfortable letting these "installers" ever touch my vehicle again.
Any suggestions for when I return to the shop? Was I wrong for looking into and taking care of the problems myself?
I can only get the F and R channel output up to 16.2V. Could this just be a lack of output from the Clarion? It's RCA are supposed to be 2V.
If you are an employee of this unmentioned shop and recognize my story..... Feel free to comment
New member here. I recently got back into the aftermarket stereo world after a 20 year absence. I recently downsized to a '09 Pontiac Vibe for a daily driver and decided to add a system. I purchased a Clarion VX400 with Nav, JL HD 900/5, JL C2 coaxles for each of the 4 doors and a JL 8w7 in a sealed box.
I didn't feel like spending the time installing the door speakers and wiring so I took it to a local shop for install. I had already installed the 4ga power and 6ch of RCA's for the amp before taking it to the shop. The shop installed 4 door speakers, ran 9 conductor wire back to the dash for the door speaker wiring behind the head unit, mounted and hooked up the power and RCA's to the amp under the front passenger seat and did hush mat in the spare tire area.
My first issue was the fact that it took 7hrs to do this work. I have not done an install in quite some time but this seemed a bit excessive. Due to this unexpected time, I was rushed to get home after the work was completed. After I had some time to check out the system and install this is what I found:
The Rear RCA's were plugged into the Front channel of the amp.
The Front RCA's were plugged into the Rear channel of the amp. (My RCA cable ends are even labeled)
The amp was set to 2ch input.
The system sounded like ****, especially the sub at anything over 50% volume.
I corrected the RCA's and set the amp to 6ch input.
I found that the Infrasonic filter was ON, JL recommends OFF for sealed box.
I found the Low Pass was set at 12db, JL recommends 24db.
I metered the sub output using a 40hz sine wave and found the output to be 69.9V. JL recommends 38.7V for the 3ohm sub.
I metered both front and rear channels using a 1KHz sine wave and found them set at 10.0V and 10.2V, JL recommends 20V for 4ohm. (I was only able to get the F and R up to 16.2V)
I'm returning to the shop on Thursday to try and get the extra mounting items and allen wrenches that came with the amp. When I called about these items I was told that they normally just throw these items out. WOW, I thought they were mine not theirs to throw out. When I told them about the RCA mix up I was told, "You should have never switched anything", and that they had everything setup and "I" could damage the system. I was told they warranty everything for life, yet I never received anything other than a "verbal" warranty.
I'm really uncomfortable letting these "installers" ever touch my vehicle again.
Any suggestions for when I return to the shop? Was I wrong for looking into and taking care of the problems myself?
I can only get the F and R channel output up to 16.2V. Could this just be a lack of output from the Clarion? It's RCA are supposed to be 2V.
If you are an employee of this unmentioned shop and recognize my story..... Feel free to comment