New Member / Local Shop Install / Problems :(

[akheathen Premium Member]

^^^the newer and more complicted the vehicle, the longer it takes. there is less room to put everything, and sometimes a lot more peices to take apart to do it correctly. i would ask them where they ran into the time-consuming issues. it will give you a heads-up if you decide to work on the same vehivle in the future. nowadays, just about anybody can be an installer/retailer, so you pretty much have 1-2 good shops in a town that shares buisiness with 3-10 more revolving start-ups, so you have to do your homework. it is real hard to take the approach of knowing better than the tech, so thake the customer approach form the start, and pull out your technical background card as a last resort. as for the line voltages, that is the recommended settings, but your amp will only put out so much, and trying to push beyond that will only bring clipping, distortion and heat. i'm sure you have set by ear before, but the approach i take is to keep the bass on the hu turned down as far as effectivly possible, to keep sq up in the full-range drivers and adjust the gain on the subs so that you can adjust it the lowest you will want at the hu, and still bring it to full power when you want, and not encounter full channel distortion or mid-high overpowering before hand. then, slight tweaks from there. as for the slope, try both settings. the 24db/oct. setting is recomonded as a initial or fail-safe setting, but the 12db/oct setting can also better smooth the transition from sub to mids. play sweeps on both settings and see what sounds better. the infrasonic/sub-sonic filter is also per-application, so try both ways, and watch excursion at those levels to see if it's needed to protect against that, and then listen for an audible difference. if it cannot produce sub-sonic levels, then you may save on some heat/load. so in short, start off with questions when you go in, then make requests, and finally demands as a last resort if you are real displeased with them not taking care of your needs. /.02

 

[dayday 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the advise and opinions. I would agree with daboy and say I fit in that 3rd category he listed.

I plan on going in tomorrow and explaining everything I found and changed since they had it. Hopefully we can agree on some things and I'll offer them the opportunity to check everything over and adjust as they see fit. If all goes well I should feel comfortable about the setup and they should still be willing to back up their work if problems arise in the future.

 

[slammedincouch 10+ year member]

sounds like you rushed them or they ran into problems causing a rush. ive done that but i always warn the customer or let them come back. a big install has taken me upwards of 11hrs esp when deadener is involved.

^^this. My install took them about 2.25 weeks

 

[slammedincouch 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the advise and opinions. I would agree with daboy and say I fit in that 3rd category he listed.
I plan on going in tomorrow and explaining everything I found and changed since they had it. Hopefully we can agree on some things and I'll offer them the opportunity to check everything over and adjust as they see fit. If all goes well I should feel comfortable about the setup and they should still be willing to back up their work if problems arise in the future.

if it makes you feel any better I had a local shop build me a box that took up the whole trunk and had the sub firing up. Took them about 1.5 weeks to build, they cut corners, wedged my multi channel amp inbetween the box and side of the trunk, and managed to rip one of the sunroof's drainage lines out of the side of the trunk.

When I went with a different shop for my next build (about 6 months later) the box had just about rotted out as well as the trunk. Box was filled with black mold and had to obviously be destroyed as well as whole car wiped and cleaned down. Never went back to the shop and dealt with my rather expensive loss but never get tired of taking business from them when someone asks about their quality of work.

 

[dayday 10+ year member]

^^ouch... That does make me feel a little better, lol

 

[dayday 10+ year member]

Everything went well this morning. I actually ended up deciding to pull the Clarion Nav out and have them put a deck in from JVC's Arsenal line that has a little better RCA voltage. Made an appointment to have it installed next week and then they will look everything over and dial it in.

Hoping for the best //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[ShiningBuick 10+ year member]

Glad everything went well. Nothing worse than a customer coming in screaming about things!

I'll toss in my viewpoint, even though a few others have, too.

I hate hate hate time budgets on large installs like this. A pair of speakers.. and radio.. even a R/S I can budget for. But a full sub, amp, speakers, 4 channel, radio install can take next to no time.. or can turn into an all day affair. I push to have them get a ride home for these installs.. I don't want you hanging around for 5+ hours any more than you do.

And the rear/front fade issue is a simple mistake. Granted, they should have tested to verify that operation.

And the amp tuning issue is something they really should have had you there for. I always hold off on the final tweeks of the speaker amp until the customer is there to listen, since they're the one who the system should be tailored for.

Be glad you didn't run into a dummy who set the car on fire , lol they're out there.