Buffdaddy

OH, and also, I have heard Burlington Radioactive is super-good, if thats in your neck of the woods..

BIG_LIFT_TJ

i have attempted to build a car audio sub box. result was having to return a sub with some NEW vent holes in it.. LOL
Id prefer obviously to pay as little as possible and put the cash into a guys pocket whos not working out of a shop. I tend to believe you can get better value that way IF the guy knows what he is doing.
I just always feel better being able to see what is done to my car.

At the one shop that built my car (pics below) back in 95, they took some photos i wasnt aware of (which was ok until..). Years later after the store ownership change i decided to do 6 12's in my new car. I went back to the shop and of course they had a photo album of the cars that had been to the shop. I wanted to see their latest work since all the installers were new now. This is where it got misleading. I looked through the book and seen about 4 photos of my car. So i acted surprised and agasp at how many subs were in a daytona.... the person who i WONT identify who still works there stated to me "ya, we just finished builing that car about 6 months ago".
Hrmmm.. lets see, year was 2003, and the car was completed in 1995... He walked into the back of the shop, i grabbed the pics of my car out of the album and have never returned.
The system pictured was redone 2x. Pics you see are of the original junk i bought. I stepped up to rodeks then i grew some nads and dropped the money on all orion.
I ended up pulling it all out after i was rear ended, sold what was good and dropped a super 60 package into the car...
I just dont have trust in some of these places.
But, theres more to the story about this shop. During the summer i lived on a court. I didnt have a garage but just a car port. So myself and a few friends were hanging out chatting on his porch when this vehicle comes down the road. Imake a comment that it looks like one of the installers vehicles from shop X. The truck drives to the end of the court, turns around and leaves.
About 1 hour later it returns, stops in front of myhouse, person got out of the vehicle walked up to my car, fished around the doors and windows. Briskly walked back to his vehicle and left.
I confronted the shop the following day, they said it was impossible. I identified the plate and make of the trunk which was the same one at their shop.
I called linear marketing at the time and told their director there.
After that i received threats over the phone that i was going to be killed cause they lost their distribution rights for orion equipment.
After that, took me a few more years to get back into it all...
sorry for my babble/rant.. LOL
pics below

Buffdaddy

Strange story...

I will also share.
At an unnamed shop in East Toronto, which I was referred to by a co-worker of my mother at the time, I took my 76 Impala in to get a basic system installed.
This was my first stereo, almost five years ago now, and I was as impatient as can be. I shelled out all the cash they asked, basically, and got a set of front coaxials, 2 12's, a small amp and a box, all installed with a deck that I had purchased off of here, actually.
Anyhow, long story short, I drop the car off and leave it there for a saturday. I should leave it with them, the shop owner says, since customers cant come in the back anyways, etc..
Finally, its done, I go to pick it up in the cold cold dark winter evening. I get there just as the shop is closing, car is already outside waiting. The owner gets in with me, we check it out, etc, everything is kosher.
I drive home happy as a pig in sh*t, blasting my new pride and joy.
Next morning my father screams bloody hell at me at 8am.....what I couldnt see in the dark is that the air conditioning moulding under the dash is cracked to hell, which it most definitely wasnt before I dropped it off.
I go back, they say 'no, not us, never', etc...I cant really prove it, they super-glue it back together, it does the job, I am just kind of flustered and leave relatively satisfied. A few days later, driving on the Gardiner, I hit a bump, and the entire a/c moulding and vent housing drops onto my feet. Sweet, huh, anyhow, I am so pissed, there is nothing that can be done to replace this piece, because its 25 year old plastic...I just wait it off and end up trying to fix it myself. Add to this that now my electronic ignition wiring bundle continually falls down, as it was held up by that piece, and its a right mess under there. Finally I check it out properly, and find the speaker wires held up mongerdly by duct tape only...which is inexplicably taped to random places, etc...
Thats bad enough,huh.
Second: I slam the door one day, old car = heavy *** doors, and when I get back in, the door speaker has cut out. I slam it again, it works fine. My passenger slams the passenger door, and that speaker cuts out, etc...
I take it back, 'fix it'....its fixed.
Same thing happens a month later. I finally pull the passenger speaker out....or should I say half pull it out, as the screws arent anchored, and the thing pulls out cleanly of its mounting holes, with no tools. The wiring, you ask? Oh, yeah, it was twisted around the spade terminals, and thats it.
So a couple hours with a soldering gun later, I have re-wired my speakers myself. A pack of screw drywall anchors later, and I have remounted my speakers myself.

Months later, I pull the gear, as I bought my first 'own' car and wanted to sell the stuff to buy better stuff. Behind the false wall that was in my trunk, I find a few more surprises. The amp was never bolted to the box, liek I specifically paid for. It is thrown in loosely next to the box....at least now I knew what was thumping around back there on the highway.
The box, which cost me $125 to get made.....not carpeted. Even though I paid for carpet.

All in all, I paid almost $1500 for all the gear and the install at this shop. No, that isnt a LOT of cash, but it is more than my first car cost me, honestly. After giving up on the shop owner doing anything for me, I just bit the bullet and fixed it myself.

PS- when I was having my stuff fixed, like the third time, the owner asked me, politely, to wait in the front of the shop....since I should obviously have confidence in his workmanship at that point....Since then I have never allowed myself to be told to 'wait out front', unless I had complete faith in the shop.If a shop tell sme to wait outside, I do, and I take my car with me, all the way home.

Lesson learned, I go to the places that build trust with me, and I inspect everything they do.
A quality shop wont mind one bit if you ask to be shown what they are doing.
I totally sympathize with your story, as there are just too many shops out there owned/run by bad people, business-wise or otherwise.

The shops I recommended, I have had good experiences with, and I am confident that they care enough about their reputation within the 'industry' not to screw you over.


Now, my rant is done also...lol
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...

PS- TJ, where do you get the work on your Jeep done re: lifts,suspension, tires etc...?

drspd

I am absolutely the most finiky person you will ever meet with regards to attention to detail. If you've ever seen me at a show, you can see my obsessive compulsive nature come out as my car is re-cleaned every 15 minutes or as the dust settles (whatever is earlier) LOL... (so sad, I know).

The two systems I have had in my car have been installed by 20Hz audio. On both occasions they built exactly what I wanted, allowed me to take part in the installs and fully respected my car.

My best friend is currently having 20Hz install a ridiculous system in his 2003 BMW M3. If we can trust them with our cars, I'm sure you can trust them with yours.

I've also been to Perfect Tones for an iDBL competition last year. The shop looked top notch. And from what I've seen, their installs have always been solid.

Really up to you with respect to what's closer to your place, budget, time-line, equipment choice, etc...