Getting an aftermarket audio system installed in your car is very dicey, so here is the Good, the Bad...& the Ugly:
First, you have to decide on the components. Next, you have to find an installer. If the Installer is miffed that you bought some components from a catalog or other outside source, he might very well purposely damage the electronics, and they are so complicated and inherently undependable to begin with, that fixing blame for a malfunction is not only hard to detect at first, if at all, but fixing blame is nearly impossible. Then, there is the problem of pissing off the installer even more, over your (justified) complaint, and he might very well try to rip you off big-time - thus, costing you a hell of a lot more in financial losses.
Furthermore, you would have to leave the car there for a daunting 2 or 3 days, and since there is no accountability for the total job done, you would pretty much have to start again from square one if it doesn't work out.
This is EXACTLY the problem I'm facing. I went to this guy, Stefano, with Infinity component speakers for the front (separate woofer and tweeter), and a JVC radio, and agreed to his cheaper Alpine speakers for the rear (which he'd also wanted me to select for the front, but I refused), accepting his pricey Alpine subwoofer for the trunk, and his pricey J.L. Audio amp, also for the trunk.
My supplied parts cost $450, while his parts cost $1200. He REFUSED to set it up the way I wanted, with tweeters drilled directly into the front window bars. Instead, he put them on the door. I let him influence (bully) me due to his "experience," and also because there are not enough competitors around.
The original sound was good enough to get by, but didn't have the great imaging another installer had given similar components by drilling the tweeters directly onto the window bars, facing the windshield for reflected sound that produced realistic miniaturized three-dimensional images across the windshield of instruments and musicians. However, when you turned the volume up, the left-front woofer and tweeter would occasionally pop louder, as if one or more of the channels in the amp hadn't been working properly.
Recently, I had to go back to Stefano to have the same system re-installed due to the cables being accidentally pulled out of the amp. Stefano had to lay THE AMP HE HAD SUPPLIED tightly against the back wall of the trunk, so I couldn't move it enough to put the cables back in.
To make a long story short, he re-installed the original tweeters, finally moving them from the doors to the window bars as I had asked on his original installation, but now he glued plastic holders against the window bars, instead of drilling the tweeters directly into the window bars themselves, and he re-attached the amp with the same too-short cable!!! - AND, only after bullying me into first installing a $3000 replacement system, which I demanded he immediately remove because it sounded, looked and felt like cheap garbage.
My original system presently sounds flat, opaque and lacks treble "air," with no sense of the recorded acoustic, because either the amp doesn't fire the tweeters, or the tweeters aren't connected properly - I can't hear them, except for an occasional jingle when I rap the amp with a hard object! Imaging had always been flat, with vague outlines, and an uneven, poorly defined soundstage.
For me, it's back to square one. Save yourselves the anguish. Don't go there for anything.
Judging by some other reviews, if you're his high school friend, or the work involves some simple cosmetics, perhaps he won't rip you off. But, beyond that, judging from my experiences, he's a mental midget when it come to things like electronics.
Total rip off: $4000!!!!
P. S. Just found out that the J. L. Audio amplifier is a high-current model that drew too much power from all other car functions - including things like headlight brightness, heater and vent fan; even the engine power, speed and gas mileage, and damaged the alternator and battery. Remedy: either get a high-current alternator and capacitor, or change the amplifier to a low-current model, such as Kenwood. I will drive to Harrisonburg, VA to get the job done professionally, by a Crutchfield Catalogue store, including re-positioning the tweeters and woofers for the life-like imaging I crave.
Just spoke to the installer there. He suspects "faulty installation."
Just changed the battery and the whole thing works back to its potential, but the imaging is still merely left-right-middle, but with good-quality individual sounds across the frequency range; BUT, it had much greater potential in minor ways, especially for all the money already spent...in other words, the components were Good-and-defective, installation Bad, and attitude Ugly.
I later checked both tweeters; left = distorted jingles, right = nothing...spare yourself aftermarket car audio system installations, period! read more
