I'm writing this review after remaining silent for 2 years on the 'service' I received. I did this out of decency, because Brandon did give me a partial refund, and I respected that and wanted to avoid drama. But, I've reached out to him recently regarded an upkeep issue, and been greeted with absolute passive aggressive contempt and unwillingness to help in any way, so here is the full picture of what happened, caveat emptur:
I had a dolby atmos system installed in ceiling. It involved installing the speakers and hiding several cables, then of course getting the system working correctly. Long runs of cables, AV receiver connects, etc.
Brandon is extremely skilled at organizing the cables and troubleshooting the mounts. I can't fault him on that, and if you are looking for a simple mount, he's your guy and you will probably love him. See, I'm pretty fair, huh?
But here's where the job went south. First, Brandon didn't really understand the concept of Dolby Atmos. He was in WAY over his head- I had done days of research, and he tried to gloss over the importance of positioning, and nearly put the front and back height speakers within TWO FEET of each other. To the point where the angle of the sound wouldn't make an appreciable difference on aural imaging.
It was a lack of knowledge and a rushing mindset: if I didn't know my stuff regarding sound (Audio Degree, lots of AV forum and reddit perusing), I would have simply gone along with his plan. It would have seriously detracted from the efficacy and POINT of having a high end audio system in the first place. Why spend all that money on speakers if they aren't lined up properly? Brandon couldn't admit what he didn't know how to do, and this is my main recurring complaint with him. He's a builder who thinks he's an architect; he's a plumber who thinks he's a Water and Power Executive. He's a fairly bright guy who thinks because he's smarter than 80 percent of his competitors that his touch is the magic touch and the customers should shut up. Be wary, because he's a bit of a smooth operator. But let me continue.
After I kept quoting my research until he finally agreed to install them in the best possible way, he continued with the job, mounting them as directed. Then we got to the set up phase. It was late in the day on day 2 of the install, and he wanted it to be OVER. So he glossed over the wiring; he connected everything, but when he left and I tested the sound, it wasn't really what I was expecting. Something was off. So I went into the menus in the AV receiver, and he had actually mis-wired and mis-labeled over half of the system. The set-up process allows you to verify each speaker is playing its appropriate role in the system (e.g. that a front right height speaker in the AV interface is in fact the speaker that is installed in your ceiling, towards the front of the system, on the right). He'd botched this, so fronts were operating as rears, sides were operating as fronts, etc. It was an aural nightmare! Again, who wants to spend this kind of money on gear and install just to have it absolutely butchered! So be warned. I painstakingly fixed it myself, not something I wanted to have to do for hours after that cost. But I got everything to line up.
Last issue on that job: he fixed the drywall so poorly that Never. Even. Dried! I'd press my thumb into it and it would make an indent into the wall like putty! See the photos- it was hysterically funny what a 'Micky Mouse' job it was! He didn't know how to patch it, or mix drywall. He probably told me it wouldn't be perfect, but he'd match it as well as he could, but the issue is he didn't put up a WALL to fill the gaps, he put up SILLY-PUTTY!
So, I ended up getting a partial refund for this, probably like 20-25 percent of the job. But, of course I had to hire a drywall pro to fix it, so I really didn't recoup that much. To recap: Brandon took on a job to install an intricate and technical Dolby Atmos System, he tried to cut corners on the placement (which is the ENTIRE POINT of Atmos), and he DID cut corners on the wiring, making the system ineffective without me fixing it, and he also totally botched the drywall repair, which made my living room look like an Architectural Frankenstein's Monster. This job was 1000% out of Brandon's League, and he took it on anyways because of the paycheck. As a customer, you don't know what you don't know, and poor, sloppy, lazy labor like this can easily slip through the cracks and just RUIN a system and negate the reason for installing it, because most casual listeners or movie lovers don't know what the system should be, and can't really tell if the sound is right or not.
Brandon possesses many of the mounting and cable management skills for simple jobs, but not the nuanced understanding to solve complex audio problems, the patience to learn, or the willingness to admit what he doesn't know. For simple mounts, he's your guy. For high end stuff, look elsewhere!!! read more