The Sorry State of some so called Installers

[PatienceWins]

RAC, you are saved. These guys do not understand the sentiments on a car.
We got two Autocops installed from Auto Planet and both of them gave issues within 1 year. The Autocop service is very good and they saved.

[RAC]

ok..now it seems t-bhp members are talking about both Auto Planet and Auto Shop.
I did not mean to single out Auto Shop on this. Apologies.

[esteem_lover]

I never saw this thread until today.

Originally Posted by nitrous

My advice to anybody who wants to install ICE in Chennai: Go to Bangalore.

Hey, that's my line that you have lifted. I never knew you actually went ahead & did this, you never told me you bum. You owe me a treat at marrybrown (he he he) for this.

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Congrats Nitrous. Glad that you have it sorted out now and are enjoying the ICE. So this is the secret you were hiding for the pulicat meet huh?

aditya, there are a lot more secrets for nitrous to go to bangalore, you know what i mean ?

[s0uljah]

O/T

@E_lover : Is marrybrown good? I never bothered sampling their fair as Id heard a bad report ! Guess I should drop by once.

[kvish]

I had my install done at auto shop in Koramangala. I had purchased head unit from Singapore and JBL speakers from FXaudio. For a car that had speaker cabling done already, and speakers that fit into the stock locations perfectly, I felt it was quite a straight forward task.

Here is my take on why I feel it went quite smooth:
1. I went on a weekday (less crowd) afternoon (even better). Told them clearly what I wanted.
2. I was there with the installer till the job was finished and kept on bugging him with questions on why he was doing it that way and so on.
3. It ended up becoming part DIY (ok, 5% ) , cos I tried a couple of tweeter placements, and tweaked around with the HU settings.
4. Ofcourse there were some annoyances where he cut plastic which I felt was unnecassary. I did get some long explanation which I didnt understand much. Not a big problem.

In all, 250 rupees for install. Not bad at all, considering I didnt buy any stuff from them. Those guys in the store were pretty knowledgeable too compared to the 1000s of stores we have in every corner of the city.

Moral of the story, if you are getting a cheap install done, make sure you tell them clearly what is needed, and stay there till the install is done (start to finish). Slight involvement may help too.

With so much of information available on this forum itself, its the bhp'ians mistake if he still gets conned

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by s0uljah

O/T

@E_lover : Is marrybrown good? I never bothered sampling their fair as Id heard a bad report ! Guess I should drop by once.

OT : Not as good as KFC, but nitrous has this habit of knocking on restaurant doors way past 2.00 am & it is only marrybrown that welcomes him with open doors.

[s0uljah]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

OT : Not as good as KFC, but nitrous has this habit of knocking on restaurant doors way past 2.00 am & it is only marrybrown that welcomes him with open doors.

Dude any eatery would be glad to have him as a customer

[blueraven316]

Now this is what we bumped into when a car came to us for a reinstall, this wiring was done at a reputed shop in bangalore I don't want to name, not some JC Road shack or anything, I was bewildered to see this and had a good laugh.
Snaps are below,




For those who did not get what just happened, the power wire is not directly connected to the battery terminal, instead it is joined with something like a Remote wire and then to the terminal,

Wah! Wah! I really want to meet this Einstein of a electrician who fitted this system.
Thing was running on a 504 sony amp, so maybe the wire did not melt.

[s0uljah]

I know who did this install, they are not professionals but have earned a name fast in Bangalore, it drives me crazy.

All I can say is guys with the knowledge and DIY spirit on T-Bhp please ensure you are monitoring every stage of the install as far as possible. At the end of the day it is your money and your setup.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by blueraven316

Now this is what we bumped into when a car came to us for a reinstall, this wiring was done at a reputed shop in bangalore I don't want to name, not some JC Road shack or anything, I was bewildered to see this and had a good laugh.
Snaps are below,
...

For those who did not get what just happened, the power wire is not directly connected to the battery terminal, instead it is joined with something like a Remote wire and then to the terminal,

Wah! Wah! I really want to meet this Einstein of a electrician who fitted this system. Thing was running on a 504 sony amp, so maybe the wire did not melt.

Arrey kya @blueraven, you didn't recognize? That is the Bangalore Fuse! You know, earlier the electricians use to strip the insulation before putting it into the ceramic holder. Since in this installation the ceramic holder is absent, he did the right thing by not stripping the insulation. Also, the green color indicates 50A fuse rating.

[blueraven316]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Arrey kya @blueraven, you didn't recognize? That is the Bangalore Fuse! You know, earlier the electricians use to strip the insulation before putting it into the ceramic holder. Since in this installation the ceramic holder is absent, he did the right thing by not stripping the insulation. Also, the green color indicates 50A fuse rating.

Twenty characters!!!

[Pani]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I have experienced it personally.

I took delivery of my getz and went there for a set of good speakers.I am retaining my good old Pioneer 4750 HU.
They tried a lot to sell their Nakamichi sound system(Speakers, amplifier and woofer) to me and I did not bite it. I wanted good quality speakers for the front and back. I was inclined towards Alpine and he had only a pair of Alpine CoAxials 6*9 worth 9000 bucks which I selected for rear.
His collection is limited and the choice I had for front was Pioneer/ Boston/ Nakamichi. I wanted components and he did not have them. Then he started pushing a set of Pioneer speakers worth 1250 bucks. My budget for the front speakers was 9000 bucks. I trusted him and went for the Pioneer speakers. I was happy with the rear Alpine, but the Pioneer was bad. Later I learnt that those Pioneer speakers were fake and he has fitted 4" speakers on 6" provision.

The installation is done by boys without proper tools and those guys treated my car badly. Got a severe rattling at the back just because of the way they pulled wire to the rear speakers. I took the car back with the rattling complain. He did not care as he has already milked me with sunfilm worth 15000 and autocop/ speakers. He applied some plasters for rattling and that did not help. The went again and the treatment towards me was pathetic. I have decided never to use a wooden plank for speakers as it makes the rattling worse. Thats the only rattling in my car and it reminds me of these guys everyday.

Financially, I did not lose much but they are wolf in sheeps clothing.

Later, after doing proper research I took car to Sprocket in Koramangala and replaced fake Pioneers with Alpine SPS-171A component speakers/ Panasonic Amplifier. The shop has got good collection and the installation is ok. They do not deal in Alpine now.

What I learnt the hard way is that proper research about the shop and more importantly what we want is very important. I helped them to cheat me and it is partly my fault. Now, I stopped trusting these so called professionals who setup shops to cheat people.

After reading the posts, I have decided to take help of BlueRaven, Satya, when I upgrade my system. Satya, hope you still remember me. I had come with my 9 year old nephew for the Yelagiri Team-BHP meet. Your Ikon rocks!!

What happened with you is really bad...but my experience with Auto Planet is very different.
I have seen at least 3 installs by them and the last one was in fact my friend's car which I took for an install. We went around various shops and one thing that I found in common was none of the shops (including Sprocket) actually knew anything about good music reproduction....all they knew is JBL > Pioneer > Sony etc etc...Their most common assumptions is, if a youngster is coming for an install, he needs boom boom techno sound and thats all. Unfortunately I was looking more for fidelity and wanted to get my install done where I could communicate my requirements and get the right components and deals. One thing, that I was very clear in mind was, I wouldnt buy anything without listening. After going around 5-6 of the most popular auto accessory shop, I landed at Audio Planet. When I met the owner of the shop, it was an immediate co-incidence that both of us were talking fidelity and not loudness. Yes, you are right that he suggested Nakamichi but I demanded a demo and that too a direct comparison demo between Nakamichi Vs Polk Vs Infinity. This was the only place where I was given demo of speakers with my choice of music and with a variety of HUs from Pioneer, Alpine and Nakamachi. I spent almost half a day taking demos. But there was not even a hint of frustration on the guys at the shop. And, I have to mention this, Nakamichi speakers are light years ahead of entry level Polk, JBL and Infinity. I have heard Alpines but they are better only at a higher price point. Finally I appreciated their efforts for demonstrating their products and took an appointment for the installation.

Yes, you are right that the installers were not experts in their work, one has to monitor them a bit. I did monitor them when they were fitting the front door speakers as I wanted proper acoustic dampening materials...it helped. I also wanted an in-car demo of the different HUs, so when all my speakers were fixed, I did an in-car demo of Pioneer Vs Alpine HU, Alpine was better but I needed the 7 band equalizer to control the frequencies which at my price point only Pioneer offered...hence went with Pioneer.

Later I wanted to replace the front tweeters with Hertz Deici Tweeters and since Auto Planet dont deal with Hertz, they just refunded the full money for the tweeter and also installed my new Hertz tweeter free of cost.

All I wanted to say is, they are not as bad as they are being projected here. There could be better installers (Blueraven and Gunbir for example) but among the other commercial guys, these Auto Planet guys are much better. Ok, if they try to push their products, its upto you to ask for a demo and then decide if their products are worth taking or not, if they dont give a demo then walk out....

BTW, I am lot more into high-end audio stuffs and for 20k, I couldnt be happier with the sound in friend's car.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Pani

... and for 20k, I couldnt be happier with the sound in friend's car.

So finally what did your friend put in his car?

[Pani]

Hi Deralte,
The vehicle is a Ford Fusion.
My friend went ahead with

1. Nakamichi 6.5" coax for the fronts (Nakamichi components are far too expensive at around 14k or so)
2. Hertz Deici series tweeters again at the front dash board
3. Nakamichi 6 X 9 coax at the rears, these speakers were put in two ported boxes
4. Pioneer 5750 (I dont remember the exact model) HU. It has 7 band equalizers which greatly helps in tuning up the sound in the car.

Some of my audiophile friends have auditioned the system, they were pretty much floored by the clean and natural sound the system reproduces without booming. Trust me Deralte, JBL and Polk doesnt even hold a candle to Naks...price point being similar. I could have easily gone ahead with a JBL component for the fronts but they sounded pretty ordinary to me.

[panky12345]

Originally Posted by Pani

Nakamichi speakers are light years ahead of entry level Polk, JBL and Infinity..

by any chance, do you like Bose?