The Sorry State of some so called Installers

[blueraven316]

In came Nitrous's Ford Ikon to Bangalore and he was not at all happy with the quality of sound. He wanted tight bass from the JBL GT4 12" sub running off a Pioneer 4 Channel Amp (I think a GM5200) and all it was doing was booming and why would'nt it, the gain also was set at FULL.
He had requested the previous installer for a sealed enclosure. Sealed it was, but however not meant for tight bass at all, the enclosure volume was approx 1.4 CuFt and was not sounding to Nitrous's liking. The explanation given by the previous installer was " It is the song which is sounding like that, there was nothing wrong with the enclosure" .

Now we started building a new MDF enclosure, a very compact one around 0.9 CuFt. Meanwhile I took a look at the front component Speaker install and it looked weirdly installed. I had one of the boys open the door pad and was quite shocked to see what was inside. I was told the speakers were mounted on MDF rings. But what I saw was 2 of the top screws were directly screwed on to the body and 2 were on pair of dangling chips of wood, and YES! it was MDF.




Got the speaker removed and we had to make a new set of spacers to fit in, the problem faced by Ford Ikon's front Speaker mounting is that the stock location is for a 5.25" Speaker and there is absoluetly no space for any speaker excursion if the 1/2 Inch spacer was fitted, the top of the speaker touches the doorpad and that is not good. New Spacers were made from MDF with the speaker measurements and the top half of the spacer had to be slimmer compared to the bottom half, i.e, the bottom half was 0.25" thick and the top was 0.15" thick.



The speaker after mounting



(sorry for the horrible pic quality)

After a little trial and error with the spacers the speaker fitted with enough room not to touch the doorpad at all while playing.

Couple of things we noted were, that the negative terminal of one of the speakers were bent due to exessive pressure and the tinsel lead was touching the speaker basket and a little rust had developed on the basket, if this was the positive terminal, then we would have had problems. One of the wires for the tweeters also were installed so tight that it had got cut due to friction with the door's inner frame and in another few days the speaker would had been in trouble along with other components in the car due to a possible short circuit. The speaker basket also was slightly bent because of the uneven mounting done previously, but all that was fixed.

After everything was all set, I tuned the setup as per Nitrous's liking and we were done. The bass is tight now, but lacks the power the GT4 sub can produce, so suggested him to upgrade to a MONO amp soon, as the 4 channel was good enough to push the subwoofer in a sealed enclosure.

The very sad part is our man got charged premium installation labour changes by the previous installer and the standard of work was depicted above.

[v1p3r]

Nitrous was booming around last night. Your install seems to have done wonders.

[speedzak]

Nitrous is lucky to get it rectified atleast. Many won't even have a chance to do that. And I am sure most of us have been there and back too. Ain't it?

Nitrous! Boomy Boomy bro! Congrats.

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by blueraven316

The very sad part is our man got charged premium installation labour changes by the previous installer and the standard of work was depicted above.

I just hope he didn't chip out the remaining length after installing the midbass. That is terrible.

Nitrous, where art thou? Enjoy maadi!

Here are a few things that I have seen, thought I'll share it with you people:

1. I once saw a setup where the electrician had tried to fit the amplifier in the boot on the back seat. He drilled the holes so deep behind the seat that the drill went on to make a hole in the Stanley leather and the armrest. My friend fought with the installer for hours and got new Stanley for the rear seats. Of course, the installer paid for it.

2. This once happened to me - I don't remember what was being fit, but I was watching the interiors and the battery was being connected after installation. I assume, the guy who was connecting it, must have shorted the positive of the battery and the A/C pipe, causing a hole in the pipe.
I ran to the hood to see what was wrong and there I see, all the gas getting out in a flash. The installer ended up paying for the A/C pipe though, cost me a neat 3,000/-. The worst thing is, I was getting something really trivial installed which took about 10-15 minutes and the A/C pipe took 2 long days to arrive!

My experiences may seem somewhat irrelevant since it did not damage ICE, but I thought it would help someone to know a couple of more situations where installations can get horrible.

[Prithvi]

This is the reason you should go to a professional car audio guy, who atleast has a RTA. The only guy who has it in Bangalore is CEDIA (USA) & IASCA(USA) certified is PFM. He is expensive but the job is also professionally done. No chokra boys doing the install.

All imported installation tools, and knowledgeable technicians. Worth every penny.

[blueraven316]

Originally Posted by Prithvi

This is the reason you should go to a professional car audio guy, who atleast has a RTA. The only guy who has it in Bangalore is CEDIA (USA) & IASCA(USA) certified is PFM. He is expensive but the job is also professionally done. No chokra boys doing the install.

All imported installation tools, and knowledgeable technicians. Worth every penny.

Yep! Deepak had been around for a long time. However without any certifications of any professional training Anwar is also an Imaculate installer. I don't know if Gunbir and team are certified or not, but they also come up with some really good work. Car Audio installation is not some rocket science, one just has to use some common sense, have decent knowledge of the basics , the right tools and above all care for the consumer's car as their own, that's it. And things don't tend to go wrong.

[mclaren1885]

I was wondering why Nitrous was driving down. Anyways glad that you got it rectified. So how did you spend two days in Bangalore?

[panky12345]

lol, as far as i know, Gunbir is NOT a installer/certified installer, its all his passion that make him do the things very very professionally and neatly. (like our own LBM!)

[nitrous]

Thanks Blueraven for all the help.
This is the best install for me ever and it really made justice to my 700 km drive for install.

At Chennai, we do have professional installers who charge insane prices. Technokrat is one of them. So, after my displeasure in the install, I had to choose between driving 11kms to Technokrat (and his exotic prices)or 350kms to a Team-BHPian Installer. Im so glad to have chosen the latter.Full marks for the dedication and enthusiasm shown by Blueraven and his team.

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

[rjstyles69]

Nitrous congrats and happy for you.

Dint you whack any CD's from him, the CD's he uses for tuning ?

[JPL]

I will add to the saga of the "Pathetic Installers" I was a complete noob when I dicovered TBHP and the search for car audio got me to this site.

I did get very good advice from all ( thanks esp to hydra/bad-A/shok) however at that time (last november) as I was a noob and did not understand much though did try to !! and I was tired of reserching on stuff.

I had around 200+pages of print outs ( including 100+ pages from TBHP site) one fine day we planned to go out for a long trip and there was no music and being satruday a holiday I decided to get the system installed.

To my surprise Anwar of Auto Fusion quoted me sjy high prices and I also did mention that I came to know about him from TBHP and also showed the print outs.

Cause of the sky high prices, I went to the other local reputation dealer called "AUTOSHOP" or the other shop called Sachins Auto Shop ( not tendulkers, 100% sure)

These guys ( brothers ) were well very nicely stabbed a knife in to my back by speaking so politely, though I do admit the mistake is all mine to got to them!!

I asked for the 4" componenets speakers first, as the Alpine 4" component was not available in grey also they suggested the JBL GTO 427, I had a print out of a JBP 4" P seriesm he did not mention the same also.

I had asked for the best damn 4" speakers ( though the difference is little) anyways going ahead he suggested to go for balupunt 369.1 in the rear ( as a noob I asked why) he said far superior to GTO 937, are similiarly priced at around 5k with b&w.

I did ask arents both the brands and the series in thhe front and rear be the same and he said no no no. ( at that time point i did not know why but I had read the same on TBHP)

Then the boys came in for the intsallation and they were very cannibalistic with my car, removing the seats and scratche on a 2 day old santro) holes in the carpet, amplifiers under the seat and with a thermacol support etc.


Above all this he charged everything pn MRP and also charged me around 950 for the installation.

and what do I get, a very bass heavy sub and speakers with no highs and midrange.

Gain was on full and HPF was on Flat for both the rear and front speakers and of course who can forget the bass boost ( an installers favourite)

After the install I never went to his shop, tuned the system myself with the help of instructions given by Sam.

I dont have the Boxes, I dont have the Grills for the front speakers ( he kept it) I dont have the JBL stickers and no India warranty card and no manual.

They are only passionate about making whatever money they can by duping customers like me.

I wont recommend anyone to them. Sure they speak nice..but thats it to the deal.

A heartbroken story by JPL.

PS: After much insistence on giving me a discount he gave me a china car perfume. which i used once and replaced.

the Kind of support that I get here and the advice is something I wished I got have got in person during the installation.

I did not even think of keeping the boxes, in case i sell etc..

As I was new to TBHP I was well sorta shy to ask for this kinda help.

Anyways after 51k on the install one quote comes to my mind ( a fool and his money are easily parted)

[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?

[navin]

Originally Posted by blueraven316

Yep! Deepak had been around for a long time....Car Audio installation is not some rocket science,

Deepak has been around! I think you are refering to Deepak Asrani? But today I 'm told he really chooses his clients rather than clients choose him.

Car Audio installation is NOT rocket science!

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by navin

Car Audio installation is NOT rocket science!

I second, third and fourth that. I have always made this statement to fellow members from Pune and if you do not go the DIY way then choose Bombay as a destination for install. Pune installers suck and are con artists of the first order.

[panky12345]

JPL, am sad after reading your install saga....majority of the local installers over here in delhi are the the same. they just really dont know what they are doing to your car and equipment. Problem is that either you get local installers or very very professional installers (too expensive!), a huge gap exists.