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