Folks, now I have got a few pics that I could get from a friendly BHPian's phone cam.
Revelations from today's re-install!
1. Grounding
Grounding I believe is one of the important part of installation procedure to be rightly following during an ICE installation. There is no rocket science & engineering involved in doing a grounding. A bad job has its own limits and the problems observed.
Problem 1: The paint was not scrubbed off the grounding point
Problem 2: The grounding cable nearly 3 feet long.
Problem 3: The cable connected to the grounding point without a proper grounding pin. Not to mention the way the wire was twisted rubbishly around and connected.
Pic 1 : The way the wire was twisted without a proper grounding pin.
Pic 2: The way the grounding pin should have been.
Pic 3: The grounding surface after being scrubbed off all the paint.
It was not scrubbed by Power Zone. 2. Quality of Wire
Caliber Power cables & RCAs were used. The Caliber RCA was used to feed the Front comps. Caliber Audio is local stuff, they were available for a few hundred rupees. I paid 2350INR for the same. I do feel that I should have insisted on using good quality power cables & RCAs atleast. Its my mistake. I did use a Kicker RCA which was supposed to be superior in quality compared to the Caliber Audio.
A question to Power Zone, if it was of superior quality & genuine Kicker why was it not used for connecting the front comps. The Caliber RCA was local quality anyway and it was picking up lot of noise, is the Kicker worse than the local quality Caliber?
I was shocked to hear this from a shop we went to buy a few stuff today, the Kicker RCAs are not genuine stuff and are available for less than 300 bucks with the Kicker decal!
Solution: I have got my RCAs swapped to E2 now and they are running through the right side of the car with the Power cables on the left. The way its supposed to be.
3. Work Ethics
Doing a work just for the heck of doing it, nobody is going to be happy. While tuning the HU, we were playing high volume and we could hear a wierd vibrating noise from the tweeter. We opened the tweeter housing and were shocked to find the tweeter left to hang around freely. It was not attached to the space provided for the tweeter to be seated perfectly. We then used thin bits of sticker material and attached the tweeters in the right slot.
4. Tuning
My Alpine 9887's potential was unlocked today. It was tuned by 2 friendly BHPians, Sathee46 &
. Thanks for all the support today.
They did an awesome job, there is lot of bass and superb mids from the Pro60SE. I am just loving every bit of it!
Minor pending work:
1. The local Caliber power cables have to be removed and good quality cables should be used. I dint have much time today and it was a Sunday, so I dint want to take too much time of my installer. I have planned this for the coming weekend.
2. The Crossovers of the Pro60SE are stuck inside the door which are to be removed and placed in the boot. Placing the crossover in the boot simply means you are betting on its life everytime you close the door with a bang.
To respond to queries posted here... Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilead I agree. So called trade secrets are common in every field, so why can't an installer be entitled to his however trivial it may appear to those of us with forum knowledge. We drink Pepsi and Coke once in a while. Do we go around asking for the formula. |
If you thought I was pissed because of his trade secret then you got me wrong mate. Its about losing confidence or trust with a person who is working on my 7.5 Lakh worth property. Once I lose it I hate to give them a second chance. I am sure most of us do. I wanted to get it checked out by each every bits of his installation to know how much he has BS'ed. I have now found quite a lot of it and I am sure I took the right decision of taking it to a good installer.
Quote:
Anachronix: I think you would agree that the thread title is a bit misleading and sensational. As the thread starter, you may want to ask the mods to include the word faulty in the title because that was what Power Zone said.
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A faulty amp from Harman will make alternator whining noise! What noise comes from a faulty Kenwood or Focal amp?
You should read this quote of mine from my opening post.
Quote:
1. The RCA & Wiring run together through the left side of the car. Removed the RCA to the Comps, connected a different RCA (Scocshe with very little insulation though) through the inside of the car away from the Power cable. The whine noise increased a bit more to the audible limit.
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If the amp was at fault, why would the whine increase when a RCA with very basic insulation was used. This basically gave me confidence that the amp was clean and it is!
Quote:
He says he could have reduced gain right away to get rid of the noise but still he went ahead and checked the install for about 3 hours including running a Scochse on the other side because you specifically wanted the wiring checked. Apparently the HU now plays even at Vol 35 without distortion.
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The speakers were under fed with the reduced gain, what else is expected. I can keep the volume at 35 all day.
Quote:
If you are happy with it, leave it and get damping done. Else get the whole thing checked again either at Power Zone or somewhere else. He is still willing to go through your car again until you are satisfied. If you get your full satisfaction somewhere else, he will refund the wiring and install cost. That's it from me on this thread.
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Yes, damping should be done but only after proper installation. I have got the installation done well now. I am ready to give Power Zone an audition.
Whats the deal now?
I would be happy if he agrees to all the mess that he did in my car. Money wasted is wasted for me and it will atleast help me remember the lessons learnt.