musicalmike
Full Member
I've been lurking around here for a while and thought I'd post my situation for others to learn from or laugh at. First a little back ground info. The week after I purchased my 2005 white Z71 4wd, my wife made me take it to a "Pro" to handle the installs, which I wanted to do myself. "It's brand new" she said, "you're gona mess it up"! She also was pissing over the fact the car cost more because of the "premium Bose system" installed. Why was I going to rip it out?....Woman..... Of course we all know how good the Bose system is inside these babies. So with my tail between my legs, I ventured into my local "Pro" dealer/installer and had him set me up with some basics. Mind you this is 2 years ago. I puchased the Eclipse CD8455 8V head unit and the Eclipse PA5532 5-channel 960w amp. Originally he wanted to put some JL or Alpine compontents in the doors, but I didn't have that kind of money to spend. So I went to Circuit City and purchased some Infinity component 6.5 for the front and Infinity 5.25 coaxil for the rear. I brought them back to the "Pro" and had him install them. It saved me about $400. Yea, I know, you get what you pay for. Considering I was coming from the stock bose sytem, my sound would be much better then before. I would upgrade eventually. Plus, I still needed a sub and video to keep the kids quite on those long trips to Mammoth (got another foot o freshies yesterday!!)
Now comes time for the sub location/size/cost consideration. Again, money was a key factor at the time. I opted for a custom made sub box that fit snuggly under the rear passenger seat and housed an 8" JL. I'm not sure of the brand name video system he installed but it has a 10" screen. After all was said and done, I was in about $2000.
I drove away with the stereo blasting and an ear to ear grin on my face. Finally!!!!! Some good sounding loud tunes! A day later I noticed my steering wheel controls did not function, my Onstar didn't work, I had a buzzing noise coming from my aux xm signal, and I had a wierd nose coming from over my head when I shut the doors and the light went off. The "Pro" said "bring it back and I'll fix it. Well, being the father of 3, owner of a business, boat, and snowboard type of guy that I am, I just got around to bringing it back to get fixed last week. In that 2 year period, I have come to find more problems. Besides the fact my right rear speaker has ceased to work, it seems if I don't start my vehicle for more then 3 days.....dead battery. "Leave it to the pro's" she said. Yea right.
So I figure I'll take of the rear door panels to have a peak around. Maybe I can find the problem. Alas, a loose connection. Now I'm thinking, since I already got the door panels off, I might as well upgrade the 5.25 Infinity's I installed two years ago. Again, he want's to put me into a $300 pair of Alpine components for the rear. Off I go again to Circuit City and get a nice pair of Alpine S series 6.5 Coax at 1/2 the cost less installation, since I did it myself. Let me tell you, the difference in the sound quality from the 5.25 to the 6.5 is amazing!
So I wake up early Saturday morning and the battery is dead......go figure. I get it jump started and leave the car off 9:00am for the "Pro" to fix all the problems. When I show up closing time, she's still in pieces. The only thing they fixed was the buzzing noise for the XM. They can't figure out anything else and want me to bring it back this weekend. I am fairly upset and reluctant to return to my local "Pro".
I talked to another more reputable installer in the area (Ed and Al's) and he said he could fix it, but he would charge me $200 just to tear it apart and see how my system was put in. I feel confident he wasn't pulling my leg, like my current "pro" is.
Needless to say I am trying to avoid paying the $200 by letting my current "Pro" fix his mistakes.
To put this all to an end, the biggest area improvement would be in the subs. I didn't want to compromise the lost space using a midgate, and the cost involved was much more then my current budget could handle. I figured, I'm a do it yourself guy and I have al the tools to build my own custom box. Down to Home Depot I went to by some MDF. Five hours later I had finished a nice 10" box to fit under the rear passenger seat. I then looked at bridging that box through the middle seat and building another box for the rear driver side seat. I was lookiing at another 10 + hours of work ahead of me. I don't have that kind of time lying aroud, so I broke down and let the "Pro's " take over. I purchased a dual 10" enclosure from Car Audio Factory and two JL 10W1 subs from my local "Pro". The box should be here on Monday....can't wait!! I'll try and post some pice if I can find some dang time. I don't know how I found the time to compose this?
Now comes time for the sub location/size/cost consideration. Again, money was a key factor at the time. I opted for a custom made sub box that fit snuggly under the rear passenger seat and housed an 8" JL. I'm not sure of the brand name video system he installed but it has a 10" screen. After all was said and done, I was in about $2000.
I drove away with the stereo blasting and an ear to ear grin on my face. Finally!!!!! Some good sounding loud tunes! A day later I noticed my steering wheel controls did not function, my Onstar didn't work, I had a buzzing noise coming from my aux xm signal, and I had a wierd nose coming from over my head when I shut the doors and the light went off. The "Pro" said "bring it back and I'll fix it. Well, being the father of 3, owner of a business, boat, and snowboard type of guy that I am, I just got around to bringing it back to get fixed last week. In that 2 year period, I have come to find more problems. Besides the fact my right rear speaker has ceased to work, it seems if I don't start my vehicle for more then 3 days.....dead battery. "Leave it to the pro's" she said. Yea right.
So I figure I'll take of the rear door panels to have a peak around. Maybe I can find the problem. Alas, a loose connection. Now I'm thinking, since I already got the door panels off, I might as well upgrade the 5.25 Infinity's I installed two years ago. Again, he want's to put me into a $300 pair of Alpine components for the rear. Off I go again to Circuit City and get a nice pair of Alpine S series 6.5 Coax at 1/2 the cost less installation, since I did it myself. Let me tell you, the difference in the sound quality from the 5.25 to the 6.5 is amazing!
So I wake up early Saturday morning and the battery is dead......go figure. I get it jump started and leave the car off 9:00am for the "Pro" to fix all the problems. When I show up closing time, she's still in pieces. The only thing they fixed was the buzzing noise for the XM. They can't figure out anything else and want me to bring it back this weekend. I am fairly upset and reluctant to return to my local "Pro".
I talked to another more reputable installer in the area (Ed and Al's) and he said he could fix it, but he would charge me $200 just to tear it apart and see how my system was put in. I feel confident he wasn't pulling my leg, like my current "pro" is.
Needless to say I am trying to avoid paying the $200 by letting my current "Pro" fix his mistakes.
To put this all to an end, the biggest area improvement would be in the subs. I didn't want to compromise the lost space using a midgate, and the cost involved was much more then my current budget could handle. I figured, I'm a do it yourself guy and I have al the tools to build my own custom box. Down to Home Depot I went to by some MDF. Five hours later I had finished a nice 10" box to fit under the rear passenger seat. I then looked at bridging that box through the middle seat and building another box for the rear driver side seat. I was lookiing at another 10 + hours of work ahead of me. I don't have that kind of time lying aroud, so I broke down and let the "Pro's " take over. I purchased a dual 10" enclosure from Car Audio Factory and two JL 10W1 subs from my local "Pro". The box should be here on Monday....can't wait!! I'll try and post some pice if I can find some dang time. I don't know how I found the time to compose this?
