After watching this video I was able to fix my alternator whine, thanks! I made a foolish assumption, and assumed that the grounds in my 2004 e class would be good, but ended up with a ground loop. After running power and ground to the head unit from the same distribution points as the amp, all is well!
Pretty cool, never heard about that before this video. Did you only take 12v+ and ground from the same point, and not switch 12v, for switching on the unit?😊
I've often been tempted to produce similar videos on request of various people, but always chosen not to. It's a fine balance to not appear to be overly negative whilst highlighting the benefits of using a good shop/installer. Tough call... for what it's worth, I thought you did this well, and bit your tongue a lot I am sure :) keep up the positive work.
I wouldn’t even name the garage, that is not me or my style, but enough people know it already by seeing the car. Every single garage, which does similar installs have to up their game and customers also have to be more careful, which will benefit everyone on the long run! I hope i won’t see anything like this in a good while.
My car was masacared by an installer and he blew my amps, damaged two of my speakers , damaged my epicenter cord , burnt my subs, stole my RCA's , stole my power wire , made me buy an entire sheet of mdf which he didn't use, broke my backdash and stapled it back together, destroyed my deck and preamp, drained my battery and charged me $1500 upfront which I can't get back. This is the reason I got out of car audio too many fakes posing as installers. I cut my losses I gave up and the sad part is all that money litterally went down the drain
If you think this is a nightmare system to work on you haven't seen nightmare systems. Everybody has different strengths. In my field this is what I call "finish work". Some people suck at it- some people that's all they do.. Great video.
This was a very informative video. It proves that even high quality installs can have errors when craftsmanship and knowledge is not taken into consideration. Very nice job, as usual. I have been taking many notes, as I am considering entering the SQ world with my 2015 Kia Optima.
The purchase of a zapco amp brought me to your channel. I have a little st4xii sq and love it. I absolutely hate paying for garbage work. This is what motivates me to learn how to do things myself properly.
It always.amazes me as to why shops dont do things right the first time, even after years in the market - simply boggles my mind. Glad you could.do things the right way and make the customer happy.
Because customers insist on trying to haggle on everything. Thankfully after doing it for 21 years I do installs to my level or the customer goes elsewhere. Period
@@tatialo37 Indeed Time is Money and so is well invested time to do a right customer build. Always brings in a repeat customer and builds stronger credibility.
Hi Peter, it is tough to see you so frustrated at the end of the video, I know how you feel. One is so angry with the installer who cut all those corners and in the same time feeling sorry for the lad who gave out the all his savings for the work and got so screwed.. you have all of my respect. BR Steffen
Thanks Steffen! Originally i was supposed to get the install done, but i was busy as well as i was worried I wouldn’t be able to work on this huge car in my tiny space. Well, now we figured out i could have put it in, but it’s too late. His previous car was built by the same place and was done well, so it’s very frustrating what happened here. I just thought to share this video as it’s both educational as well as makes people think 2x about getting an install done properly!
Hi guys, Peter just curious if you know what happens to the money paid by the customer for the first install? Good shops feature a Lifetime warranty on labour. Does the customer forfeit his investment in the other shop’s install because the car wasn’t fixed by that shop?
The only thing i know is that he was offered to take it back, but he already lost his faith in them, plus taking the car back would have been a huge cost again as it’s in another country over the Channel. I don’t want to get involved in their case anymore than this. Hopefully the car owner is gonna get few answers soon and maybe compensation, but that might be too optimistic.
Thanks for the video Peter, I am only an amateur and theres things there I wouldnt even do. I learnt from watching this, I never knew the head unit should be powered from the same power source and ground as the amp but hey, thats why im an amateur and its something to remember. Mark
Ive always had good results with thick aluminum for transferring heat away from amps. A 1/2" thick piece of aluminum under the amp would act as a very efficient heat sink to draw the heat away from the amp. A good company for someone to start would be to make custom amp enclosures for high end amp, with massive forged aluminum cases for the amp guts, or custom water loops for cooling amps.
This is why I do my own installs. I take my time and do it right, no cutting corners, and research everything. When I was much much younger, back in the days when JL, Orion, and Boston Acoustics were the top of the line and cheater amps were the norm, I began my education in car audio. I saw people get screwed by unscrupulous shop owners, salesmen, and installers. It was all about getting the customer in and out, make as much money as possible in the shortest time frame possible. However as time went on I learned a whole lot of stuff, even after I walked away from the rat race of installation, and focused on other things. So when I started buying better cars, I went out to see what kind of installers were available. Guess what it was still the same, just a lot more expensive. So again I started doing my own installs, and now with the internet, you tube especially, I have learned even more. My next system will be all stealth, and it will be active, and three way. I hate to see that things haven’t changed.
Paul It’s the same with car mechanics, builders and any other trade! You always find bad ones and also good ones, but the bad examples always shake the water more. Doing things right truly takes more effort and time, but I don’t compromise on that! 👌💪
As an installer of 21 years I put a lot of blame into the customer as well as the shop. I get customers in the shop every day that want to save $100 and go with the cheapest place, and I won't sacrifice my craftsmanship to match other shops prices
Great idea to use the PA speaker foam as protection for the driver in the door.I`m going to use this idea in my car also.What kind of person smears glue on a gladen aerospace driver? It`s very expensive.If i was the owner i would be fuming.
It looks like the sound deadening material on the doors wasn’t properly rolled on and compressed as well. Those squares would be smoothed out when properly applied. Customer pays for competition level, gets DIY level. SMH
Little late to this party, but why wouldn't the customer take it back to the original guy to have these massive issues addressed? Was he worried about getting the same result and figured it would be best just to bite the proverbial bullet and bring it to you, which it seems more than likely, he should've just done in the first place and saved the cash and gotten some hanging Christmas Tree Air Fresheners with the balance? 😅
Seems like it might have been a rushed job. Looking at it gives me the sense or feeling that the installer had the potential to do it right, but just chose not to? Maybe?
Oh they definitely had the potential! They kick out some of the best demo cars in Europe and built the previous 2 cars as well for the client, so it should have been an easy run!
You should not need to run the power and ground for the head unit from the amp location. All good amps and processors have switching power supplies and therefore will have no reference to ground. The head unit should be the ONLY reference to ground. If you have multiple references to ground you will have a ground loop - and likely noise. It is possible the head unit was not grounded correctly to begin with. And definitely the RCA's need to be on the other side of where the main power wire for the amps is run. But you should also look for heavy gauge factory power wires that may be run there as well. From the beginning of the install find the side that has the fewest heavy gauge power wires and run the RCA's on that side. RCA's can pick up EMR from factory wires as well.
Did the customer inquire with the installer about sorting it before bringing it to you? I'm sure this build cost some coin and then he has the honor of paying twice because he needed you lot for the rescue.
@@pssound9749 That was my other thought. Hold them accountable or have anxiety over more issues because they aren't to be trusted. Good on them for finding you to sort it
Hi mate. Another great and informative video. Was the Mosconi DSP running analogue in? I have had the same issue on a Mosconi DSP but only on Digital Coax in (eventually resolved).
Hello at 27 minutes into the video you used a rain guard for the speaker to protect from moisture in the doors. I’m assuming that foam will not cause distortion like other speaker baffles I’ve used ? My 94 m3 kick panels comes with a factory installed speaker baffle which when comes in contact with my speakers caused a high pitched unpleasant sound ? Can I purchase some of that rain protection material from you ?
This foam is the same as what you find on outdoor speakers, search for it as “speaker grill foam”, i’m sure u can find it. It’s completely transparent to sound wave, but doesn’t let water penetrate.
Hi Peter. Thank you for the video. How did you install that rain guard ? About to install my new Ram 6s and havnt seen that method of water protection before. What is that material actually made of ? Thanks again.
vietcong4u Personally i like to use the EMMA competition discs as i compete too and the content gives a good reference. The discs were mixed in the way that by learning what to look out for makes them a very good tool.
As portas levam com muita humidade, usar contraplacado? Num carro moderno faz-se aterramento na mala? E tratamento acústico na mala??? Eu sou sapateiro e faço muito melhor.....Alguém me contrata???? É que estou num país de tesos......
you gotta see the shit I am dealing with in Turkey. I call them out all the time and man, you gotta see the fake comments I get from these so called professionals. Do it right, do it once..
49ics We had another tuning session on it and made very slight modifications. The owner put it through Emma Final competition round and it won in OEM class. Setup sounds very nice, but will need more work on the install, which might get video recorded and shared.
