onehawaiian

hehe, so i gave my old (2months) autotek eq to my brother, and he gave his kenwood eq (which was mine too) to my friend, and we were all at this local car audio shop getting the stuff installed (i was just there to watch). the owner looks at my car and asks me what i'm running. i say fusion. later, in so many words, he pretty much tells me that my system is crap, and he didn't even hear it! i just smiled and said, "yeah, i shoulda' came to you and dropped $5000 on some stuff huh? oh well, i guess you lost out on that deal..."

it was funny that he is such a die-hard name brand fan that he wouldn't even bother to hear what i've got b4 making a judgement.

Prem0

LOL, U should have kicked it in right when he was trying to sell some of his stuff

onehawaiian

i upgraded to gs design's eq, it has cooler lights. ha ha, no for real, i wanted a little more control over my sounds. also, from what i understand, gs won't be making anymore gs-5 eq's, and will push only their autotek line instead.

my friend was installing his new amp (which the shop guy knocked $100 off of) so we went down there. my bro had the kenwood removed, but needed the faceplate sanded a bit to house the autotek eq. ah, but for $45 my lazy@ss brother got a decent deal.

and i did crank my sounds later. altho i am moving more towards sq, it can still thump and get loud, which the owner soon realized.

Aydu

I've been shopping for car audio stuff since I got my 02 Pro ES. Most of the car audio specialty shops I've been to (3 out of 4) started to recommend things without looking at or listening to what I already had in the car.

I'm not an audio expert, but I do know that things like number of speakers, mounting depth, sub or no sub, etc. are important in properly recommending components.

When they don't look and listen, I don't buy. I figure they are recommending whatever they can get the highest markup on, regardless of what I actually need.

I also always check internet prices on components before I buy. Shops always ask retail - or higher - and the overall markup on a system can be substantial. I don't mind paying to support the dealers retail establishment, but I don't want to send his kids to college on my purchases.

All in all, you can't feel too bad for local car audio shops. They seem to offer a low level of knowledge, high prices, and often less than great installations. The competition they are getting from Internet retailers, and do it yourselfers is good for the whole car audio hobby.

hihoslva

OneHawaiian - Fusion stuff is getting mad respect in the industry. It's not "no-name" stuff, for sure!

In reading audio forums, many people post about "which of these would you buy?....." and Fusion stuff is frequently listed, along with more known brands like Quarts, the Brahmas, and even Rainbow stuff.

And as long as YOU like, we all know that's all that matters. I've only been to one stereo shop in my life where the employees treated me with respect - and I wasn't buying a thing, I was having my tint done in their install bay. These guys do high-end fabrications and installs, some upwards of $30 grand. One guy has a Y2K Vette with about $12 in equipment. They looked at my meager setup with my home-made box and all, and gave me nothing but compliments and advice for future stuff. Main Street Stereo, in Sayville, Long Island, New York. Those guys love what they do, and don't care if you don't know all the things that they know.

Other than that, I can't stand Stereo Shop guys.

onehawaiian

yeah, i bought my fusion stuff without ever hearing it. but i did my homework and the percentage of ppl who liked fersus not was very good, so i went with fusion.

it doesn't matter if it was good or not, the guy didn't even here my stuff b4 insulting me. i thought it was funny that he would bag on a potential customer.

i found this guy who dispells myths about car audio (jl has a secret formula to make amps!) without pushing the products he has. if you want it, he'll sell it. laid back and would rather sit around and talk than run his audio biz (been in it for 15 yrs), he even promotes stuff he doesn't carry. that's where i got my icon-tv stuff. i felt i could trust this guy so i kept my biz with him.

but that other guy... everything is always "for you friend, i'll make you a good deal." how are we friends? you just insulted my system you bastard!

20FS

WTF you shoulda told him to f*ck off and die, what right does he have to say BS like that? especialy if he hasn't heard it