posted
I'm sure you've all got stories about really sad installs, let's hear some
here's mine. some guy i was talking to said he had 4 12's in his lebaron, so i went out to look at it with him. what he had was 12 ga. power cable (solid, not stranded), one jensen amp, 2 12" mtx blue thunders, and 2 12" rf punch's, and a pioneer deh-p100 cd player (the ones they have at wall mart with no mosfet 45 chip) anyway, he turned it up and it sounded horrible - the gains were all the way up the next day i talked to him and he said he blew all of his subs all at once - wonder why?
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Posts: 59 | From: Carpenter, IA, USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
This one kid back in highschool had a system that consisted of 2 very old Kicker Comp. 12s in a very leaky prefab bandpass with one of those Kraco amps that you can fit in your pocket. Of course extremely small power wire was used and was run on the outside of the car to the trunk with no fuse at the battery.
Needless to say, it sounded like arse, but has been the punchline of many jokes.
posted
I'll tell you my personal favorite ghetto install. This guy comes in with a honda, I think accord. Ok he wants a box built for 1 12 to replace his old box. I go out and look in his trunk and he has a string attached to the car in all 4 corners and in the middle of the trunk is a pail that the 12 fit perfectly into, and the strings were holding the bucket in place. LMFAO, guess you'd really have to be there to appreciate it, but it was great.
------------------ Two tens in the hatch doin better than 150 on the dash...hehe....but maybe I'll do a wall anyway................. soon to come....IdBl 1-160 world record....... woohooo
posted
as an installer i've seen lots, the "power wire through the door jamb" i've seen too much, one in particular a kid comes in asking for more power wire to hook up another amp and he show my boss his install my boss having a keen eye for a sale notices he doesn't have a fuse on his 4ga wire he says yea thats my next upgrade then goes to his car opens the door and the power wire in the door jamb has been worn down to the copper shorts out smokes his wire, amp, ground strap to engine, and god knows what else we laughed ALOT . want more? just ask
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Posts: 53 | From: Omaha, NE USA | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
mike thats some funny stuff what else you got. Heres a good one my friend saw a guy had the battery tapped and all but not going into the car it was tapped and going out a hole in the hood. From there into the front drivers window and tapped to the top of the car. Then into the trunk I wonder what the rest looked like.
------------------ 1 - pioneer 5900 hu 1 - pioneer 650x changer 4 - coaxial 1206 speakers 1 - 160 a2 (278 watts) 3 - streetglow "15 1 - kikass sound guru helping me out all the time. You know who you are. 1 - rf wiring kit
Posts: 1446 | From: chicago, il, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
my favorite story didn't quite turn out to be an install story.
we got called to a used car lot up the road from my store which needed to get a cass deck thrown in a vehicle they took in on trade. We sent a guy to pick up the vehicle and on the way back to the store it caught fire. The truck burned to the ground
posted
my favorite one involves a good friend of mine....... beck about 12 years when i was first getting into this stuff my friend.......we'll call him eric (heehee) had a cavalier wagon and just installed his mtx thunder full range box off of the famous sherwood 240 amp. we went up to a parking lot to listen how far away we could hear the car......i looked at it and saw his power wire was run through the door jamb, having gone to a few shows before i told him that's not how you do it. he says "yea whatever, it's still the loudest around".........he cranked it up with the doors opened and we started to walk to the other end of the looooonnnnnnnnnggg parking lot. "WOW" we thought as the system jammed away.......just then in his headlights (it was dark) i thought i saw something smoking..... i told him and he looked, just then the system shut off and we went running to the car (mind you we were pretty far away) he was way ahead of me running when i heard the most horrorfying sound as he yelled......what happened was the door shut on it's own and shorted the power wire. having no fuse of course it went up in flames along with certain parts in the engine bay. all i can say is LOTS O' SMOKE, a fire engine, a few cops, and a long explaination and it was all over. from that point on he has always paid someone to do his installs. oh yea..........the car was trashed.
posted
OK I think i got you all beat here. When I was working at Radio Shack this guy came in and told me he was looking for some amps. He said he needed 8 of them. He said he had 4 dvcs and the amps he had werent big enough. This was weird enough. After telling him that I was an amatuer db Drag Racer he asked me to look at his install. I (always being interested in seeing peoples installs) said "OK sure". He leads me to a rusted out blue 84 Cutlass with two wire rims and two stock wheels. He opens the door to the car to reveal not a wall but a piece of plywood that was screwed to the roof and floor. Mounted in ths board were 4 Optimus dvc 12s. Then he goes to open the trunk. Im sure most of you know the famous Jensen 88 amps, the blue $30 ones about as big as a slice of bread. Well he had 8 of them screwed to a 2X10 about three and a half feet long. And better still a Profile sub crossover. That was enough right there but it was worse. The crossover was fed by the speaker level of a stock deck and the outputs were split into 8 sets of RCA cables with y cords. The "power cable was a single strand of 10 ga that was twisted together with 9 stands of 14 ga wire, one for each amp and one for the crossover. And for speaker wire 12 ga solid home electric wire. He said he had competed and was unhappy with his score of 121.4. I told him what he needed to do to get more sound out of what he had and he started getting all pissed off. He was talking trash about my system and challemged me to go to a competition later that week at a nearby shop. I said what the hell why not. I went home and pulled my 15 inch RF XLCs out of my car along with the 600 watt Kenwood amp that I had at the time and tossed in my single Blue Thunder Legend 10 and the 100 watt Kenwood that i had laying around. I left everything else the same. The 4 ga cable, the 1 farad Street Wires cap and of course my Rockford deck. The day of the competition I arrived early to check out the other cars and such. About 30 minutes after i got there he pulled up blaring his system (which sounded like pure ass). He parks his car and leaves his so called stereo cranked. He walks over to me and asks me if i was ready to lose. I said sure but I dont think youre gonna beat me. He asked me why not and I told him to turn around. As he spun around all he saw was his car with smoke rolling out of the windows. All of a sudden there was a loud snap and the music stopped. After putting the fire out it was discovered that all of his subs were fried and seven of his 8 amps also.
Ill end this post by telling you that the next day he came to Radio Shack and bought $850 worth of wire, fuse holders, amps, subs and a crossover. He even asked me for a wiring diagram for his system and a design for a real box. He redid his system and brought it back to the store along with a Circuit City dbDrag score sheet with a score of 133.8. He then thanked me for my help and said next time he would listen to what experienced people had to say.
Sorry to write so much but the details are what make it funny.
------------------ TEAM VOOODOO
LOUD IS GOOD, LOUDER IS BETTER!
IF THE MUSIC DOESNT MOVE YOU THE SINE SWEEP WILL!
Posts: 801 | From: Cornfield IL | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
I have seen quite a few poor excuses for installs. My favorite one was installed by a guy a know. He had an amp sitting on the back seat and two 12s in the trunk. The funny thing is how he wired it. The power wire went down the middle of the car and up through the door jamb and out the top to the outside of the car and entered the engine compartment at the corner of the hood. Of course, no fuse either. Next, and its hard not to laugh when I think of this, he had his ground wire, which was like 18 guage or something like that, connected to his key chain! So he would disconnect the ground to his amp every time he pulled his keys. His speaker wire from his amp to the subs was ran out one of the rear windows in the car (it was a four door) and into the trunk sandwiched between the truck lid and the car. His speaker wire actually was dragging on the ground!!! Some other of his installs have included CD players and equalizers laying between the front seats, amps and CD players getting power off the cigarette lighter plug, a sub sitting in the passenger seat of a regular cab truck, and many more pathetic details. I have had some funny experiences with his installs and the way they sound.
------------------ rybaudio@freeze.com MECP certified at 14 years old SQ first, SPL last
quote:Originally posted by Rybaudio: he had his ground wire, which was like 18 guage or something like that, connected to his key chain! So he would disconnect the ground to his amp every time he pulled his keys.
posted
this one is so funny it should make you cry. At the old shop I use to work for we did a kid's 2000 dodge ram. We put 6 kicker solo 10's in the cab on a ZR1000. This cost him $6,000. this wasn't loud enough for the kid he did a 139 on the stores meter but it was loud as he!! inside the truck, it was setup for street bumpin not SPL. We gave him exactly what he wanted. Needless to say after this show I no longer worked at this shop. Come to find out the kid brought his truck back, dropped $22,000 plus his trade in of old system which was a week old. The shop did full cut-out of the bed put in 18 Kicker XPL 12's, 6 Kicker ZR1000's, 6 stinger 1000 batteries, plexi, neons ,ect. Well saw the kid at a local show about two weeks after this setup was in. His official db was a 150.4 on an Audiocontrol meter. I did a 152.4 with two twelves and two Audiobahn A2200HC. Thats gotta suck for the kid. As you can see I have no love for the shop, just some of my buddies that work there.
------------------ ALPINE CVA-1000 AUDIOBAHN COMPONENTS 2-AUDIOBAHN A2200HC'S 2-SHOCKERII 12'S 1-BIG NASTY PORTED ENCLOSURE 152.4 dB SS 1-2 ThE lOuDeSt AlErO iN tHe LaNd!!!!!!!!! ~~~~~~S.P.L.A.T~~~~~~ Sound Pressure Level Audio Team
posted
oh where to begin! I'll have to find the picture to prove it, but two twelves screwed into the back seat! No box, and only like two screws to hold in each speaker.
------------------ Nakamichi Linear Power ~T03~ Diamond ~Hex~ Oz JL ~W6~ PPI
posted
oh wait, i know i know....quite a few years back. This guy i knew always talked down on what I had then. 4 twelves, woohoo. Always! Keeps saying, ya, one day i'll show you my set-up. He finally brought his mom's station wagon around. The complete, full radio shack set-up! THE WORKS I tell ya. Two 10"s(i wanna say joysones not jensen) each in their own bass tube. Both bridged to some radio shack 22 channel optima. For the mids he had two 8's in a box thrown back there with the little horn tweeters in the box as well "custom built" (from the flea-market) for his amp rack, oh boy, why not kill two birds with one stone. He didn't like the way the bass tubes rolled around...he mounted one side of the amp to one tube, and the other side of the amp to the other tube. For his wiring, damn. Never seen anyone go thru soooo much Scotch™ tape. it was incredible. He had light switches for toggle switches so he can turn the amps on and off. Oh yeah, the killer! I listened for about ummmmm...¾ of a second, and said somethings wrong. Now I know you don't have the best set up in the world, or the garage, but that just sounds like crap. I noticed that the speakers were connected backwards. He made the comment that it doesn't matter which way the speakers are connected. It sounds just the same, I know, I took my radio shack db meter to it myself and it read the same each way. By the way, the db meter started at about 100 db, topped off at about 115, didn't move the needle anyway. So I found the heart to redo his "splicing" job. Asked for some electrical tape, he looked at me like i was nuts, so I said black tape "ooooooooooh, ok" He listened to it, and was all happy. When he asked to listen to mine, I couldn't get myself to just crush his ego (just yet). Told him I blew a fuse. He went back to mommies 'wagon and cranked it. As I was driving off, i turned it up about half way and watched his head spin back so fast....oooohh the memories.
Much more where those came from. Thumpin down memory lane with this post. Last I saw, he upgraded from scotch to masking tape.
Lowers head in disbelief
------------------ Nakamichi Linear Power ~T03~ Diamond ~Hex~ Oz JL ~W6~ PPI
posted
Ever seen a gen-you-whine Rockwood amp? Lemme tell ya, boy-HOWDY those are some well-built units! This guy came into the shop I used to work at, says he wants to get some subs for his amp. We ask what kind of amp, etc. He says it's a Rockwood, 1000 watts. Probably has it wired to a Sorny HU, with a Panamaphonics cross-over... Anyway, the thing's a monster, about three feet long; problem is, it weighs 2 lbs at the most. We gently tell him that his amp can't put out that kind of power. He asks why, kind of defensive, so we open the amp for him. In the middle of the amp is this teeny circuit board.... looks like a calculator, with a vast expanse of dusty metal all around it. He says: "I see....", and buys a Sound Stream reference from us...
Posts: 79 | From: New Rochelle, NY | Registered: Dec 2000
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posted
Or the time that someone comes into the shop and wonders why their Soundstream reference 1000 isnt putting out the power it should be. I start asking questions about it. Turns out that they had 4 gauge running to the + of the amp... but only 22 gauge remote wire to the ground Ahh.... gotta love the ignorance.
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Have meter, Will travel!!
Extreme 1985 Ford Thunderbird 2 DD 9515b's 2 USAmps VLX 400s But soon to change..... SEE IT HERE
posted
Well I have two actually. The first didn't happen to me I just read it in a mag. This guy bought a head unit from a shop and didn't want to pay extra to have it installed and thought he would have a go himself. Sure enough two days latter he came back quite pissed off complaining that no matter what he did the unit would not work and demanded a refund. The installer asked him to drive it into the back of the shop so he could have a look. Next thing the installer came into the retail area of the shop with signs that he was trying to hold back extreme laughter. He urged the other installers and salesmen to have a look under the hood of the car. They went out and what they saw was: on the firewall of the car a nice shinny polished coke can with beautiful aluminium brackets holding it neatly in place. A black wire was running into the can which was filled with dirt. When asked what it was all about the guy replied "The instructions said to put the black wire to a good ground".
The next one is not quite as funny but it did happen to me. I was at a show and there was this wagon with a sticker on the back of a stereo shop I hate. Won't into why I hate them, that will take to long. Anyway in the back of the wagon were 4 beautiful chrome plated 15" Blaupunkt subs. Two normal config and two inverted (baskets out). This thing sounded awful, I mean really bad and distorted and the bass was heard not felt. I stopped and looked for a while. I noticed the cones were moving franticly with each bass note. You could see they were trying with all their power and might to produce their sickening output. I stuck my head in to see something I thought was just too basic for ANY stereo shop to go wrong with. Sure enough the inverted speakers had the red 8g cables going to the + and the black wires going to the -. Ok so they must have the other two subs in reversed polarity. But I had to ask the guy anyway. He didn't know anything about what I was saying and was a little reluctant to try reversing the wires on his EXPENSIVE subs. I assured him and his friend agreed that it would not damage anything to try. When he changed them around an hit the on button it nearly blew the damn windows out of his ride. I just walked away saying how the shop that did the install is full of morons, loud enough for everyone around to hear. That felt good.
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Posts: 6 | From: Sydney, Australia | Registered: May 2000
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posted
Okay, my turn. First is a story from a friend of mine that used to work in a shop down in arkansas.
My friend (Adam), worked partly as an installer and partly as a salesman. One day he sells a kid an amp. The kid takes the amp home, installs it, calls the shop a few hours later complaining how the amp dosen't turn on. Adam tells the guy to bring the car with amp installed back to the shop, and he would take care of him. The kid arrives minutes later, Adam takes a look, and sees a grounding problem. The kid took a hunk of 8 guage wire, stripped about three feet, and wrapped it around the trunk door arm. Adam gave the guy a connector and properly grounded the amp for him. Quick fix.
Second, and final.
At one point we are all ignorant. Somewhere we have to start into the sport! My first system was four Super Sound 8" drivers from the used audio gear area of the local napa store, and an AudioVox 150 watt amp that I traded an imitation Zippo lighter for. We built the box out of .25 inch three layer ply-wood. Sealed it with year-old silicone, and let the good times roll. It never hit more than (estimate) 95dB. Matter of fact, with my clarion head unit and factory 5X7's in the doors of my explorer, at high volume, you couldn't hardly distinguish the bass...
Aah memories.
Posts: 101 | From: Overland Park, Kansas | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:Originally posted by SQ_Seeker: Well I have two actually. The first didn't happen to me I just read it in a mag. This guy bought a head unit from a shop and didn't want to pay extra to have it installed and thought he would have a go himself. Sure enough two days latter he came back quite pissed off complaining that no matter what he did the unit would not work and demanded a refund. The installer asked him to drive it into the back of the shop so he could have a look. Next thing the installer came into the retail area of the shop with signs that he was trying to hold back extreme laughter. He urged the other installers and salesmen to have a look under the hood of the car. They went out and what they saw was: on the firewall of the car a nice shinny polished coke can with beautiful aluminium brackets holding it neatly in place. A black wire was running into the can which was filled with dirt. When asked what it was all about the guy replied "The instructions said to put the black wire to a good ground".
That has got to be one of the funniest I have ever heard!!!
------------------ rybaudio@freeze.com MECP certified at 14 years old SQ first, SPL last
