Sonic drk

Interior already has deadening, custom box was aj stealth box, and covers were just a cover that matches the carpet and hides everything

02BlownZ06

That makes the price even more ridiculous. That's one thing about our local shop. He is happy to install your gear and fair priced about it. That's not a fair price, IMO.

daverulz

I know a lot of shops don't like to install gear that they haven't sold you. One of the best independent installers I know of has a policy that if you are providing gear - part of the budget goes towards bench testing everything. The point being if it's not a new piece of gear with a warranty and he doesn't find out there is a problem with it until he's done a lot of work and installed it, it costs more time and possible rework than just checking it all out up-front. Many other installers just take the "we won't install your gear" approach.

Given what you are saying you want - I think you're in a good position to just gather the gear and install it yourself - then pay someone reputable for tuning. I know of one shop on the west coast that I could recommend without a doubt, but looks like he's about 7 hours from you. Regardless, Bing and his team at Simplicity In Sound does phenominal work and I doubt it would be this expensive

Jimmy 2 Times

man, i need to increase my prices....fyi, my labor is almost half that, had my own side business installing since 2003...and just about all my customers are word of mouth. I don't advertise, nor am I trying to sell on here, just giving you some info from someone who does this.

weezon

No, it's the profit from the sale of the gear. Audio gear is easily tested as shops are set up to do it for troubleshooting purposes. Everything is plug and play.

daverulz

Combination of both. Easily tested or not that's still time that needs to be taken and factored into the price. You're still probably talking about several hours worth of work to test a full system end to end in addition to needing to have a test bench set up. Just because the light on an amp turns on does not mean that it is functioning correctly. The more complex the system, the more risk of a problem. These days I don't think the margin is that high on the gear. Regardless I'm sure it pales in comparison to what they get for the install.

Def!ant

Back in my brief tenure in retail car audio, we saw it ALL the time where a customer brought in a used amplifier purchased 2nd hand, assumed functional, & after installation found to be D.O.A &, naturally, the customer assigned blame to the installer.

A lot of things can be said in hindsight, but a lot of times when you get burned once or twice, most shops will adopt a policy to not install customer supplied gear.

02BlownZ06

I do agree with this. That being said, I like my local guy. He will take on those types of builds, albeit with terms beforehand that if the customer gear doesn't work or sound quite like they want, it is their baby, no warranty. He warranties his workmanship with a lifetime warranty and if you sell your car he will take your system out and put the factory system back in free of charge. Trust me, coming from managing a retail car/home audio outlet, we would NEVER do that. His customer service is so good that he has a lot of business. Where he lacks is how to market his gear. He could do a mint by changing up just a few things but hey to each their own.

VINAL13

Taking into consideration the average intelligence level of an audio installer beyond their “installation knowledge”, I am 99.5% sure the outrageous labor amount is a mathematical error, and a very humorous one at that because it also shows the LACK of attention to detail.

On that point alone, the lack of attention to detail I would not do business with that shop, imagine what other details are not reviewed when working on an audio installation. I spent several weekends looking for an audio shop that I was finally comfortable with because I would never attempt to do the install myself.