From: desmondw@merrimack.edu
Newsgroups: rec.audio.car
Subject: My horror story
Date: 27 Jul 92 11:06:08 GMT
Organization: Merrimack College, No. Andover, MA, USA


     OK, here's my story. About a year ago I had just got into car
audio. I was naive and didn't know what to buy, what to stay away from,
etc. My first system consisted of Realistic 8" subs and a Realistic
160 watt amp. What a disaster!! The dealer from Radio Shack claimed
they'd "rock your car". They couldn't rock a micro machine. I couldn't
tell the difference with them on or off and I had all stock equipment.
Needless to say I was pissed and out $300. The warranty had expired
and I was left with equipment I could only sell to a deaf person.
     Thats chapter 1, you haven't begun to hear the horror yet. About
a month later(last summer) I went to my first car audio store. I went
in there and said "I'm looking for a subwoofer box that will boom".
Thats all, nothing else. This fat salesman who I refer to as Jabba 
pointed to a pair of Impact subwoofers,The model BB212. A pair of
12" subs in a tiny box that JABBA said was the best. Like a fool,
I said "I'll take 'em". I went home and easily hooked them up to
my,ahem...."kicking radio shack amp", and was down the store the next
day telling Jabba where he could stick his sub box. The bass was a 
little better, but not worth what I paid. Jabba went in my car and
said "Well jeez, this amp sucks! how do you expect to have bass with
this piece of shit?" (He was right there). I then said I wanted a
fine amp that could pound the sub box into next tuesday. (I was a
real basshead). He sold me a Couctic(ack!) 380 amp and installed it.
I was w
    rally acting like a 6 year old at XMAS. Finally a guy came
out and said "your car is done, give it a listen." I went out
into the garage and sat down in my car and couldn't believe what
I was hearing. "Is this a joke?" I said. This is my Radio Shack
amp. They looked at me like I had 3 heads."that sounds good",
says the installer whose idea of tweeters IMHO must be engine noise.
NO sooner than he said that when the sub box went into phase and
the audio sounded worse than before I went in there. I was ready
to explode now. The installers were busy in my trunk reversing
the polarity while Jabba just came and sat in my car for a listen.
He wasnt aware of the phasing problem and cranked it up and lied
through his teeth saying " not bad, this is good". Just then the
bass erupted on and he said "I knew something was wrong!, that
sounded terrible but now it sounds good." I looked him in the
eye and said get your fat ass out of my vehicle. 
     Luckily the amp blew a couple of days later I got my money
back. After I made a couple of scenes in the store they even
took the sub box back no questions asked except "why did you buy
this junk in the first place? What you want is this over here",
leading me over to a new display. He had an MTX box there. I made
up a story about how my friends MTX box blew his amp and speakers
loud enough for the whole place to hear and stormed out of there
and started over. 
     I went to a new place not too far away where they treated me right
and said if I didn't like what they sold me at any time, they'd take
it back no questions asked. That wasnt a problem seeing I was thrilles
with my new audio system.
Newsgroups: rec.audio.car