More cars in the bay.

A serious lack of installers and

    Electronics Depot has found itself unseasonably busy.  I think it may be the resurgence of the economy or maybe just the marketing had finally found its foot hold.  Either way we can barley get the cars done that we need to. We are looking for more competent installers.  Big surprise so is everyone else.  Now is a good time to be an installer. Most of my Other friends in the industry are in the same boat as we are.  Ultimate Auto ( Audio ) is looking for more guys, Bryan at Creative is looking.  I am very happy with my guys here and we make sure we don’t push them too hard to “bang out cars” we want them to take their time and build some amazing stuff.  I will keep you posted on more challenges in the world of car audio!

Patrick Siebert 

The G-wagon, DNN991HD, and the HDMI delemia

    One of our most important clients contacted me a few weeks ago.  He was a contact I made when I managed the Ultimate Audio location in Orlando (now ultimate auto).  He is a real technology guy and was upset when I-phone upgraded there tech (and changed the video output to HDMI).  You see no radios had an HDMI input of a little while.  When the Kenwood dnn991 finally hit the market he was on board...now for the issues.

    We have 4 headrest screens in this truck; the DNN does not have HDMI output. Or rather it will not output what is on the input of the HDMI. WOW this sucks.

    So, we started by contacting (Matt) Matthew Yerger and Ed Meenan of Kenwood. Our plan was to get an HDMI splitter (turn one HDMI cable into two). Take one of the resulting cables and feed it into an HDMI to composite cable and pipe that to all the rear screens.

    Now both these items (splitter and converter) have 120 volt power supplies (actual units run off of 9 volts and 7 volts). So we had to install a 120 volt power supply (easier and safer then building two different power supplies for these pieces.)

    Ok, my guys at electronics depot got them installed. Everything seems to be working great.... well almost. Every time the HDMI splitter gets powered up, it if has an hdmi connection, it will not output.  Well at very least we will have one HDMI connection all the time and the nature of the hdmi cable is pretty prohibitive to interrupting it (cutting the actual cable with a relay device). 

   Now what?!?!?!  We the best solution we could come up with involved using a PTR 7 to act as a turn on delay circuit. It has to have a 50 second delay before it will work properly, and you have to wait 50 seconds to plug in the I-phone 5.  

    Alternatively if you ditch the HDMI completely you lose some connectivity of the phone...so this is the solution.  For any of you thinking about trying this I would recommend against it, a lot of moving parts and chances for something to break.

    Thank goodness we have a great customer that is very understanding about all of this stuff.

    -On a side note, after all is said and done Matt Yeger said "yeah there is no really good way to do this yet."  We figured it out...just not easy (I am hoping for reliable).

This got complicated and a little weird so if you have any questions please feel free to email me. 

Patrick Siebert

Electronics Depot

Problem child

A hot-rod Chevy Bel-Air came in.  These cars are always a challenge. The motor is usually very loud, and they almost always have MSD ignition systems. I can combat the lound noise from the exhaust with a big power and efficient speakers, but the MSD is a high voltage coil which essentially is a bad RF transmitter in your car.  Not a terrible problem MSD makes a .25 farad cap that cleans up the ripple. -kind of.
    This Bel-Air particular makes the problem worse.  The MSD is mounted inside the car, not under the hood.  In fact it was hidden up under the dash and we didn't find it until half way through the installation.  The exhaust is composed of a set of black Jack headers to cherry bombs.  So right out of the shoot this car is a problem. Not to mention the customer is on a budget, a tight budget, and unfortunately he has really good taste. I sharpened my pencil and got to work after cutting the profit down to a slim margin We agreed on a system that would sound terrific in just about any car.
   We installed the gear, and it sounded great! Of course it had engine noise!  We called all over town to get the MSD cap to filter out the ripple and it sounded great with the engine running...on everything but the radio.
    You see the cap will fileter out the noise from the power source, but not the antenna.  When electrons travel in a closed coil the generate radio frequency, radio tuners look for radio frequency antenna's hunt for radio waves.
    So what do we do? We re-wired and move the MSD to the fire wall.  It got better but it still had noise in the on the radio.  We again re-wired and moved the MSD to the fender...even further.  Now we only get interference on weaker stations in the lower end of the band (the resonant frequency of the ignition must be close to 94 hz).  At the end of the day, it was pretty darn good. and we couldn't have gone to all the extra effort if the customer didn't buy the gear from us. Weather it's Electronics Depot in Altamonte Springs Florida or any good local shop, wants the car right and the customer happy. Even if they have to stay late, and do that little (or a lot) extra for free.


Patrick Siebert

No proof read sorry

       
Customer asked for Black kick panels...just sayin

Supplied audio gear!! Especially clones

    We want to supply the very best install possible regardless of what gear is brought to us. Some of the biggest issues we encounter is that customers do not know exactly the product works that they buy on-line and bring to us.  A modern head unit (radio) has hundreds functions and they all operate a bit differently. 
    A great example is some clone radio's have the ability to do Bluetooth, but not Bluetooth audio. That means you can use the phone to make calls but not play your music out of it.  Another great example is one that occurred today.  We had a customer that purchased a clone radio developed by Rosen Entertainment.  This radio provides steering wheel controls but does not provide cel-phone control from the steering wheel, only from the touch screen on the radio. 
    I usually go through a 5 minute process to explain to customers when we install his/her radio that some of the features may not work exactly like they think they will.  When they buy the product from a store that installs it they can usually give you insight to how the piece operates and maybe even let you play with it right there on the display. 
    If you are a retailer, please let the customer know that when they supply product the expectations of how the product works his or her sole responsibility (it does not matter they will still be made at the retailer that installed it).  That is not an excuse to install the product improperly, or give a bad demo but keep them fully informed.
    If you are a customer, please, please know what you are buying before you buy it.  In fact, just buy it from a brick and mortar retailer (real store) that you trust and have them install it.  That way you can let them take full responsibility of your happiness, if you do not you are tying the hands of the only person that actually wants to help you. The rest of the people just want to make a little money and ship a box out of the factory. 
     One store, one responsibility, one happy customer. The cheapest deal is rarely the best deal.  I see more angry internet customers then happy ones.

Patrick-

Spring break nations and such

When I was a kid (16-17) I got totally hooked on car audio because of "Daytona Spring Break Nationals". All the amazing cars and installs was the last nail in the coffin for me.  I have missed a few but have attended in the last 8 or so years.  This year I had a few customers cars go, but I missed it.
    I herd from some good friends that it was much better then years past.  You see attendance, noise ordinance, economy and all sorts of stuff have really been hurting Paul and SBN (Spring Break Nationals). I am really glad to hear that it has bounced back nicely.  I am sad that I missed it.
    Manufactures really should make a showing for SBN, and retails should use it as a tool to help build excitement around the industry.  One of my customer took 3rd, Electronics Depot is already planning the next stages of his install (maybe he will take 1st next year).



Here are a few pics,

Territorial disputes!

I wanted to take a second to follow up about the dealer buy in.  We already discussed in prior posts that the dealers have to do a large purchase up front and sign a dealer agreement to become dealers for some of the better premium products.  Part of that agreement is to warranty the product a certain way, maintain a minimum margin on the sale of certain products etc.  Part of that dealer agreement is also a territorial agreement, that they will not sell the product to another retailer in your backyard. It helps to prevent a bidding war and show the dealer that the manufacture cares.

    In the last year we have had two dealers violate the dealer agreement.  This leaves the retailer with a bad taste in there mouth and a difficult position to be in.  A retail has the responsibility of not just selling themselves as a reputable place to do business, but also to build the industry and the consumers interest in the industry.  Last, but not least they need to buy the product that will work the best for the customer and help create excitement for that product.  When a deal asks you to do a big buy in and then saturates the market with dealers it hurts the shop, and ultimately the customer.  If the store can not provide them with the product they need, then they eventually will not be able to afford the best and most knowledgeable staff, and the industry with good marketing.  

    I am talking to you viper, Matts and Kenwood Excelon

Dropping a line

    We, at electronics depot have decided to drop a line.  It almost feels like breaking up with someone or ending a long friendship. I have been in car audio for 20 plus years and I have me a kicker dealer the whole time so this is a little hard.  We have a few thousand dollars of inventory and that will last us a while, heck if things pick up we may even consider buying back in to the line, but we decided against the 5 thousand dollar buy in for 2014.
    With the line being in Walmart, and other dealers selling it cheap its not easy to sell.  They have done a lot for price protection in the last few years but its just too little too late.  I hope they turn the reputation of the company around in the US (they are doing very well overseas now).
    Kicker (Stillwater Desings), still has great product, and they still do an ok job with marketing, but they like many other company's have stopped promoting the industry of car audio. Promoting the industry (or lifestyle if you prefer) you will shrink the market share.  The issue is no one really wants to spend time and money promoting the industry because it does not have a direct return for that company, in fact it allows others to sponge off you what you do.  Countless company's took advantage of this in the early 90's with overseas manufacturing, and inferior product, little to no advertising or customer support. I am not sure the best way
to handle this from a manufactures perspective but it is a problem for sure.
    This lack of industry promotion is evident from the shrink size and amount of car audio shows. Some car audio shops like Ultimate Auto and electronics depot attempted to pick up the slack, and tried to "Go big" at shows but that can only last for so long, the drain on resources (physical, mental, and monetary) is too large for the little guy.
    I can recall, doing many shows with Bart Deal (now in international sales at kicker) at spring break nationals. We would work all day at a shop, then drive to the show, work untill 4 am, then work 12 to 14 hours at the show the next day, go out to dinner with the reps or the boss then work the show all day get all the show stuff broken down and packed up often getting to bed around 3 or 4 am, and then going back to work the next day at 7 am.  Did I mention we (ultimate audio employees) would not get paid to do this. Again, I don't know what the solution is to this but as an industry its gotta be fixed.