Manufactures are ruff on us dealers: The cost of doing biz

For a independent dealer like Electronics Depot, or bigger guys like Ultimate auto, everyone wants to be authorized dealers of premium brands. This means jumping through some hoops for the manufactures.  The manufactures want to have good dealers that treat their product like they want it treated.

They want dealers that know what they are doing and wont blow the stuff up putting it in. The better the installs the less defective product.  I mentioned before that very little of the premium product is defective, when it goes bad it is usually customer abuse, or install error.

If they have a protected line (JL Audio, Hertz, Audison, Kenwood Excelon, etc) they want you to make a big up front purchase for the year. To make it worse most of the time they want to see growth (they want you to buy more then the year before).

They don't want you to sell it below a certain price while it is a current model.  This sucks because as a dealer you may need to help a customer out every once in a while. The good thing is that you wont find a ton of crappy shops selling the product just to get rid of it unless they are going out of biz, or the product is old. (shops that sell too cheap always go out of biz ya just cant pay rent with good intentions)

They want you to support the whole line.  That means that want you to buy stuff that you don't want to buy. Kenwood wants you to buy kenwood subwoofers (which are ok subs) even if you have have a jl audio W0 (which is a great sub for the money) that fits in the same price category that you think is a better deal for the customer, but i have to buy them in order to sell the Kenwood navigation system that is by far the best on the market!

Last but not least they want you to support their product under warranty.  If you buy it from an authorized dealer the manufacture would like you to send it back get it fixed, or replace it (replacing it usually can only happen if you are the dealer that sold them the product originally, yes most manufacturers track serial number).  This is a benefit for most dealers because they don't want product on the internet warrantied.  Defective return rates for the manufacture are over 80% with internet sales then brick and mortar sales (local retail shops). A returned product cost everybody money so broke stuff is bad. 

If you have read the above you will realize that the retailer is kind of a bad spot. Dose the retailer want to sell the customer product that he thinks is not as good of a value of another product? The answer is sometimes we do sell the customer the product we don't like.  Sometimes we discount the stuff we don't like to give the customer a good deal and hope not to get caught by the manufacture, and sometimes it sits in our stock room collecting dust (and wasting our money) until it is discontinued and we sell it on the internet.  We try recover the money we have into it, and don't have to worry about warranty. Because items sold on the internet officially  have no warranty with most premium manufactures)

More car audio under the magnifying glass later.

The best place to buy online!

Buying online, or from a non-authorized dealer is not always the best idea (or economical).   

If you go to a car audio shop and audition speakers give the salesmen an opportunity to sell you your gear.!!  (but I can get them so much cheaper on ebay, or amazon, or craigslist or sonix's) I know, I know but I have several great reasons why you should give them the opportunity (I will explain the opportunity in a second but first lets look at why you want to buy local).

• Warranty, Warranty, Warranty.  All the really good stuff is serial number tracked and they do not authorize internet sales (but why don't they sell on the internet?? I will get to that next).  Good car audio gear is expensive and if it blows up you will often have to buy new gear again. A speaker is a moving part (stretching) in extreme environments. Hot/Cold/Dry/Moist etc. No matter how nice the car is (Maybache, Bentley, Rolls, Lambo) no car (or car door) is 100% sealed are you are subjecting your speakers to elements that you would not subject a dog to (or better not). Then we run huge amounts of current through them and want them to to live for ever, some die and when they do you want a great store and salesmen to say "let's get you in here and swap it out for you." Best case scenario, if an online guy does warranty it, you have to uninstall it, reinstall it and ship it back to them, then they ship you a new one (some down time in shipping), then it has to be re-installed now you have paid for all that labor again! 
• Counterfeit product (1st reason why manufactures don't want the dealer to sell on the internet).  I have seen tons of counterfeit product lately, JL Audio, Audison, Hertz, kicker, and even Rockford Fosgate. If a manufacture can not hold a dealer brink and mortar (physical location) dealer responsible for the product they sell they don't want to do it.  I have had someone call me on the phone and tell me they where the "source" manufacture for Hertz and wanted me to buy direct form them (not Audison). They sent pictures, they looked very similar but you could tell that it was fake (we are not the only ones also see Florida SPL Forum). JL has had its own issues (see JL Audio Mexico signature series on JL's Facebook page). I could go on and on.  Bottom line if it breaks no one will fix it and you get product that sounds inferior.
• Manufactures also want an authorized dealer to install it or at least oversee the install. If it is installed properly they will have less defective returns and the manufacture improves its bottom line (more money for research and develop new and better product). Think what the shipping fees are alone for a woofer company that has to ship woofers back, not to mention the repair.
• The local shop wants you to be happy. If you buy something online and they install it and it doesn't sound the way you want, or something blows up or burns up you are not going to be happy, and chances are its not the install shops fault (if it was they wouldn't be around very long). They want happy customers, if you spend money there they want you to tell 10 friends what a great purchase you made at Electronicsdepot or where ever. Happy customers keep a shop in business, unhappy ones hurt that shops business. You immediately but an install shop in a bad situation if you bring them product. They want you happy, but its not worth the $65 or what ever it is to install your supplied radio if you are not leaving a truly happy customer.

         - I have had a customer bring me a radio they bought on Crutchfield, and after it was installed cussed me out that it didn't come with an Ipod Cable, have Bluetooth, or support Pandora.  He did not mention that he wanted any of those features to me when he dropped it off, nor could I modify the radio he already purchased to have those features. He was an unhappy customer, and the only thing we could do to make him happy is offer him a discounted rate to remove it, and re-install the new radio that he got back from Crutchfield. After paying overhead we lost money and a business can not survive losing money. A good local retailer wants happy customers, but they have to pay its employees, rent, insurance, licensing, tax and lots of other stuff.

• If you don't buy local you will not have a shop to go to (they will and have been going out of business if you don't buy from them). They love you and want to give you advice, and demo speakers for you and talk about installations, but if you are not going to give them the opportunity to sell you the product they will not be around to help and inform you. You are not doing them a favor they are performing a service.
• What is an opportunity to sell mean?   Talk to them, let them know where you found it on line and how much it is? Add up all the shipping charges, and figure out the bottom line, it will probably be close to what the local dealer pays (but how does the online guy make any money if that is cost? His over-head is likely a garage, or storage shed and his employees pack boxes they do not have intimate knowledge of car audio or your needs, no insurance, no licensing, and he buys and sells in a huge bulk. he buys it 10-15% cheaper and has less overhead). A good shop will usually take that amazon number and be a little higher (remember overhead) is it worth it for warranty? is it worth it to make sure its real product? is it worth it to know its new and not referb or used? I think if you give the shop an opportunity they will make it worth it.

   What secrets will I reveal next? you will just have to check it out and see!!

Each and every speaker has a different voice.

I get a lot of questions about satellite speakers (also know as mids' and highs'), specifically, which ones are the best. Every speaker has its own voice, they sound very different.  Music is a subjective experience and every persons ear hears something different.  A good objective test can be done by playing pink noise in a speaker (sounds like static, but it is all frequency's represented at the same level at the same time.) then we look at it on a RTA meter. 
    The issue with this is that sound of a speaker is affected by the enclosure (often a door) it is in, and the environment that it is playing into (the car cabin) neither if which is a constant from car to car. So what you are listening to in the sound room may give you an idea, but it will sound very different once you get it in the car.
    So how do you know what is the best speaker for you. As I said you can get a good idea by listening to it in a sound board (at least they are a constant in the sound room.), but find a good salesmen (not a salesmen trying to sell you what ever he has a stack of in the back) and talk to him about what you are listening to and how the car might affect the sound.

i.e.

• Convertibles tend to sheer off the highs a little more then a hard top car.
• hatchbacks, and suvs usually build bass a little better then cars with trunks or convertibles.
• Speaker placement is important too, if tweeters are pointed right at you they tend to seem brighter and image better then ones that don't, but the pitch of the dome of some tweeters (and the design of some crossovers help to compensate for off-axis listening).

    I could go on and on (and will if you come in the store and let me).  I want to stress one very important thing.  If you go to a car audio shop and audition speakers give the salesmen an opportunity to sell you your gear.!!  (but I can get them so much cheaper on ebay, or amazon, or craigslist or sonix's) I know, I know but I have several great reasons why you should give them the opportunity (I will explain the opportunity in a second but first lets look at why you want to buy local).

Wires and RCA'S

  A company called Monster Cable made a huge, disgustingly absurd amount of money in the late 80's thru the early 2000's.  They did a great job of marketing and set up hundreds of thousands of dealers with spiff programs.  For you that do not know what a spiff is, a spiff is a bonus paid to a salesmen when they sold a particular item.  I have a huge disdain for this kind of sales tactic (in fact i hate this worse then the idea of commission).
    Monster Cable at one point had 6 or seven different types of RCA cables that they would sell to a retailer. ranging from around $20 a pair to about $200 a pair. The mark up by the store owner was about 70% which is high, but what makes it worse is that all though they looked impressive, I can honestly say i did not hear a difference in the last 30 years.  In fact, i have never worked with anyone what has heard a difference between a decent (and undamaged) set of RCA's and a 200 set of balanced line directional triple shielded blah blah blah. buy good racs, not GREAT RCA's just a tip form your friend Patrick. At Electronics Depot we do not push hi-end cables, they don't help do anything but separate a customer from his money with little to no return.
   This is not true for other wires, you should use a 75 ohm RCA if you are running video, in a car you may get interference from a regular RCA, you probably wont, but for a few bucks difference it would suck to have to re-run a new video RCA in a car. Also spring for Oxygen free copper power and ground wire rather then Copper Clad aluminium (CCA).
    I have seen way to many demonstrations where the CCA wire raised inductance and got warm.  If you are running a 4 guage wire when you only need a 8 guage CCA is fine, or a 0 guage when you only need a 4 guage then maybe that is ok too but why not use the right sized wire in OFC. Ok, I am sure i am going to get hate mail for all this but like I said, not everyone is going to like this blog, I hope you do.

Next up, what manufacturers do to us retailers once a year for a "buy-in"

How my journey

  I started my passion in 1988.  Rap music had really taken off by then and I got my first car.  A 1986 Pontiac trans am. I pieced a system together buying pieces as I could afford them and making a big stack in my bedroom of the product. It took about 2 years but when i was done I was pretty proud of the results.  Rockford Pro 15" subs a mix of white amps (very rare at the time) PPI, G&S Competition, and Sansui (all PPI made at the time). A Rockford 3-way component set up, Sony CD Changer, a motorized amp rack  all kinds of stuff.
    With in a year I worked part time at a car audio shop called Cars in Melbourne Florida.  I found out pretty quickly the darker side of car audio.  Most installers lived a fast life, these guys drank (and whatever) pretty hard, they are not the best about showing up to work on time, and almost all of them have a temper or emotional issues. This stayed true for most of the guys I worked with up until 2003 or so then things changed, well except for the temper and emotional issues.  Don't worry guys, i wont mention names. 
    Here are a few pics of some vehicles that I have sold, or helped to install,  I wont get into them too much just wanna start you off with some eye candy.

This was one of the first bid tickets i did for Ultimate Audio (Ultimate was very expensive so i am not going to say how much). Please keep in mind this was done in 2003, and we wanted to keep it carpet because the customer said he was goning to toss bikes, and all kinds of stuff in the back.

    I have so much to share I don't know where to start next!  i know wires and RCA's the industries biggest secret.

Intro..

Hello,
    I have been involved in the Car Audio and Car restyling for over 30 years, and it has not always been as glamorous as you might think. The industry has changed and I guess I have too.  I started at a midsized chain store in central Florida called Shakespearins in the early 90's, then went to a mom and pop shop called Audio Country in 1996 and then to a fairly famous shop called Ultimate Audio for about a decade. I moved, and now I represent a small boutique shop with 7 employees called Electronics Depot. I want to share my experiences with you. Not just from a hobbyist stand point but also a retailer.
    I will mix in plenty of great installs, new product, and  secrets of the trade.  I am sure some of the insight I dish out will not be something some people want to hear but I will let you make the choice for yourself. 

    Your Car Audio is about to begin.