Audio Express destroyed my tweeters...

[VegasShawn]

.....I'm pretty sure. I posted a message earlier concerning a problem I was having with my Infinity HU. Anyways, I decided to have a new Alpine CDA-9820XM HU installed. When I purchased the HU, I asked them if they were going to bypass the factory Infinity amp or integrate the the HU into the AMP. He said they would integrate it so the factory amp would still work. Cool. Sounded good to me.

I get the car back yesterday and everything seemed ok. Sounded good. No problems. Then, I notice a weird scratchy noise on the right side. It's getting worse...now I hear it on the left side. I mess with the fader and I realize it's the tweeters in the dash! My tweeters are blown!

I called Audio Express and as soon as I told him about the blown tweeters, he goes "yeah man, your tweeters are blown..." I asked him how that could be since they integrated with the factory amp. He said they BYPASSED the factory amp and the salesmen must have been mistaken. I asked him if it was possible that the reason my speakers were blown was because there was no crossover for the tweeters now. He says "no, the crossovers are not in the amp, but are further down the line." He says the door speakers and the tweeters in the dash are already on a crossover if you bypass the amp.

Is this true? The crossovers are built into the Infinity amp, aren't they? Oh, and then he tells me that I can buy new tweeters or a new component system that will work. I guess I gotta go down there to raise some hell.

 

[Attack Eagle]

.....I'm pretty sure. I posted a message earlier concerning a problem I was having with my Infinity HU. Anyways, I decided to have a new Alpine CDA-9820XM HU installed. When I purchased the HU, I asked them if they were going to bypass the factory Infinity amp or integrate the the HU into the AMP. He said they would integrate it so the factory amp would still work. Cool. Sounded good to me.

I get the car back yesterday and everything seemed ok. Sounded good. No problems. Then, I notice a weird scratchy noise on the right side. It's getting worse...now I hear it on the left side. I mess with the fader and I realize it's the tweeters in the dash! My tweeters are blown!

I called Audio Express and as soon as I told him about the blown tweeters, he goes "yeah man, your tweeters are blown..." I asked him how that could be since they integrated with the factory amp. He said they BYPASSED the factory amp and the salesmen must have been mistaken. I asked him if it was possible that the reason my speakers were blown was because there was no crossover for the tweeters now. He says "no, the crossovers are not in the amp, but are further down the line." He says the door speakers and the tweeters in the dash are already on a crossover if you bypass the amp.

Is this true? The crossovers are built into the Infinity amp, aren't they? Oh, and then he tells me that I can buy new tweeters or a new component system that will work. I guess I gotta go down there to raise some hell.

They know squat. They said they were going to integrate the amp and they did not.
They probably tied the tweeters into the mids.
There is no xover w/o the infinity amp, and to use it they need another adapter for rca's to infinity amp din plug and to remove the wiring for the h/u speakers from the harness adapter. IF they dont they would have to tie in the tweeters to the mids at the amp plug under the seat... or elsewhere to get them to work.
Ask them to explain to you why if the crossovers were elsewhere and weren't active xovers then why is it 4 lowlevel inputs into the amp and 6 speakers out of it?
I know of what I speak, mine has a bypassed amp (see my tech article under interior/exterior) and I used to be an installer at one of their competitors.


home of the $1 install my butt. If I ever buy anything there I save $50 bucks for installing it myself...
The shop near my house used to have a sign that said "we fix $1 installs"

I'd go down there. ask to speak to the manager, ask him who installed it and advise him that it was not doen the way it was supposed to be done, or even in a professional manner.
Ask for the tweeters to be replaced with OEM tweeters or ask if you get some yourself if you can have a refund of that amount and that you want to have the amp integrated as you were promised.
If they give you any lip ask to speak to his boss or someone at the corporate office. Advise him that you ahve already posted this info on the DSMtuners site and have gotten responses form people in other cities that have Audio express locations so it is giving their company a black eye, and you want to give them a chance to make good.

The installer was probably an inept newbie, and the salespeople truthfully and generally don't really know anything other than what is in the spec chart for each automobile, unless they have actually done installs themselves.

 

[truwarrior]

Yeah the crossover is set in the amp and the amp sucks. So just replace the amp and speakers and call it a day and blame mistu.

 

[Attack Eagle]

Yeah the crossover is set in the amp and the amp sucks. So just replace the amp and speakers and call it a day and blame mistu.

it's true that the factory amp only has about as much power as your alpine head, maybe alttle less. you could get xovers to get the factory tweeters to work, but in the end you are better off getting components if they won't fix it for free.

 

[Defiant]

Wow, that was weird to hear that the Vegas Audio Express burned down tomorrow night. What an odd coincidence.

 

[Attack Eagle]

DEf:
you crack me up bro. everytime.

 

[VegasShawn]

I am going to head down there Fri night to make sure they have time to fix it on Sat. If they give me a hard time, I am just going to take it somewhere else because I don't want them screwing it up even more.

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

More like

"Home of the 1$ wire fire"

 

[SoilentGreen98]

Man, I wish you could have contacted me first, I would have steered you away from those bastards. I use Audio Xcellence and I heard from friends that Vegas Auto Sound is good too. Those guys should take the responsibility of their ####ups and replace the tweeters and learn how to power them correctly.

 

[Attack Eagle]

anyplace that overcharges 50-100 bucks to give you a $1 install is butt and then they still want to charge accessories... but its a good gimmick for girls and average Joe, and I think that is where they make their money.
I ask how much, they quote a price, and I ask how much out the door/ no install and its always 50- 100 less.


Anyway best of luck with them... let us know how it goes.

 

[jimwross]

I had the EXACT same thing happen to me. I bought a MP3 CD Player at Best Buy, and since they had a free install week going, I thought hey! why not... saves me the hassle.

Well it turns out its not actually "free" it ended up costing $100 something but they didnt tell me that until it was already done... they charged me like $50 for bypassing the factory amp, and another $50 in materials.

The next day, I noticed a TERRIBLE sound coming out of my factory tweeters, so much that I couldn't not even listen to the music at all at any volume. I took it back in, after consulting a few friends, and they said it wasn't thier fault, it was becuase the tweeters were blown, and the only way they get blown is by me turning up the music! I hadn't even brought the music up at all, it was on super low volume the entire time!

Anyway, I got pissed, asked to talk to the manager, who did jack shit. He basically told me, that they would give me a slight discount on a pair of component speakers, but I would still have to pay for them to install it.

I gave up after a while, just said #### it. I already had wasted alot of time on it. If you get mad like me, theres an easy solution. Take a flat head screw driver, pop the tweeters out, and unplug the little ####ers. You get used to not having them after a while.

 

[Redmachine]

Are you taling about the speakers in the dash??? I have em But the have never been hooked up

 

[Attack Eagle]

they f/'d it up too.
best buy sucks.. I know i was an installer there for about 6 months and they never even let me take the MECP test, like they were supposed to do after 6 weeks.


Go back to best buy and ask the manager to please refund you the 100 dollars for bypassing the amp, that you were not advised of before hand, and the jovb was not done correctly b/c they do not have the correct parts to do the job...& to charge you for parts not on the original estimate without permission and authorization is generally illegal. Since their part obviously was not any good, because it caused your tweeters to blow then I would ask for a refund on it and for them to show you the part they installed.


And I would go back every single day, maybe multiple times of the day and discuss the matter publicly in front of customers. and ask to speak to the GM of the store. If that doesn't work ask for the Corporate installer complaint line and the corporate customer service number... When a major company is at fault and they know it and you know it, you genenrally have to get up to the VP level before anyone has the authority to admit they are at fault and thus the authority to getit resolved. Works at best buy/ uhaul/ Dish network/ time warner/ etc.
They hope you will give up. DONT!


If anyone insists that it was your fault, ask him how since a high powered headunit doesn't out out anymore watts RMS than the factory amp. Advise them that some of their former installers have been running the factory tweeters from Best buy sourced clarion heads for 4 years now with no problem, at loud volumes, and that you understand that Best buy doesn't sell two way passive crossovers for an 8 ohm tweeter and 4 ohm mid there so the amp could not have been bypassed correctly.

If not ask for his number and i'll call him and tell him his installers are messing around and charging extra money to get better bonuses at the end of the week for hour jobs performed.

they don't have the parts to bypass an amp correctly at best buy. they just don't sell them. period. So what did they charge you $100 for? head harness 15... thats all you should have paid unless they kept the amp. then it would have been fifty- 65 forthe whole thing. (but they don't have that part either.)