saltonasnail

The Big 3 isn't invasive..... at the very least run another power cable from the negative battery post to the frame of your car, that alone has gotten rid of the light dimming in almost all of the cars I've worked on with that problem. Its the cheapest and easiest fix, so start with that first.

I have a friend (yeah, that's how it always starts) that says when he tunes his EQ on his head unit, he just leaves it flat across the spectrum. The only thing he ever adjusts is the crossovers on the amp(s). This is the first time I've heard of this. He says the head unit's crossover points are usually set in the wrong place so it won't get the most out of it something like that. I have a DEH-P600UB with the 7-band EQ, should I follow his advice or just tune it to what I think sounds good (no distortion, etc.)

I'm all for someone showing me something, I don't claim to know everything and I'm patient as long as someone isn't blatantly incorrect and still tries to argue their point. Thats why I'm glad it happened, otherwise I never would have went to my supervisor to bother learning about them. I primarily install and ask questions as I go, so if I don't install something I usually know very little about it unless I looked up it online before. I appreciate it when someone with more experience than me (most of my customers do, some just don't know better) shows me something, however its sad when someone obviously knows what they're talking about tries to egg me into talking about something I don't know about. Its like when someone breaks up with someone, when the dumpee goes to the dumper's workplace to try and talk chit, but in the end they make themselves look like a twat. Its funny and pathetic at the same time.

I work at Circuit City even worse, I'm an installer no harm no foul.... anyways I did get schooled once when I was new to the car audio department (still learning actually) I honestly had no idea how a capacitor worked in theory since I never installed one, all I knew is that it prevented your lights from dimming when the bass hits, and that a bigger alternator was better in general for a number of reasons. I'll go ahead and be a good sport..... Anyways this dude is on the sales floor and is looking around. He's just looking at basic head units and I ask him if he has any questions. He says yes, and he wanted to know about the "speakerboxes." He pointed at the subs, and I went and played along. He asked me what he needed to install it, so I told him, the install kit, RCAs, the loaded enclosure, amp with sufficient power, etc. He was okay with everything, he wanted it to "knock hard" so I recommended the 2 Jackhammer 55s (400 watts RMS) in a vented box powered by the ZX750.1 since that's the loudest box we got and probably the biggest amp....not much, I know. He said the amp was too much, at this point some dude came out of nowhere (who I asked if he needed help earlier, which he politely declined) and decided to do my job for me. Not sure if he knew the guy I was already helping, but this random dude starts asking me these random questions, starting off with "you think he'll have problems with his lights dimming with this much bass" and I said possibly if his charging system's too weak, then he asked "what could he do to prevent that" and I recommended he get a bigger alternator with a higher amp output. Then he decided to be a smart ass and asked, "what about a capacitor? how do they work?" and I said I don't use them, but they prevent your lights dimming by holding a charge so that it doesn't suck out your battery power ( ) so then he went to explain how it actually works, and started askong me loaded questions, like "doesn't it actually do a quick discharge/recharge?" While he was asking all of these questions, the other guy I was helping didn't say a word, and after all this was done he ended up walking away and asking the other dude questions. That was what I got for being an honest salesperson.... afterwards I went to ask my boss what a capacitor actually does and how it works. I also learned you could also just re-wire the factory negative battery post-to-chassis ground to a thicker gauge, which is a cheap solution. So in the end I was better for it after all... but the guy was still a douche. At these big retailers, you're trained to sell, instead of giving a crap about the products you sell. They do want you to learn about the products, but really, most people there don't give a crap about the car audio products, managers and salespeople alike. The people that actually know about the products actually are interested in car audio to begin with. In reality, I know more about Morel, CDT, Memphis, Image Dynamics, JL Audio, etc. than I do about the lower-level Polk, Pioneer, Kicker etc. that we sell at CCity. Seriously, how would you feel if someone came to your work, asked you what you do and how stuff works, and after you were done explaining, he went ahead and said "I'm an electronics engineer/whatever and NO, you're wrong, it goes like this" and so on.... how would you feel? Worst yet, how would you feel if this actually resulted in a lost sale/deal resulting in a lower paycheck for you? I guess if you have nothing better to do, and like to make people feel inferior (people who don't give a crap to begin with) to make yourself feel better, then more power to you. Share away.

Thanks guys

I jumped from page 1 to page 10, quite the difference.... what was the topic about again?

1. How old are you? 19 2. When or how did you first get into car audio? 17, started hearing systems in my friends' cars once we started having our own cars 3. Your first Car? 97 Civic coupe 4. What was your first system? cheapo Sony CDX-GT120 headunit, Pioneer 6.5s in the doors and 6x9s in the rear deck running off the head unit (at the time I thought it sounded awesome) 5. Whats you favorite car audio brand? Might be Morel 6. Who is your hero in the car audio industry? none yet 7. Whats your dream system? Pioneer Premier AVIC-F90BT, Polk SR6500s off a PA500.4, Morel Ultimo 12" x2 in custom box for my trunk/t-top flap powered by US Amps ??? 8. Whats your dream car? McLaren F1, with my dream system (or similar setup) in it! Center seating position = great spot for the soundstage 9. Whats the best sounding car you have heard? none yet, really. Heard a great Morel Supremo component and Ultimo subwoofer combination on display though 10. Were do you buy most of your car audio products? My work or through online vendors/sponsors 11. What is your day job? Car installer at Circuit City (flame away, but I got the job because I knew very little and so I could learn) 12. Do you build your own boxes? No, but I'd like to learn or be able to one day 13. Whats is your most recent audio addition? Pioneer DEHP-600UB head unit 14. Whats your favorite brand of cars? GM and Honda 15. SQ or SPL? why? SQ, brings out the best in every genre of music, plus I listen to almost everything wow I must be missing out or something, I'm still kinda new to installing and brands in general, I've seen Fi before, but never heard of Sundown, those two seem to be constant favorites with you guys

I currently have an iPhone and eventually I'm going to ditch it for something else. I'm undecided at the moment as to what I want to actually get, but its probably going to be a Samsung or Sony Ericsson music phone. ANYWAYS I have a DEH-P600UB and it has a USB cable, with an iPod cable in-line with it. I hook up my iPhone to the iPod cable and I control all my music from the head unit. What I'm wondering is if anyone else has tried this with a phone other than an iPhone and has been able to control their music through their head unit. I don't want to use the AUX port, I didn't even bother hooking up a cable to it. You all probably know what I mean just from the title but I wanted to be clear, thanks in advance.