Best Buy, Circuit City or ebay?

[CitizenPro]

Fry's Electronics > All

 

[Breeegz]

installing isn't very hard... just take your time and don't rush..

I suggest buying a book like "The Car Stereo Cookbook" if you are still unsure. The $30 you spend on that book will be paid-for in the install costs of your first DIY install. Or you can get advice from these boards, & that is free, so you'll be paying yourself to install it.

 

[hello2000]

Are you serious?? I worked at Circuit City for two years, the discount for car stereo is about 50% off. A few years ago, I got MTX 6000's (retail $99) for $53.

Circuit City, (thumb). But thats because I get spakers for a discount. But our employee discount sucks balls.

I would say ebay, and install them yourself.

 

[smo0f]

This may seem biased, but I used to work as an audio installer at Circuit City. Hands down, best service is at Circuit City. I go to Best Buy every now and then and people either give me the wrong information, or it takes them 20 minutes to approach me to see if I need help. Eitherway, if you're not comfortable installing car audio stuff yourself, either best buy or circuit city will be cheaper than a mom&pop shop. Also compare offers and sales etc. A lot of time on speakers, it's buy 1 get 2nd half off, like CC used to have on polk and kicker. Oh also usually BB carries different brands from CC. Right now CC stocks MTX, Kicker, Infinity, Polk, Pioneer, and then the lower end stuff like Panasonic, and other no namers. Best Buy is big on Kenwood and Rockford Fosgate, two of my least favorite brands.

 

[josiah92]

i suggest infinity! (first) unlesss your isntalling everything for total bass(mtx or pioneer/alpine) infinity is better sound quality

 

[Poseur]

How about everyone take a step back from brand blindness. and just pretend you are blind. listen listen listen, let your ears tellyou, and nothing else. Ever notice how hard it is to do so in CCity or bestbuy's warehouse with a kiosk style environments? Perhaps there's a reason? or perhaps the sound doesn't really matter to them.

 

[FreakingNCorner]

Our instore accomodations suck. But if you buy stuff throught the vendors then its good. But you have to wait like 4-6 weeks for the vendor to ship you the speakers.

EX: 80Gb hard drive =$79.99
Instore employee price=$77.99

Heh... Even best buy gets a waaaay better employee discount than that.... I got some alpine type s speakers through accommodations....two pair w/shipping for $94 and i got them in FOUR business Days, even though it said it'd take 4-6 wks. DAMN! (thumb)

 

[EcLites]

Do you research and then hit ebay. Make sure you read the descriptions for the products!

 

[SHMENGIE]

Well, it is all done, the front doors are so narrow I was limited in the speaks I could buy, I went with some Blaupunkt 4.5" that are made especially for narrow places.

In the back doors I went with 5" Kenwoods, they sounded real nice in the store. And I got this amp online that when you turn it on it has some stupid bling light show in a round window (why would anyone want that stuff?) anyway, it sounds great and you can't see it unless you open the trunk.

I was quite surprised to see how cheap the factory speaks were! The rear speaks had a PLASTIC frame around the cheap cone, the fronts were mettle of some kind but real cheap.

I am very happy with the install that Best Buy did, this is the third one they have done for me and expect for some scratches on my SPARCO shift knob they did well.

 

[Fire-Starta]

Well, it is all done, the front doors are so narrow I was limited in the speaks I could buy, I went with some Blaupunkt 4.5" that are made especially for narrow places.

In the back doors I went with 5" Kenwoods, they sounded real nice in the store. And I got this amp online that when you turn it on it has some stupid bling light show in a round window (why would anyone want that stuff?) anyway, it sounds great and you can't see it unless you open the trunk.

I was quite surprised to see how cheap the factory speaks were! The rear speaks had a PLASTIC frame around the cheap cone, the fronts were mettle of some kind but real cheap.

I am very happy with the install that Best Buy did, this is the third one they have done for me and expect for some scratches on my SPARCO shift knob they did well.

You have to watch out with installs at bestbuy. My first system install was a simple amp/sub and they did everything fine except they turned all the settings on my alpine amp up max so my subs picked up frequencies above 100Hz. Just gotta watch out for that kind of stuff.

 

[smo0f]

They still were when i left 4 months ago. 65% off of polk audio and 60% off of monster cable...you can't beat that. Plus i got an XM MyFI for free, and top of the line intel processor/motherboard for 300 bucks total...if that isnt to be considered as 'good accomodations', then i dunno what would be..

since when? our accomodations were pretty good back in 2000.

 

[SHMENGIE]

You have to watch out with installs at bestbuy. My first system install was a simple amp/sub and they did everything fine except they turned all the settings on my alpine amp up max so my subs picked up frequencies above 100Hz. Just gotta watch out for that kind of stuff.

There are hundreds os Best Buys, I am sure that some of them have installers who suck, I have had good luck with mine (so far).

 

[AzMz6]

i normally hit up crutchfield, because they have good pricing and normally provide the wiring diagrams for you...

 

[tunersteve]

I think Crutchfield has some of the best reviews and descriptions of products you can find anywhere. As far as which one of those places I shop at, I honestly don't really shop at any of them. If I know a certain store has what I'm looking at, then I'll take a look at the product there. As said before, go to EVERY stereo store around when looking for new speakers and find what your ears like the most. I was looking at a set of Pioneers until a friend let me hear his setup of Oz Audio, and I was blown away by how much better it sounded. I just recently bought my new radio from www.etronics.com, but I first was able to find it at Best Buy to look at it in person. I saved about $150 by doing it myself, and it took me about a half hour to install. HU is the Alpine CDA-9855 btw.

 

[SHMENGIE]

Yup, I bought the amp and front speaks from Crutchfield, very good service and they knew that my front doors needed special, very flat sized speakers. If I had tried to buy those at Best Buy I don't know what they would have tried to do.

The rear 5 inchers that I bought were standard size (Kenwood).

 

[kodiak0942]

what ever you buy.. I'd recommend getting it from a store... CC, BB, Mom Pop ... does not matter... cause when you have a problem you have somewhere to go for service... as mentioned before.. get the service plan, it's a no brainer on speakers.. cause eventually they will not sound the same. As far as installing, it is real easy on your car, however if you don't feel comfortable messing with it, or just rather not be bothered... pay some one to do it... just make shure they guarantee what they do, and have been arround for some time.

 

[Canecreekfreak]

i rather buy from crutchfield and then go to a local audio shop to install them. i don't trust the "technicians" from bestbuy touching my car.

Ditto. I've heard too many horror stories about Best Buy folks to trust them. I worked for Circuit City way back in 95/96, and they did a complete system in my Porsche 944 and did it expertly. It even included a cd changer custom mounted in my glove box, and they replaced everything back in perfectly. But then again, it was 10 years ago.
I get most of my info. from Crutchfield now, and buy off ebay and install it myself. It's easy to do in most cases. If you can follow directions and turn a screw driver, 99% of the time you'll be able to do the work yourself. (thumb)