drew703

iTrader: (1)

Well the title pretty much gives the whole question. Santa just brought me a new kenwood head unit, and in last car ('01 jetta) I just ended up taking it to circuit city to get installed. I already have a dash kit (metra) for it, and the cd player. But I'm a little hesistant now, because I took it by circuit city and by best buy -- both places really gave that "Damn I dont know how" vibe when i was asking about install there. Also both places have yet to do any car audio work on a 350z...but I unfortunately WOULD not even attempt to do it myself, so my options are kinda limited. Have any of you all gotten work done at either of these places, or got any advice as to where I should get the head unit installed?

TIA

-drew

FBlade1

Since your in the Md area take it to Tweeter. The one in Towson Md did my install and many other Z's in the area. The only compliant I have is there a little more expensive than other places but the quality of the install is great.

drew703

iTrader: (1)

Fblade-

Hey thanks for the info. Do you have a contact number, or someone I should ask for? Also do you have an address or website for Tweeter?

Thanks again

-drew

FBlade1

The # there is 410-339-7210. Ask for Matt who is the lead installer. Tell him Riley refered you. Here's their web address.

http://www.tweeter.com/home/index.jsp

drew703

iTrader: (1)

Thanks man, I really appreciate it!

-drew

andyisphat2004

iTrader: (1)

tweeter in towson will screw you. my roomte had his system put in there. It cost 9 Gs then we went to a local place about 20 minutes down the road and they said they could have done it all for 6. I think the name of the place was Audio profile, in glen burnie MD, but if you are interested i can get the name for sure.

maximadave

That sounds kinda fishy to me.

I used to work for Tweeter. Definately top notch installers. Take it there.

gaseous

Hey Drew,

Taking the car apart to install the headunit is simple. Our cars pull apart pretty easily. The difficulty comes in the wiring harness, which can be said for all cars actually. I was lucky enough to grab my cousin this past summer when he was here to solder my lines since I couldn't find a wiring harness at the time.

If you can find a wiring harness then you can do the install yourself. If you can't then tweeter isn't bad at all. I had my sub enclosure done at the Tweeter up at Towson that FBlade1 mentioned. Matt did my car and the quality was top notch. Tweeter prices are always a bit higher, but it is quality craftsmanship.

I'd say first look to see if you can get a wiring harness. It only gets easier from there.

- thai

andyisphat2004

iTrader: (1)

not saying they werent top notch installers. the system is great, just overpriced.

mattg85

A few weeks ago I bought a head unit for my Z and didn't want to install it myself, so I figured Best Buy would be the best place to go. I was informed that if you are lucky enough to have the base stereo (non-Bose), you will have no problem getting the unit installed, provided you have the wiring harness and dash kit (I went to Crutchfield), because Best Buy won't be able to find it for you, at least the Best Buy's in MI couldn't. Anyways, the non-Bose install takes about 25 minutes, and that was with a guy who hadn't worked on a Z yet. However, if you do have a Bose system, it's going to take a few hours and a few hundred bucks to gut the system to install the new unit, and you'll be lucky if they can get your sub to work again. All told, I spent $4.00 for Best Buy's install and around $40.00 from crutchfield for the dash kit and wiring harness (which is a universal harness for Nissan's 1995+). It's been a few weeks and I haven't had any problems. Judging from what others have said about Tweeter, it might be a waste of money (if you have the non-Bose) to go there instead of Best Buy, only problem is, you will have to find a cool guy to do the install at a place like BB, cuz I had to call around before I found a guy who would touch the thing.

drew703

iTrader: (1)

Thanks everyone for input and advice. I gave Tweeter a call, and headed out there to set an appointment and pay for install. (They said I had to pay to guarantee the appointment and work to be done). The CC and BB's around here in Northern VA were charging between 60-70 for labor just to get the new head unit installed, and when everyone told me that Tweeter was a little pricey, I was expecting the install to be 80+ there - I got to Tweeter (Towson, MD) and it was only about $50! So yeah, I mean it's still $50, but that's still less than all the other places I checked out. Plus the guy I talked to immediately assured me they had done several 350z's, and everyone's been very satisfied with their work done. So I'm pretty much all set now, heading there tomorrow morning for the install!

thanks again all

-drew

abstrakt

iTrader: (10)

drew, just curious? how did the install go? how was the service there?

drew703

iTrader: (1)

Haha, my bad I've been having way too much fun with just this head unit!

Update:

Install was great, I got there around 11am, there was one lady ahead of me and I was out of there by around 12pm. The service was great. Everyone there was really helpful and knowledgeable -- even though this wasn't exactly major work done on my car. Install was perfect though, and if anyone in the area is debating where to go, definitely give Tweeter a call. Again I was recommended to the Towson store, and it was great. I'm sure other area Tweeters are just as good, but I knew I wanted to go to place that had already worked on Z's.

Check with Frank in car audio, he was the one who helped me out.

As for my HU, I definitely will post up some pics soon, it's actually really perfect for the Z's interior! The screen has something like 67 changeable colors, and then the lighting on the buttons themselves are either red or green...now take a wild guess what I did. I set the screen to match the already orange lighting of our dash/buttons (there are about 3 shades of orange on this HU, one of them matches PERFECT), then of course I set the buttons for red, so that covers the red that is already in our dash And the face plate is motorized, and I'm a pretty immature guy so you can imagine how easily amused I was with the face plate moving out and in, angling up/down, etc. The sound quality is great too, even though I still have factory speakers and all. I'm still not sure yet how much more I'm gonna delve into the car audio side just yet -- I have my wheels/tires to afford, and then I'll work on audio some more most likely.

Anyways point of my rambling though, kudos to Tweeter in Towson, MD.

ps, if anyone in the area wants to see the HU or see the dask kit I got -- from Auto Sound Gear --

http://www.autosoundgear.com/tek9.as...cific=jppniqg8

Their kit IS AWESOME. Even the guy installing my HU complimented on how nice it looked. The thing is, when I ordered my HU from Crutchfield, they sent me a Metra kit as well. So I was kinda stuck with two dask kits for the HU. But when I took them both out, the one from auto sound gear looked a little nicer -- once I had it installed, I was very happy with my choice. It's only $21, and despite what it says, if you have Non-bose, you actually DONT need the antenna thing they recommend.

Anyways this post is getting way too long for what's been said, so my bad, thanks for reading!

-drew