Hi, all. Many of you have commented on how the "Official Vendor" tag has recently appeared after my name, and wondered what's going on.

Some of you who have read my posts for months, and have noticed how they tend towards the irreverent, the sarcastic, the opinionated, and the contrary, may wonder how this will affect my posting. Let me try to explain both in one post.

First off, on April 1 I am opening a small car audio store in Portland, OR. I started in car audio in 1986, and have experience at many levels of the industry. So why, at 39, am I starting a car audio store (after making friends promise to put a cap in me if I ever went back to retail?)

Well, here's the thinking. If you want a new head unit (like a Pioneer AVIC-N2), there are a lot of people who want to take your money and sell it to you. If you want two 12" subs in your trunk, there are a lot of people who want to sell you that.

But if you want your TSX, or G35, or TL, or A4, to sound better, and keep the factory head unit - VERY few people seem to know what to do. I called around - it's just about impossible.

Now, for me to try to sell two 12" subs and an amp cheaper than Circuit or Best Buy or eBay - that would be hard. Not gonna happen. Real custom work - like what Ron does at StreetEffectz - is the area that those sellers just can't deliver, and if you want true custom work you need to go to someone like StreetEffectz - they are the stuff.

But for a thirty-something who listens to techno and alt-country and all sorts of other things to be able to upgrade his audio for less than $1K installed (in a good- better-best scenario, I am thinking $800/$1200/$2000) and NOT HAVE to have a sub - that's my plan.

When you walk into a Bose store, they don't give you a lot of options - they just offer you a couple. It seems simple and non-threatening. When you walk into a Car Toys or a Tweeter or an Al and Ed's, they have crap mounted everywhere. For a non-enthusiast, it's really intimidating.

So what I want to do is have a few CD players - but I want to specialize in adding amps and speakers to the in-dash that came from the factory, especially like in the TSX, where it's just begging for it. I have a number of systems already pre-defined for various cars. Everything is behind the factory grille, I have 2004 wiring diagrams on almost every system, and I can make things sound very good.

I have sourced some seperates and coaxials that are made in Europe, by a maker that you would probably recognize if I named it, who will supply me with some quality speakers with the "avincar" brand and with my own custom passive xovers. I have found some good mid-fi 6x9 woofers (30-50W of amp power), and working on some nicer ones. I have some good upgraded speakers from a/d/s/, DLS, Dynaudio, and some Nakamichi coaxials for the entry-level. I have some in-dash units from Nak and amps from DLS that are good and have one HUGE feature for this kind of architecture - they have variable subsonic high-pass filters from 15 Hz and up, tunable to what sounds best in each car. I spend a couple of thousand on a real-time analyzer and a distortion meter and an FFT analyzer and an impedance meter and an oscilloscope.

I plan on carrying Bluetooth HF kits, some stealth radar detectors, alarms and remote starts, and iPod interfaces (still haven't taken any time to figure the 2005 TSX, but hopefully front end of April).

Some of you may also notice that I often recommend some gear I don't have on my list: JL Audio, MB Quart, Viper, etc.

Here's a fundamental truth of retail: You never carry all the good brands. Another is that many different brands are capable of making a good system, when designed and installed correctly. It's getting the right design and install... : )

JL is a good brand. So is MB Quart (although Rockford is doing its best to hose it all up). Sometimes they make the best option for someone. But I think I can do well with the brands I have, still get people into low prices and low budgets, and have good sound that lasts a long time. You can build a great system with DLS, with Dynaudio, with Nakamichi, with Clifford, and even with my avincar speakers : )

So I will continue to give my opinions about various brands (for instance, I HATES Audiobahn, and you may notice an antipathy towards Soundstream as a supplier). You might think I am only talking good about the brands I carry. Consider that maybe I carry those brands because I thought well of them BEFORE I sold them... ?

And I will continue to offer the best advice I can. I don't want any of you to think that I will no longer show up to offer advice or answers just because that now that I'm a Vendor, I only show up for Group Buys or whatnot. That's not what I want to do.

And if you are doing subs, I will still happily help - just because it's not my core business doesn't mean that I don't know how to do it. But if you are going for sick-making bass, it's not my speciality, and I'll be the first one to tell ya. I'm more the SQ-on-a-budget guy. I can do kick panels, but I get a bigger thrill out of getting you the best sound, out of the factory locations, as you can get.

I can't make disparaging comments about other vendor's gear - that wouldn't be cool. If I sell you something, please know that I'll be there to help you get it working the way it should. I don't even plan on selling very hard - if you do research on DLS speakers, for instance, which I CAN'T ADVERTISE FOR SALE ON THE INTERNET, of course - but if you researched them and their SQ performance, you would know their rep without me blowing smoke up your butt.

If there are products from my suppliers that someone wants, I will be happy to help you find a place to buy them, and make sure you get a good price. Please feel free to PM me with questions (apparently this O.V. tag comes with room for 700 PMs in my Inbox!) I will continue to recommend that anyone east of the Rockies get custom work done at Street Effectz - they are a great shop.

But if you're in Portland, Oregon - give me a call, OK? : )

Ken (El Duderino)
avincar.com
el_duderino at comcast dot net

 

Congrats Ken

Will you be selling through your website? I am planning on buying a few audio components in the near future, and would like to buy them from you if possible.



I need all of this.

 

Thanks!

Not throught the website - this is contractually prohibited with many brands. Ask Ron : )

But you can PM me...: )

 

Congrats Eld!

Good luck with the new business

 

congratz!

wow that was a long post!

 

Congratulations Ken! I'm betting you'll still be a smartass though. : )

I really like the plan; I'm sure there's many people that want good sound without the aftermarket look or the worry of theft.

I wish I had time to drive over there to pay you to use some of your fancy gear to help me tune my system!

Good luck Dude!

 

For all the people that don't have too much time to read the entire post, what exactly are your offerings?

Auto AV equipment and installation?

 

Awesome, good luck.

 

Welcome aboard Ken...!!

 

Congrats and I like the web site. Enjoy reading your posts and wish you the best of luck. Sounds like you have some pretty cool tools as well regarding the spectrum analyzer and so forth.

 

hey ken, congrats on the new venture and i hope it all goes well.

 

Good luck with the venture Ken. Hope it works out for you. If I'm ever in Portland I'll drop in.

 

good luck, i must say i've learned a fair amount from your posts so it only seems right that you join SE as a vendor. . . .although i think your user title ought to be "SMARTASS Official Vendor"

 

Ken, CONGRATZ.. iTS About TimE! hehe

cant thank you enuff for all the help you have given on this forum... its a pleasure

hiren

 

Eld has went out of his way to help many, many people on this forum.
Before and after the merger he's been

 

Good Luck Ken i hope your successfull.
my advise is dont quit your day job. internet is ugly! prices are so competitive it is hard to make any good money.
i used to run an internet e commerce site selling over 500 products in caraudio gear. was hooked directly to the manufacturer on many brands of products. with ebay just a click away its hard to be competitive.
i hope it works out for you though i wish you the best of luck.
you may have noticed i havnt been in here much. to be honest i am so compleatly swamped with my agency i dont have even a minute to come to the board lately.
in fact i just found out i am one of the lead producers for the company i represent nation wide!
but ill try my best to come bust your balls once in a while! LOL

anyway hope it works out for you.

 

el duderino rawks da house
haha

congratulations and goodluck

 

 

Best of luck. Can't thank you enough for all of the wise advice you've provided me over the last few months.

 

yea eldude.. props to you in starting your store.. you've been an asset to the tsx forums, and now acurazine

 

Ken,

Please move to Philly.

Thank you,
Jon