I Don’t Get It

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Maybe that is my major malfunction.  As a nation, heck, Wake Forest as a city and the surrounding areas love cars.  We need our cars.  Unless you live within a certain distance of a business district you cannot take a bus to the mall or work.  So, our cars are loved because they are also necessary.

Our state, like many, has been busy building roads to bypass these business districts so morning and evening commutes are better for the tax payers.  Still people are in their cars on average for 30 minutes each way.  I lived that rat race for years and my only consolation was music.

What I don’t get is this; why are so many people price shopping the speakers and radios that are installed in their cars and then choosing the cheap “Bionic” electronics website that sells you the wrong stuff and sends the wrong install parts?  Honestly, with some customers it’s as if speakers and radios were commodities like oil.  It’s as insane as some people who drive an extra 5 miles to save $.05 per gallon of gas and they still only buy 10 gallons.  I understand pockets are tight but let’s make sense at least when we are gripping those pennies.

For instance, some people will come into our store, “just looking” for car audio product.  They ask several questions and they get a lot of information from me.  When they ask the price their expressions change as if a skunk entered the room.  Yet during our car audio discussion it was revealed they have the latest iPhone, or an iPad, or a nice home entertainment system or to top it all off, a $600 a month car payment for which they are shopping new speakers because the “premium” sound package they are STILL paying for sounds terrible.

This is my point, folks.  How is it some people will think nothing of dropping $200 for an iPhone, $500 for an iPad, thousands for a decent home entertainment system or still make monthly payments for a vehicle yet when I reveal a pair of speakers cost $150, which by the way is a HUGE improvement on the paper speakers the factory installed, I get a look that evokes “you have lost your mind”?

I don’t get it.  Your iPod will get lost, your iPhone won’t even give you all the cool ringtones you want and you will be buying another one within 2 years because they upgrade them constantly, which you don’t question.  You never listen to your home entertainment system as much as you thought you would and your car, regardless of monthly payments or “premium amplified system”, has terrible sound if you still have the factory speakers.

What’s crazy is your car, which you will keep for a while and spend A LOT of time in commuting to work or school or just driving around in on the weekends, is the last place you will invest money in for a better experience.   How is that logical?  Yes, our phones are our everythings, and yet you still don’t get it.  Your phone is not your everything until you use it in your car for music and still not have to hold it. Your radio can control your iPhone as a music source for Pandora radio and iTunes and other internet radio choices.  Your speakers in your car, once replaced will make a huge difference in how it all sounds.

Or forget what kind of phone you have.  How about just enjoying the ride while you’re in it.  You’re in it every single day.  Like driving well adds to the experience, having great sounding music does even more.  For sound, it all matters.  The quality of music, cd or compressed file.  Radio and its features.  Having the right amplifier for your speakers.  How exactly can someone “save” money or even spend wisely by buying speakers they can’t listen to or a radio they can’t try out in person because they are buying them online?  Does that make sense?

“Too good to be true” is a mantra for most online electronics purchases if there ever was one.  Repeatedly, customers who only want us to install their online purchases are disappointed either with the quality or the sound and even sometimes by the fact the amplifier we are installing for their subwoofers is completely wrong.  “Online” can not assist you with what may sound best in your type of car.  “Online” cannot assist you with matching a better amplifier for subwoofers you want or already have.  “Online” doesn’t care if any of this is wrong because it doesn’t care.

As a small business, caring is essential to our livelihood and not some board that hasn’t a clue.  We get excited to know you love your audio.  We like knowing, “The Places You’ll Go” won’t seem so far because you’ll enjoy your music and, therefore, your commute.  Your new radio and speakers most likely can be removed when you’re done with that car and be installed into your replacement car that will most likely need new speakers.

I do get that we all love our gadgets.  However, if one of the advantages to these gadgets is music and yet it sounds terrible, then that gadget isn’t reaching its potential.  Buy the right speakers, they’ll last years and I don’t mean only two when a newer version comes out.  Personally, I have had the same speakers and amp in my vehicle for 6 years now.  I plan to finally get a new vehicle this year and when I do, the speakers and amp are coming with me because I know, regardless of the fancy wording, the factory speakers will be skunk.   Eww.!

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