Here are three questions to ask yourself if you are an installer, or to ask your installer if you are a shop owner. If you can’t answer any of them, then you need a course in basic audio training, according to 12 volt experts.
- 1) What is the technical way to describe a frequency range of 100 Hz – 200 Hz?
- 2) If you double the power to a speaker, what is the maximum SPL increase you can expect?
- 3) Name the individual filters you would find in a 3-way crossover network
(We’ll provide the answers tomorrow).
With more consumers keeping their radios and with the rise of aftermarket digital signal processors, DSPs, as a solution to add better sound, car audio is getting complex and there’s an increasing need for acoustic training.
Without audio basics knowledge, it’s going to be difficult to determine the type of signal coming from the factory radio and how to best address it. And if you do decide to bring in a DSP, there’s an infinite number of settings, so training is key.
Trainer Ken Ward of Educar says, “If you’ve got a DSP that’s designed to make your car sound great it will have literally hundreds of different adjustments. If you are going to go in and use them, there’s a sequence you need to follow. If you do some things before others, you’ll get poor results. Companies don’t necessarily tell you how to get the results and our industry is expecting the manufacturers to be the source of the training and none of the audio manufacturers are large enough to take on that problem.”
“At the end of the day, we have customers and cars that leave a shop that may be just okay,” said Todd Ramsey of Ramsey Consulting Group. “We can’t be just okay, we have to be fantastic. We have to be expert and that’s what I’m worried about right now.”
Ramsey added, “I just think some shops may have a work force that doesn’t quite understand things; they may not know that their guys don’t quite get this and they are letting them set up DSPs and they’re doing okay but just okay and not fantastic.”
Suppliers such as Elettromedia, AudioControl, JL Audio, Audiofrog and others are offering intensive training programs. And there’s KnowledgeFest industry training events throughout the year from the MEA Group.
But for those retailers who seek out additional training, here are some providers:
Bryan Schmitt
Mobile Solutions
Tempe, AZ
480.968.2074
Jason Kranitz
Kingpin University
Wilsonville, OR
(503) 888-0828
https://kingpinuniversity.com/training-classes
Ken Ward
Educar Training
Beaverton OR 97008
971-238-9335
Additional part-time or occasional trainers:
The Ramsey Consulting Group, Inc.
Phoenix, AZ
(480) 706-9828
Jeff Cantrell
Jackson Car Audio Inc.
Jackson TN 38305
731-660-2834
Dave MacKinnon
Of Sound Mind Labs
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
289-681-3400
Mike Schwitz
Sound Connection Inc
[email protected]
There are several other well-known trainers we were unable to contact. Feel free to add your name in the comment list if you provide 12 volt audio training.
More concerning for me is the fact that sales associates who can answer all three, perhaps any of these, questions are almost extinct. If the product can’t be sold it never gets a chance to be installed. Are there more installers who can’t answer all three than can answer all three? I wouldn’t be surprised by how many can’t. I certainly hope that more can than can’t.
Are there more sales associates who can’t answer all three than can answer all three? That I might wager on.
I think most industry veterans would expect installers to know this. During the good old days in our industry sales associates had as much knowledge as installers, maybe not as mechanically inclined, but as knowledgeable. Sales associates should go through the same knowledge based training that an installer needs. Sales may not need the hands on training but a good installer really appreciates a sales associate who can sell a system that can actually be installed.
I would encourage all of the educators above to push a sales training curriculum as well. The industry needs that as much as we needed the installer trainings you have made available. Thanks to these guys.
If you can’t answer these three these 3 basic moron level questions correctly, you are just a hack. Johnnydiode….MECP MASTER#10…1992..OLD SCHOOL M F ers…
Chris Bennett from Audiocontrol does trainings as well