I think the ones that are defending their installation profession probably
represent the 'good' installers/car audio shops that are out there. But
at
the same time I agree with Mark in the fact that it is hard to come by
'good' installers across the board. I've only had two installations done
by
someone other than myself. The first time was years ago when I first got
into this and I didn't know all the nuances of car audio. I traded in the
vehicle so I had to reverse engineer what the installer did and realized
that this wasn't rocket science. Then I started doing it myself. The
second instance was during the winter time and I didn't have the ability
to
do it myself so I found a place to do it. Both of my experiences were
fine
though.

But, there have been times where I gone in asking detailed questions about
products only to get blown off by the salesperson or told that there is no
such product when I know there was. Another occasion I was told by the
owner of the store that I didn't know nothing about T/S parameters and I
had
them all wrong. One other time the guy was trying to get me to ditch what
I
currently had and jump full bore into some $1500 system.

It's definitely a hit/miss situation. I usually don't bother with the
local
shops nowadays unless I need a part or something straightforward.

Salesman are another story entirely. Most of them have no installation
experience, and don't know a damned thing about anything.

Again, I'll probably be criticized for this too because someone will come
along and not know the difference between the words "most" and "all".