After spending R14000 at a certain car audio place, I am ready to phone Rockford Fosgate's CEO and tell him EXACTLY what I think of their shitty products and service.

Under advice of this car audio place, they recommended the RFX9120G mp3 headunit which has very nice specs but a R3000 pricetag. I gulped and took the plunge. No matter what cd, type of cd, type of mp3, etc etc. it skips.

They've rewired my entire car because apparently that was the problem according to RF. I've tried CD-R, CDA and CD-RW and EVERY disc skips. The headunit got send to RF in Pietermaritzburg whereby they claimed nothing was wrong with the headunit and after TEN days they sent it back to me. I tried burning more cd's with my PC and laptop to no avail. This thing is a heap of shit.

So I took the car there yesterday and left it there the entire day. The Rockford representative apparently sat in my car for 2h30min and listened to CD's and could not hear it skip. Obviously this is bullshit because its been skipping for 5 weeks. He left a CD in the deck which he claims is perfect. Guess what?!?! It skipped all the way to work this morning. I'm at the stage where I'll sacrifice the R3000 just to be able to thrown this heap of shit at the RF CEO's face.

So this morning I phone there and very aggressively tell them that I want a different brand mp3 player. They offer me the JVC SX997R for the same price (R3000). So I start phoning other places. I can get it for R2100 INSTALLED at In Car Entertainment. So I promptly phoned this place back and told them to fuck off and stop ripping me off. I want an Alpine.

The saga continues .....*VENT* I'll keep ya'll updated.

BTW here are my specs.

RFX9120G headunit *die*
6.5" MB Quart DSE-216 splits
6.5" Blaupunkt Co-axials
12" Lightning Audio VC2
Lightning Audio B350.1 amp
Lightning Audio B300.4 amp
Lightning Audio 1 Farad capacitor

Put some Eno's pills in your mouth and run into the CEO's office screaming. That might help.

Or not, it will definitely be fun though.

Hahahah.... I can just picture the headlines now.

"Boy with rabies assaults Rockford CEO"

who is the Rockford agent in this country?
this is very usual in SA, a lot of reputable companies have idiot agents who not only have huge markups and dictate selling prices to dealers, but as usual have shit service.

BTW, how much did the rest of your setup cost? (excluding head unit)

Bought my stuff from Craighhall Car Radio, they're one of the agents.

Whole setup cost about R10800 ex headunit. (I had the capacitor left over from another installation)

sounds more like the agent are the people in Pietermaritzburg (why the hell pietmaritzburg?). I would find out the name of that company and contact Rockford and complain about the service the agent is giving. You never know, Rockford may take this into account and look for another agent to import and sell their products...

Well I was told RF is based in PMB (ie. not an agent) but I suppose it doesn't make sense for such a huge company to be based in a dorp like PMB.

The point of the matter is that this is my 2nd RF headunit in 5 weeks and its still fuct. I want another brand. *drool*Alpine*drool*

Audio Motive Distributors Southern Africa are the official Rockford Fosgate, Lightning Audio and MB Quart distributors, and yes, they are based in PMB.

www.rockaudio.co.za

Well from personal experience, they're shit.

My friends neva had any problems with his kit...

Does it skip when ur car is off as well?

Also, what type/how old is ur car?

Maybe u need ur car checked for vibrations or summin?

The previous Kenwood I had in the car worked flawlessly. My car is a Citi Golf, 2 years old (2002 model). The CD player skips when its moving and stationary. Skips with CD, CD-R and CD-RW. Skips with MP3's and CDDA.

In a nutshell, its crap. Looking to get the Alpine CDA-9807 or 9811.

R u sure they mounted it correctly?

using the correct retaining bracket?

and did they screw it in at the back?

have them switch it infront of you.

Seriously my friends worked like a charm!

Seriously, I've watched them install it a few times (this is my 2nd deck). There's just no way you can fuck it up. Besides, when playing MP3's it has a buffer so I could roll the car down the side of Table Mountain and it still shouldn't skip.

Like I said, it skips when the car is standing DEAD STILL, so how do you propose mounting it differently would help?

i think you just had a dud unit or 2. I have never used a RF myself, but have never ever heard anything but good of them.

I'm sure in the long run their products are amazing (not in my eyes though), but their service is shocking. The RF representative that looked at my car on Monday wrote down all these instructions on how to write MP3's to CD. One of the points he made is that I must record up to a maximum of 20x but if he reads the manual that comes with the headunit, he'll see that RF explicitly state that 12x is the max recording speed.

I politely phoned him and told him that he is a retard.

MY two cents (and you know this already thewanted_) is that you bought RF's bottom of the line, "budget" headunit. I've heard quite a few people make claims that RF has gone more "mainstream" the last few years, and that they are pushing out more and more mediocre equipment. Whether this is true or not is beyond me, but your experience, and my experience with the same deck, is that it's not up to the quality of their other headunits.

The Alpine headunit you just bought however... If that thing doesn't blow you away, I'll eat my undies. I look forward to a demo!

Yeah I tend to agree with your statement. RF should have stuck to speakers and amps because thats what they did best. I'm almost under the impression that a 3rd party makes RF's decks for them.

I just bought this Alpine headunit instead

Oh, 1 more thing, StNick .... I didn't expect to receive their "Bottom-of-the-line" headunit for R3000.

Furry muff...

Like I said, it skips when the car is standing DEAD STILL, so how do you propose mounting it differently would help?

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay....

sheesh, u try to help some ppl...

Does the decks face "flicker" when it skips? as in, when ur playing the music do the lights seems to dip?

Perhaps make sure the connected ur amps and stuff to the battery correctly?

Perhaps there is a loose wire some where between the deck and the amp?

Just trying to help dude...

Sorry bud, just hella annoyed cos I've tried everything I can think of. Didn't mean to take it out on you.

I had the car rewired last week Still didn't help. The deck doesn't flicker and it doesnt matter what volume you're playing it at.

Well I think my battle might finally be over. My Alpine deck is arriving tomorrow so hopefully this will be the end of my problems. I can honestly say I'll never recommend RF headunits to anyone.

Well, hopefully the Alpine deck will work.

I cant figure out what the issue could be.

Have been wracking my brains since I first read this topic.

My dad and I have been wiring shit into and out of cars together for years and even he just looked @ me and said "gotta luv ""new"" technology"

My dad swears by tape decks with cd shuttles - he hates front loaders.

Oh well, maybe RF isn't what it used to be?

I have a Clarion front loader in my Honda and had a few issues with it. Mine was the mounting bracket, some chop had removed the anti theft bracket and lost it at some point in the cars history. This made it vibrate in the centre console and skip to no end!

Eventually I got it sorted, funnily enough, by the dude who fitted my car kit. Seems the car kits mounting arm was just thick enough to secure the deck into place, and stop it moving in the centre console.

Keep us updated on the Alpine though...

Haha, thats ridiculous! Praise be to carkits

I want to find someone who will soundproof my car at a low-cost. EVERYTHING is rattling nowadays

The Alpine should arrive tomorrow and I'll definitely keep ya'll updated. It SHOULD be good for R3500!

Ohh well long time since I was last on here but an interesting topic since I too had one or two opinions on the Rockford products.

I Decided to buy a new car recently and do it up with a decent install. Naturally I also chose to go the route of Rockford which set me back a bit. Now the amplifiers and speakers etc are all awesome, I purchased the 9220G MP3 deck. It was, to say the least, an awesome product but the quality issues of the head unit compared to the rest of the stuff seemed a little dubious.

I would not disagree with the suggestion that they are made at some low rate sweatshop in China. The unit seemed to play well most of the time but for some reason when the CD player function was selected it decided to confuse itself at times and 'read' the CD for around ten minutes with no success. Also it had far from desireable buffering with the smallest rumble strip causing it untold grief.

That said it recently found a new home albeit forcibly removed from my vehicles possesion and needless to say I will be replacing it with a Sony.

From the services side, however, I used the online response feature on the international Rockford (www.rockford.com) site and always recived a prompt and accurate response that sorted out all of the problems.

Sound proofing is easy!

First thing u have to do is rip off ur inner door linings!

See the nice big cavities?

Find some thing to fill it with - bubble wrap, thick sponge - old carpet...

The nice hollow doors act like acoustic chambers. And amplify any small noise into BIG ANNOYING noise.

Obviously u need to be able to still open and close the windows, the door locks etc... (But u know this already)

My friend had this hard core stuff, cant remember what it was called though. Basically it expands sorta like shaving cream when exposed to air. Sets hard but can be removed and/or shaped with a sharp knife.
Used mostly to fix holes in house rooves (spelling) I've been told.

Anyway, he used this stuff on his Mazda 626's doors in all the hollow spaces, we spent all day doing that! we even removed the roof lining and placed and extra piece of cardboard (yes ur roof linings are nothing but vinyl or upholstrey covered cardboard... even in mercs) between the roof and the lining.

We actually worked alot on that damned car - before he smashed it and wrote it off...

I will ask my dad abt it this week end and see what he says.

get back to you on that.

It might be better for you though if u find a professional place to do it for you.

yup, i had to put in some sponging in my doors after having a stupid free-flow installed... lol may need to put some sponging in my ears for a long trip though.

I'm not really technically-minded so pulling my door panels off would probably just end up with a lot of swearing and self-hate

I've seen that foam stuff they put in the doors. Costs a fortune though!

Hurry up 4:30pm, I want my Alpine!

Did ur deck arrive?

Don't worry too much about ur doors inner workings.

A Golf isn't the most complex of vehicles.

All you have to do to remove ur panels is follow these simple steps:

1.) Remove the U-pin from the window winder. Remove window winder handle by gently pulling it towards you.
2.) Unscrew and remove ur door lock pin.
3.) Unscrew ur door handles, being the handle that you pull to open the door. There should be one screw holding the unit in place.
4.) Take a flat screwdriver and lift the door panel out of it's retaining clips CAREFULLY! U slip and tear the panel or break the clip it might flap after you put it back in irritate u more.
5.) After the panel is free from the door slide it over the door handle.

Now dont remove anything else! Especially if u have central locking.

U will need to have the window i the "up" position - as in closed fully.
Now u can start packing ur sound dampening material. Periodically though u will need to close the window to make sure that you are not affecting the internals of the door.

I still have a feeling it might be easier to find a place that will do it for you though. I know what to do and how to do it (especially on my car - I ripped this poor Honda apart enough times) so for me to explain is easy. But to open up ur car for the first time can be abit scary and u might risk causing serious damage if u dunno what ur doing.

while we're on the sound topic, I might have found a nice place to fit my tweeters...

And now...

just the right amount of pressure...

All done!

A nice open space!

Or maybe here in the actual door?

the open door vent... maybe should fit a cathode in here?

Hmmm....

Nice pics!

LOVING this Alpine deck!! Holy crap, EVERYTHING sounds better. There's like a million more settings eg. HPF, LPF, etc etc.

AND it reads the ID3 tags! WHOOP!!!

which model alpine did you get - the 9813 has the 4.5 volt preouts and i was gonna get me one of those till i managed to get a pioneer keh3600 with a pioneer vccs 12" sub and a starsound 60x4 + 100x1 5 channel amp with built in crossover - all for the price of the alpine headunit

the pioneers not bad - just gotta install all the other stuff - when its done ill post some piccies - ive also got a citi golf too - nice cars to put some sound into IMHO

I got me the Alpine CDA-9811, there's a picture of it on the 1st page of this thread. AWESOME deck, seriously. I'm surprised at how much fuller and more defined everything sounds and thats just from changing the headunit, nothing else. My MB Quart's are finally living up to their pricetag

I'll post some pictures when the sun is shining again in JHB. Can't take pics in the rain

As long as it works.

I have lost all my project logs on the mods done to my car...

some fuckers robbed my house yesterday and cleared us out.

the nailed my pc the bastards!

R12k gone - poof! just like that!

and i had just upgraded too!

Fuck man!! Please tell me it was insured!

I feel for you.

Yeah, gotta insure the gaming rig!

I am so pissed off!

I lost 3 years worth of work!

they took everything even my fucking backups...

they left my screen though?

thank god for small miracles.

while the topic is about Rockford Fosgate,

I saw a killer VW Golf yesterday at Craighall auto.

the entire boot area has been turned into a RF sound box!

2 hardcore amps and its loaded with speakers.

They covered the boot panels with a custom moulded RF cover with a nice window.

Might go back and take a few pics with my digi-cam.

Was awesome!

After lookingat the setup I started getting idea's for my boot area... I have a nice big boot. I would love some awesome sound like that!

But alas, I'd rather buy my car some nice 16" low profile mags...

*Flips coin... mags win everytime.

Yeah I've seen that Golf! The mono-block and 4 channel amp are the EXACT same amps I'm running. Did you see the MBQ's in the doors and floorboard?! They sound amazing.

That custom install in the boot must cost at least R10000. The WHOLE car is soundproofed too.

They're the ones who installed my sound

Edit: What I didn't like about that RF window is that the speakers beneath it aren't centered! They're off to the right

yeah, that also miffed me out a little.

They maybe could have done a neater job there?

maybe the layout of the tyre well made them have to do this.

I was going to add some sound to my car, but this whole robbery thing has freaked me out big time!

they have the spare keys to my car along with my remot immoboliser!

Luckily though the nice guys at Shurlock changed the frequency, but they still have my keys...

I fitted a gear lock though.

I just need to convince the insurance co. to pay for my new door locks.
Honda wanted R4600 to fit the new locking out fit - 2 x door locks, 1x boot lock 1x ignition lock, 1x internal cabin boot lock.

After my car has been sorted security wise - I might consider adding to the existing sound.

Am still pissed of about my pc!

Insurance wants to pay me back less 20% on that... am under insured...

go figure

bought myself the alpine 9807 yesterday. have been very impressed with the playback quality and features.

only gripe: it DOES NOT HAVE RDS!!!! reads mp3 tags etc, but can't do RDS, which is such a basic feature...

You should see thewanted_'s stuff, its well sweet.

R10 000 system with no RDS?

Who listens to the radio anyway when you've got mp3 playback capabilities?

All those useless "DJ's" do is talk talk talk.

Hehe, LoudHoward you should hear it now in my new car ... its sounding so good.

i just want to know the reasoning behind the omission of such a basic feature, which is available in the next model up i think.

btw. also realised that car sounds is huge rip-off locally. price of 9807 in usa: $200, cheapest retail i've found is autostyle, R2195.

Yes they should've put RDS in. I paid R3500 for my 9811 and it doesn't have it.

Car audio is the same as PC components, we get totally ripped off in this country.