I'm looking for a custom sound install place. Unfortunately, I can't do any car work work at my condo so I don't have the option of saving the loot and doing it myself. I also don't really trust the chains like Al & Eds to do the quality of work I'm looking for. I know of Paris Audio and I was going to cruise by and see what they carried, but does anyone know of any reputable places around town?

Reputable...No
Sketchy....YES.

I went to Al & Eds on WIlshire a few months ago, just to see how much an alarm was nowadays, man are they expensive.

Sorry no help here.
RR:(

Yeah, it's the sketchy part that's going to be hard to avoid. It looks like Paris Audio went out of business from the paper covering the windows. I checked Beverly Hills Custom Sound because it's right by my house and he gave me an estimate, but I need to check prices on what he quoted and shop around some more.

Edit: omg, he told me they'd use Diesel Audio amps, a 440W 2-channel and 700W 4-channel. I thought maybe I just hadn't been around car audio enough to have heard of them. Turns out, after searching on the web, those amps together go for like $200. Clean sound? Yeah right. I never heard of them because they're bargain basement amps. I guess I just weeded out a sketchy shop. It wouldn't be so bad but for amps, MB Quart front and rear (component front, coax rear), and sub he said $1700 + install. Seesh, calculating it on my own that's $900 tops with those ****-ass amps.

For people searching the forums in the future:
car audio installer los angeles L.A. Beverly Hills Custom Sound not best not recommended

I would highly recommend Sounds Good in Woodland Hills. Sure a bit of a drive from WLA, but you could get into the Valley via PCH, and Old Topanga, so it would not be a wasted drive. The owner, Isaac, is a very cool guy, and extremely knowledgable. He has done almost every recording artist' car/SUV, but he is extremely realistic. His personal opinion of the WRX sound was that it is was not bad, and with installing a proper amp and then balancing out each speaker for freq range, for about $300 installed he could get it operating at peak performance, with a great sound. He just doesn't believe in diving in and replacing everything, unless you tell him money is no object, then of course he will give you an incredible system with back up cameras, RF remote controls, LCD's everywhere, and the list keeps going.

He is a real, and honest. Here is the contact info:

Sounds Good Audio, Security, & Marine
6405 Independence Ave. Woodland Hills, CA 91367, USA
Phone: (818) 999-4523 Fax: (818) 999-0449

(If you know the valley he is near the Fry's in Warner Center, and Pierce College).

PS: You can mention that Jeff, the guy with the Blue WRX sent you. You could also not mention that he would treat just as nice.
Oh BTW: here is there web site: http://www.sounds-good-stereo.com

I vote for sounds good too.

i went there to check them out, but ended up not going to them becasue i couldn't afford it :(

Cool, thanks for the rec. I actually found them earlier today on the web, but because of the distance I wasn't jumping to try them out (that and no offense, any shop can have a webpage and it doesn't give them legitimacy). However, since you have personal experience with them, I will gladly give them a shot.

www.audiooptions.com

I don't know if they are still in business, but Haas auto stereo in Culver City is good. The owners there actually do care about the work they put into the cars. I know, I used to work there.

Matt