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Another Exile Stereo Build


shenard

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....and add another bluetop battery so I can dedicate two batteries to stereo and one as starter battery.

I think most folks would agree that the bluetop will give you pretty equivalent specs to to a G24 lead/acid battery at 2x the price. Better value would be to run a group 29, which is basically 2x group 24 specs. You definitely can get it under the seat with the two factory group 24s.

The optimas also hold a charge at 13.1v, so any time you have the optima combined with your lead acid batteries it's going to be discharging to the lead acids, even if they are fully charged (at 12.6v). There may be reasons to run optimas (weight, less likely to discharge, etc), but I think you'll be doing the battery a disservice by running it alongside lead acid batteries (unless I misunderstood and you are replacing the two factory batteries and adding a third?).

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I have three optima blue top sc34M batteries. My dealer puts in two new optimas when you buy the boat and I took one out of my three battery setup from before so they are all the same battery so that Gould be fine right?

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Edited by shenard
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Looking good Scott, I think your going to really be pleased with Exile and the performance. Its nice to see another Exile build going on here, and beautiful LSV, that blue/white looks awesome....congrats on the new ride. LOL, looks like most of the work in the death chamber is done.... almost got stuck in there a few times! Keep the pics coming :)

Edited by Fman
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Looking good Scott, I think your going to really be pleased with Exile and the performance. Its nice to see another Exile build going on here, and beautiful LSV, that blue/white looks awesome....congrats on the new ride. LOL, looks like most of the work in the death chamber is done.... almost got stuck in there a few times! Keep the pics coming :)

Yes, thankfully!! I am so sore in places I have never hurt before!

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I have three optima blue top sc34M batteries. My dealer puts in two new optimas when you buy the boat and I took one out of my three battery setup from before so they are all the same battery so that Gould be fine right?

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yeah scratch my comment about mixing agm and sla. still.... only 50 ah for a $200 battery = ouch. The interstate group 29s are like twice that at half the price. But oh well, it's not like you want to replace the two batteries you have and as long as you aren't going for an "all day at the party cove" kind of setup you should be fine.

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Nice work and congrats on your first install. Looks like your getting it handled!

That's real sad you decided to go it alone after a poor experience at Earmark, but SOOOO much more rewarding.

  • Like 1
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I'm with IXFE on this one... you sir are crazy fast on your install. Nice job so far.

Thanks. Can't wait to get back from Vegas on Wednesday to try and finish everything up. I may have unrealistic goals but I am going to try and do sub install, 6 tower speakers, ZLD hookup/mounting and tuning in a day and a half! Have to finish before Memorial Day and also need time to get my boat in the water next week (which only has 0.7 hours on it currently) and break it in

Edited by shenard
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Nice boat nice install. And nice dig at Earmark. You thread would be 10x better if you would have kept that comment out.

  • Like 1
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Nice boat nice install. And nice dig at Earmark. You thread would be 10x better if you would have kept that comment out.

What dig...? I honestly had to go back and re-read the OP to even realize what you were referencing. Way to draw attention to it.

If you knew what they did to his boat you wouldn't be so quick to attack him.

Go ahead... PM him and find out.

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Hey just pointing out the obvious. His words not mine. Truthfully I don't care what they did to his boat, poor form.

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Poor form? Really? You don't even know the story........

If they messed up and he gave them every opportunity to correct it he is WELL within his right to express his dissatisfaction.

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God forbid someone share a bad experience! Really? Why the hell not? Are We are only allowed to talk about good things?

Life is not all roses and rainbows, ish happens and its all about how its dealt with.

Hate to say it Earmark Marine, Wetsounds.....they are not untouchable, they can F' ish up too and they can also deal with ish wrong.....nothing wrong with sharing either way.

Edited by Bawshogg
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First I want to say that I typically stay completely out of these types of threads. Anyone that knows me or has done business with me knows that I am on the forums only to help and take care of my customers, and I stay out of the petty arguments, brand bashing and trash talking. I know that there has been some animosity between certain forum members and manufacturers over the years, and while I understand that everyone has their own opinions I want to make it clear that I (Odin Mattes) have never made any negative comments about any forum member or vendor/manufacturer. I respect everyone's opinion and choice of equipment, whether I happen to sell that equipment or not. I would have ignored this thread except Scott has chosen to misrepresent the facts in a way that reflects negatively on Earmark and I have a responsibility to clarify those misrepresentations.

Scott didn't have a problem with Earmark, and he didn't "choose not to go back to Earmark". I declined to do the work that Scott asked me to do, and for that reason he is upset and chose to bring it up on the forum in an attempt to slander Earmark.

Here are the facts. Several years ago, Scott had the Earmark store in Lewisville do some work for him. He purchased a set of tower speakers from the Earmark store in Lewisville and had them install the tower speakers and some other equipment. During the course of that installation some minor damage was done to the gelcoat of Scott's boat, which Earmark in Lewisville promptly had professionally fixed by the dealer at no expense to Scott. It's unfortunate, but sometimes mistakes happen. I think that it is important to note that Earmark in Lewisville took full responsibility for the damage and had it professionally fixed to Scott's satisfaction immediately, without any hesitation and without any cost to Scott. They simply took responsibility and did the right thing. This has always been the way Earmark handles problems that inevitably arise from time to time, and I know that Joe Parker and myself both continue to uphold that same standard of customer service.

Moving forward several years to the present day.

Scott sent a message to David (former owner of the Earmark stores) seeking help with his new boat installation and wanting Earmark to do the installation. David referred Scott to me, and Scott emailed me and told me that David had referred him to me. In case anyone here isn't aware, David retired from Earmark in 2013, and as of July 2013 Earmark in Lewisville is owned and operated by Joe Parker and Earmark in Plano and the Earmark online store are owned and operated by myself (Odin Mattes). Anyway, Scott contacted me by email AND came by the Plano store asking us to fabricate a custom subwoofer enclosure for him and tune his system. Scott made it a point in his email to me to tell me how satisfied he was with his prior experience with Earmark and that he wanted Earmark to work on his new boat.

This is clear evidence that Scott did NOT choose not to do business with Earmark, and in fact he was so satisfied with Earmark's reputation and his previous experience that he sought out Earmark again to work on his new boat. I chose not to work on Scott's boat for a very simple and clearly stated reason, which I will explain here so that there is no misunderstanding. And I communicated all of this to Scott before he created this thread and chose to make negative comments about Earmark.


Which brings me to the reason that Scott has chosen to make statements that misrepresent the facts in an attempt to slander Earmark. Scott advised me that he had already purchased all of the equipment for his new boat, and that he only wanted to use Earmark to fabricate a custom subwoofer enclosure and tune the system.

Earmark services and installs what we sell. We stay so consistently busy servicing Earmark customers, and given that our trained and experienced technicians are such truly a limited resource (with us and industry wide) we simply don't have the excess capacity to take in work where we didn't sell the equipment. It's not that we wouldn't like to take care of everyone, but we simply don't have the capacity to service everyone and we have to prioritize our customers first.

In the past, when we took in jobs where the client brought us his product, our shop was often booked out for several days or even weeks because of our hard-earned reputation for excellent quality installation and service after the sale. When we had a client that wanted to purchase his product from us accompanied by an installation and we told him he would have to wait an extended time to get his job done …. Well you can figure out what happened next, they went somewhere else where the waiting period was shorter. So now we only install and service what we sell. Also, I genuinely believe that focusing on systems of our own design and origin allows us to provide a superior service to those customers.

We would appreciate the opportunity to earn every potential customer's business. We are always competitive with any authorized dealer of the products that we sell and we have a very simple price-matching policy, so we don't want to lose your business over price. I would like to invite anyone to contact me or come into our store and let us show you all of the options we have available to you and allow us to make you another satisfied Earmark customer.

I am truly sorry that Scott was upset that I declined to fabricate his enclosure and tune his boat, and I wish him the best of luck with his installation and system. I hope that everyone who reads this can understand my position, and know that I never take lightly the decision to decline a customer's request, but after 35 years in business we have learned that if we are going to offer Earmark customers the absolute best customer service and overall experience that we must manage our resources in a way that best serves all of our customers.

Odin

Earmark



Edited by Earmark Marine
  • Like 3
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It would have been nice to just ignore Scott's first comment. But some are pushing it along, and those individuals have no idea what really transpired. They only know what Scott is telling them.

Scott Hernard (shernard) PM'd me here on TMC on April 28th, 2015, asking for my assistance.

He wrote, "You guys (when you were still there) actually did my entire installation in my 2011 VLX in Lewisville and it sounded great except I should have gone for a 12" sub at the time instead of a 10W6."

Everything was fine until Odin declined Scott's request for Earmark to do work for Scott. All this is motivated as payback for declining the project. Very sad.

Did Earmark originally damage Scott's gelcoat under my watch and ownership years ago? Yes we did. The moment I found out about it, I immediately got a number from the BU dealer, had that check written at light speed, signed it, and had it delivered to the BU dealer service manager within a day of learning of the damage. It was our mistake and we totally owned it.

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It would have been nice to just ignore Scott's first comment. But some are pushing it along, and those individuals have no idea what really transpired. They only know what Scott is telling them.

Scott Hernard (shernard) PM'd me here on TMC on April 28th, 2015, asking for my assistance.

He wrote, "You guys (when you were still there) actually did my entire installation in my 2011 VLX in Lewisville and it sounded great except I should have gone for a 12" sub at the time instead of a 10W6."

Everything was fine until Odin declined Scott's request for Earmark to do work for Scott. All this is motivated as payback for declining the project. Very sad.

Did Earmark originally damage Scott's gelcoat under my watch and ownership years ago? Yes we did. The moment I found out about it, I immediately got a number from the BU dealer, had that check written at light speed, signed it, and had it delivered to the BU dealer service manager within a day of learning of the damage. It was our mistake and we totally owned it.

I guess since "they only know what I am telling them" I should clear the air and now state the true facts of what has actually occured.

Since Odin and David have clearly decided to hijack my thread, which I figured would happen if I originally stated my reasons for not going back to Earmark, I will correct some of Odin's incorrect facts. In 2011, I did go to Earmark and they did my full installation and when I went to pick up my boat from them, they didn't even tell me this happened, I looked all around it just to make sure there is no damage and I noticed they drilled a hole right thru the side of my brand new boat when they were installing the amp rack. I was really upset when this happend and asked Victor, at the time who did the install, why he didn't tell me this happened and he claimed he didn't even realize it happened and he must have used too long of a screw. After confronting them about this, I will say they were good about owning up to it and sending my boat back to Waterski America for a gelcoat repair and fixing it to where you could not see it but that is not the point. This was my brand new boat at the time that hadn't even seen the water. For a "reputable" shop that works on these boats all the time this should NEVER happen.

The overall install looked good and I was satisfied with how clean it looked but this was not the only issue I had. When they delivered the boat there was terrible engine noise in the system and I was not happy with it. They finally, after three trips to them, eliminated 90% of the noise but could never get it fully eliminated. 3-4 months later the noise got worse and I took boat back to them and they worked on it again but complained about having to fix and blamed the noise on the black box and said it couldn't be eliminated.

Based on the facts above, and feedback from another local member on this forum that told me he also had several bad experiences with them and would not be going back there, I chose to do the install myself and not use Earmark. I did go back to them and get a quote for full system, which was higher than their competitor down the street, and I just decided to take the plunge myself because I was still nervous about my original experience with them.

I have no prior experience building custom subwoofer boxes so I did stop by Odin's shop and asked if they would build me a custom ported subwoofer box for under the helm and also help me tune my final system and I would gladly pay them for this. Odin refused to do this unless I bought everything from them. When he replied to my email I told him no problem and I would hapily take my business elsewhere but that I was quite surprised that when I spent alot of money with them the first time, and had the experience I had, I didn't think they would turn down a simple request to build a custom box that should only take them a few hours to build.

Next time, I guess I should have just started a thread in the off-topic forum that said I am not going back to Earmark so my installation thread does not get hijacked. It is sad because now this thread will probably get closed and I will probably have to start a new thread with just the final pictures of my install.

Clearly someone is worried about their future business but that is not my problem and I did not create the problem originally. This also must not be a one-time problem that occurred in my situation because you can call my local Malibu dealer and ask them who they recommend for stereo installations? They used to send a lot of their boats to Earmark but they don't send any of them there anymore because of problems they were having and feedback they were getting from their customers. Now they send 50+ new boats a year to Scream Marine

Edited by shenard
  • Like 2
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How about you have a thread showing your nice boat and stereo install. Then if you have a beef you have a separate thread. My point is you really took away from your thread by making a negative comment about another company. We all know Exile and Earmark are not the best of buds, so enough said there. I have dealt with David and Odin as well my new boat had a complete Exile system and they were also very helpful. My system rocks and I hope to keep it rocking for years to come. Why take away from your nice install with your comment about Earmark. Personally I lost interest in your install after reading that comment.

Sick install though!

Edited by old skool malibu
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How about you have a thread showing your nice boat and stereo install. Then if you have a beef you have a separate thread. My point is you really took away from your thread by making a negative comment about another company. We all know Exile and Earmark are not the best of buds, so enough said there. I have dealt with David and Odin as well my new boat had a complete Exile system and they were also very helpful. My system rocks and I hope to keep it rocking for years to come. Why take away from your nice install with your comment about Earmark. Personally I lost interest in your install after reading that comment.

Sick install though!

Your point is well taken and I should have just left those details out and will in future. I was hoping to leave all the details out but when they got partially let out and then my character starting getting attacked I felt obligated to state all the true facts so everyone knows what really occurred.

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Edited by shenard
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Your guy drilled a freakin hole through a brand new boat. Don't brag about fixing the problem. That's what your supposed to do. And it was only because you were caught. I'd be livid if my brand new boat had a hole drilled through it by so called "professionals" before I even had a chance to put it in the water. Even if it was fixed, I'd still be pissed. Not to mention all the other noise problems the guy had after the install. And if a large Malibu dealer used to send their customers your way but now does not, that in itself says a lot.

Surfin USA [emoji570][emoji475]

Edited by bunji169
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