NWA Custom Audio & Lighting — Attraction in Bentonville

Great shop that provides INTOXALOCK calibration. They don't show up on maps if you search for INTOXALOCK calibration at the moment and I am leaving this review inan effort to change that. I had a ordeal where I was about left stranded because Stewart's Automotive in Rogers had to close due to lease expiration and a properly owner that sold the location.

I was this shops first INTOXALOCK customer. When I came in and explained my ordeal the guy said "well, we have everything to do it... I just have to get it setup." Well on short notice he took the time to get the system setup and saved me an expensive tow bill because INTOXALOCK refused to allocate me any more time for a situation that was out of my control.

I would generally avoid INTOXALOCK if you are in the unfortunate position of needing an interlock device. If you need anything outside of the norm they charge you $40 even if the situation was not your fault or out of your control. Unfortunately I don't think any of the other providers are very ethical based on customers that used the other brands comments.

Anyways, these folks are polite and helpful. The gentleman that helped me had a good understanding of impedance (ohm loads). You would expect that from a car audio shop but past experiences have shown me that is not the norm unfortunately.

They carry some quality brands (JL audio was the only familiar one as I haven't kept up with car audio since the late 90's). I have a nice home system but as I have gotten older I can accept a decent quality car stereo so haven't kept up with the market.

I will however be going back to this place and would recommend them if you are a car audio enthusiast. I use the term car audio ubiquitously as they do boats and other things based on what they had around their shop.

I have seen enough hack stereo installations from car audio shops that I wouldn't go to one without having some previous experience or recommendation from someone I trusted. These folks are competent and keep a clean shop. Five Stars.

Also, if you are and old-timer lamenting about how you don't see 1/4 ohm stable amps like back in the day... Also keep in mind that you generally don't need multiple alternator setups to drive a serious system. Some tradeoffs have been made and the new class A/B and class D ic amps are remarkably efficient and the miniturized integrated circuits that make that possible aren't going to handle loads like mil-spec analog components... And most often don't need to because of that added efficiency.

I do miss the days when it was fasionable for the top tier companies to under rate amplifiers (soundstream and Orion spring to mind) and companies like kicker (when it was stillwater designs) would re-cone a competition 18" free of charge if you shipped it to them for no other reason than they stood behind their products.

I'm getting old I guess and I'll...

I recently spent thousands of dollars to have my truck worked on. I had the car soundproofed, installed new speakers, radio, subwoofer, and an amp. Whoever does their installs smells badly of cigarette smoke and each time I picked up my truck the next couple of hours, my vehicle smelled like smoke. It's very unprofessional. Also, they don't follow up well. I brought my truck in for the sub, and amp installation which it was and the install was great; however, some part didn't work and they had to order replacements which weren't a problem, but they didn't follow up with me when they'd have the part in their store. Once the part did come in, they called the wrong number and I followed up again. Jeremy explained they called the wrong number we got it changed in their system and I went in on the next Monday. They installed the part and it works fine now. These smalls issues weren't a big deal at the time, but in retrospect, it does sour the experience there. The one-star review comes from two things. One is the fuse for the system. Instead of being mounted somewhere, it's secure. It's zip-tied to the battery cable, but the fuse has two holes in it so it can be secured, and they chose not to do that. I could understand it if they asked if I minded them screwing into the truck or something, but they didn't ask. This is just what they chose to do. Finally, on the front passenger door, there's a small piece of plastic to hide one of the screws and it's been broken. Which if that's all it was, I'd be okay just to go get another one and install it, but Toyota makes you buy the whole door handle for $110 and you have to take off the door panel to fix it. Someone then tried to put some black putty on the back of it and jammed it back into place. I've owned the truck for several years and this morning, the part just fell off the door. I called them this morning and told Jeremy about it and he said he'd need to see the truck. I brought it up there and he said it was already like that and asked one of the other employees if it was "both doors," but made no mention of it even though I've come back multiple times in the last month for work. Then tried to justify it and say that it would have fallen off if they had to remove it and work on the truck, but they've removed the door panels multiple times, and it's never fallen off before. I told him I didn't believe him that it was already like that and he set the part of the counter and said have a nice day and I left. Since he said it was both front doors I checked the driver side and it's not broken. It's perfectly fine. I would have expected better customer service after having spent as much money as I did at their shop. I won't ever use them again and I'll make sure to tell everyone I know never to use...

Story goes like this: I have kids, don't want tons of bass but I like a full sound. I visit this place and decide on the JL Audio powered sub and get the price for everything. It's steep but this place is rated highly so I didn't think this would be an issue. I get the truck back and the salesman is telling me it's adjusted all it can be and it's not making much noise. I get in and he's right. Not much bass. What do I say to this? I just spent almost $1000 so you can tell me the JL Audio unit you put in my truck doesn't make much noise? I had one in a Colorado and it sounded great so what's wrong with this one? Fast forward to me sitting in my driveway adjusting the sound from the deck. No big change. I flip up the seat and what do I see? The gain is almost all the way down. The entire unit isn't even tuned. They didn't even bother to tune it. This is a professional shop? How do you not know how to tune a subwoofer? I make a couple of changes and boom...it's hitting like it should. I decided it wasn't worth returning to argue for...nothing, probably. They're not going to refund anything so I skip the drama, permanently.

This wasn't a matter of "I don't know how" as much as "I don't have the time, or the desire" but I do possess the knowledge. I'm an engineer by trade AND I used to install car audio when I was in my 20's. So, was this a scam to get me to buy a better head unit and door speakers (which we did discuss but the price, my lord)? Or did the install tech really have no clue what he was doing...which would also be the case for the salesman since he didn't bother to check to see if the unit was even adjusted properly? I'm thinking they were hoping I'd return so they could try to sell something to correct an issue that wasn't there to begin with. I don't know, but it was super shady and I won't be returning.

You can go other places that will actually do a good job. There are places you can go and have your car audio installed for free if you have their membership. There's a wait, but it's free. I used this place before trying NWA custom audio. The wait time pushed me to shop around and I made a HUGE mistake trusting these guys to do anything. I'm not a secret shopper so there's no need to name names, but there are other options.

I will add that the staff was at least super friendly. It's just a shame that it turned out this way. I like supporting local. I prefer to support local, but I can't support a local shop that steals...