Lotts Auto Stereo Auto Upholstery — Local services in Santa Cruz

TL;DR: Scummy, don’t care how your car sounds

This review is within Google’s character limit. A slightly more detailed version of this review can be found under my Yelp account (Benjamin H).

My mom bought a 2018 Kia Soul Plus and she decided to upgrade the sound so I went to Lott's with her.

We showed our system to Dave and complained about the tinny sound. To get great sound, according to him, replacing the head-unit (HU) would be unnecessary and costly because our HU is merged with many other vehicle functions like AC. Immediately he recommended just getting new speakers. After previewing all the higher quality pairs multiple times we settled on a specific pair of speakers. For what it's worth, I thought Dave came off as arrogant and aggressive and made this process needlessly stressful and frustrating.

We left to do research for a couple days and came back. On this second day at Lott's, Tim was our helper. We decided to buy the speakers we settled on and my mom decided to buy a sub. At the last second, Tim asked if we wanted an amp too. We A/B'ed a song with and without the amp for a minute. The difference felt subtle and I bet my mom couldn't tell the difference so I said, "No thanks." In the end it was approx: $500 front speakers, $500 sub, $500 installation and other things. $1500 total.

After the installation, we quickly realized the system sounded harsher than before. The fronts and sub sounded nothing like they did in the store. We came back and complained. Only after trying to convince Tim over and over again that we know what a passable sound system sounds like, he FINALLY admitted something to us: every stock HU has its own hidden frequency/EQ bias that's meant specifically for the stock speakers so that they sound good. He said since we got new speakers without getting a new HU, these speakers were not receiving a flat signal. He said in this case, the mismatch was drastic. He also said if we had bought an amp, they could have attached a digital signal processor to it, which provides an anti-EQ curve to any stock HU's EQ curve, thus fixing the problem.

I told him it is incredibly disappointing that we are learning about this crucial information after we had already spent $1500. Without apologizing, he reminded us that he had recommended the amp and that I turned it down. I told him that the A/B he had me do was flawed because I was only listening to the amp. It had NOTHING to do with comparing a flat signal to a biased signal because both signals were flat. I said the whole process of me choosing speakers was almost pointless because it was going to sound so different attached to my HU. I emphasized that they didn’t fix the ONLY complaint we had with the stock system, which was the TINNY SOUND. Without apologizing, Tim said stock HU biases usually don't make much of a difference.

This is not only a BS excuse, but also a BS statement. See, I then realized this wasn't the first time we encountered this type of problem before at this exact same establishment. I go more into detail about this in my Yelp review, but essentially years ago, my mom had brought her previous car, a Cabrio, into Lott’s, only requesting to be able to plug in her phone to the stereo. Their installation ruined the Cabrio’s sound quality for more less the same reason the Kia currently sounded bad.

I mentioned this to Tim and he expressed no sympathy, but confirmed I was right about the Cabrio.

Tim offered to attach resistors to the tweeter wire to make the tweeters quieter, which seemed like the fixing-stereo-harshness equivalent of killing a spider on a window by shooting it with a gun, but I let him do it. He told us to keep listening and if we weren't happy with this solution, we could come back in to discuss amps and prices. (BUY BUY BUY) Instead of going back, we went to California Car Sounds in Campbell. My review of them is Chapter 2 in my never-ending saga to get my mom's car to sound professional. Spoiler alert:...

I've done business with Lott's stereo for over 28 years. I just had them install a new Alpine with speakers in my truck. They fit me in that day. Charged me a reasonable rate. We're finished when they said they'd be. And showed me how to operate all the new features while pairing up my phone. It sounds fantastic. I couldn't be more delighted. Thank you: Dave in sales for answering all my questions. Ron (the owner)for several suggestions and for your help & expertise with my install. I think Tim was responsible for the main part of my install and he did a perfect job! After completion, Thankx Karla for teaching me what buttons do what. And Shawn for the finer points regarding pairing up my hands free phone. I had several items in my truck that could have been damaged, stolen, broken, even a little clay snake my youngest son made and I had mistakenly left on my dash. Everything was left exactly like when I brought it in. My little clay snake was un-damaged. Lott's and every one of their employees are the professionals that I seek when I do business. You are all the very best thank you. I could not be happier and my new sound system is beyond enjoyable!!!!!

Your lifetime...

Lotts is incredible. I bought a new stereo at Best Buy and had it installed in my 2000 Mustang (with a Mach 460 8-speaker sound system already installed). The Best Buy tech had no idea what was going on. He initially said it would be no problem, but by the time it was installed, there was an extremely loud pop (max speaker volume) every time the stereo would turn on, when I turn on the car. Also, the volume control was extremely poor. It's supposed to go up from 1-50, but it was at max volume at volume level 6, so I only had those 6 levels to work with, and the difference between 1 and 0 was huge. The Best Buy tech said he could not fix it for all the money in the world, and that's just how the sound system works. I went to Lotts, and they said Best Buy neglected to add a voltage converter, which eliminated the popping sound, and a harness appropriate for my car, which eliminated the volume control issue. After Lotts was done, my stereo worked perfectly, like a dream. I am so 100% satisfied with their work. I recommend them to all of my friends. They were extremely professional and courteous and made pleasant conversation with me while they were...