I really hate to do this to any vendor but Rick Reus of Reus Audio left me with no choice...

Facts:

* Joined Group-buy with Jangy & 03C4S back in late April to get my stereo upgraded.
* Did lots of travel and could NOT schedule a time to bring car in for the audio installation.
* Heard Jangy's car ~ 1 1/2 months later and NOT IMPRESSED with the quality.
* Heard 03C4S's car ~ 2 months later (supposed to have better equipments installed than Jangy's car) and still NOT IMPRESSED.
* Decided to sell my E55 in June and contacted Rick for a REFUND.
* Rick gave me the BS that he cant give me a REFUND because he has to "FIX" the group-buy mess that Jangy created.
* I gave him time until first week of July and contacted him again (Sent numerous emails and left dozen voicemails). Rick asked for more time.
* I contacted Rick late July and he told me that I will be receiving my REFUND soon because he has fixed the group-buy mess.
* Rick said he sent out my REFUND on July 24th and I never received it. This is after I sent him my address 3 different times in 3 separate emails. Rick claimed he sent out my check and forgot the suite #. (I work down town San Diego in a 24 floor building and without the suite #, I will NEVER receive any mail).
* Called Rick 7/30/07 and told him I didnt receive any check. He told me that he needs to cancel the original check and will send out another one. I asked him to send me the tracking # and no response from him.
* Left numerous voicemails and sent numerous email to Rick from 8-1 to 8-6 without any response. (Enlisted the help of Jangy & 03C4S and they called him and left him numerous voicemails).
* I received a call from Rick on 8/8 that he sent out the replacement check with tracking # and the address has my suite #.
* I received it on 8/13 and went to the bank to deposit it.
* On 8/16, I received a letter from my bank that Rick's check from Reus Audio has BOUNCED.
* On 8/17, I contacted my attorney to deal with him directly.

I cant believe such an operation existed, catered to HIGH-END clients and does NOT have enough money to cover a REFUND check of $2500.

Thanks for reading, I just need to vent...

 

im sorry to hear about your misfortune... alas this is a common problem.... i too listened to the reus system and was not at all impressed by it, the staging was all wrong and the equalization was off (among other things). the common, re-occuring problem is that the mercedes fiber-optic audio systems are *very* difficult to design upgrades for at best and there are very few people who are up to the task of doing so.

the problem really stems from the fact that the mb audio systems use corrective equalization and time alignment that is matched to the speaker type and placement. this equalization takes place inside the factory amplifier and is programmed in at the factory. the problems happen when you start changing the speakers out with better ones: the amp now applies improper eq to the new speakers but you cant remove the amplifier and replace it because the factory amplifier takes a proprietary optical input. as a result, all current upgrades involve taking the factory amp outputs, bringing them down to line-level, then applying EQ to normalize the signal and then further EQ to correct for the new speakers. all this adds noise and degrades the signal and is really a poor overall approach. the correct approach is to remove everything from the factory amplifier back and then apply correction to the optical signal directly before down converting and sending to the new amplifier. of course this requires custom electronics and programming that so far nobody seems to be interested in developing.

again its a shame that you had to deal with all of this but at least it helps others to make a informed decision regarding these sorts or upgrades.

 

damn Rob, you write for a mag? great write up, and exactly the truth

As for the Reus system, I can't believe people were all over that... that is like saying the HK system or the Bose system sounded good....

they need to understand that loud isn't actually great sound, well it is comparing to a 70's model audio system, but damn, these people don't even know what a basic after market system professionally installed can do.

Hell I showed a guy 2 weeks ago, and all he has been talking about lately is impact, staging, and clarity.

Rob you mess around with the new Audison, hertz, or morel lines?

Was wondering what you thought of the audison amps?

 

oh cmon... 8-track is still a viable medium.. maybe reus will start adding that to their system package.

seriously though, its funny that you mentioned hertz because i heard a demo system with the mille 3-way and 10" free-air sub and was *very* impressed. if one were to design a true audiophile system for mercedes those would be an excellent starting point as far as drivers go. the audison vr (i think) series amps with the eq modules would work really well in that aspect since you could individully correct for each set of drivers. really the only piece that is missing is the optical to line converter to allow the amplifier to be removed from the ring.

you hit the nail on the head about the perception of quality of newer systems. i think it stems from the fact that the improvement of factory systems has made it more difficult for the average uninformed person: when it was a radio and 4 crummy speakers it wasnt too difficult to tell that just about any aftermarket system would sound better. nowadays the typical "upgraded" factory system does a fairly respectable job of providing decent sound quality and to step up from there requires some real engineering work. as you said its not very difficult to make everything louders but louder does not equate to better. another side-effect of these factory upgraded systems is the "more speakers is better" syndrom with automakers all advertising "12 speaker" or "15 speaker" premium sound. i recently taught a little seminar where i took a 10 year old sony 2 x 20 watt amplifier and used it to power and entire system using custom built passive crossover networks just like we used to do in the old days: this concept has been completely lost, literally everyone thought that you had to have multiple channels of amplification.

I think that basic simplistic approach has gone missing from mobile audio.. there is nothing wrong with using lots of speakers and amplifiers if it helps build a better system but so often it seems like the system designer should have gotten the simple problems like proper stereo seperation right before even attempting to build a 7 channel surround system.

 

Hi Guys,

Sorry the system did not work out for you 2K6E55. I am hopeful that they will make it(bounced check) good for you. My experience is that they were professional to deal with. I purchased a system upgrade from Reuss for my sl55 by recommendation prior to listening to it. One of my primary concerns was upgrading the system without voiding any warranties. All in all I must say that it significantly improved the horrible stock system that my sl55 comes with. Mercedes should be jailed for this. See thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...light=clk554me

I certainly am no audiophile, but would love to know what(else) can be done to improve the system. Can any of you break it down in "non-audiophile speak".

I personally was just ticked off that you spend big bucks for a great car to have a below average stereo.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

well it is better than getting a great stereo and a crappy car..

 

I love the car! But it would sure be nice to have your music sound great while in it. What else can be done to the sl that you are aware of? Thanks in advance.

Clk554me

"Carpe Diem"