Tour of La Jolla Audio

[JCE]

I was in San Diego on business yesterday and stopped by La Jolla Audio to pick up some Rainbow speakers from Donald, and to talk to Cleeve about a problem with my factory HU. I also met Scott, who took me on a tour of his facility.

They have 3 large clean installation areas that I saw, which were occupied by a nice assortment of cars including a Ferrari, Boxter, and BMW Alpina. Cleeve's repair shop was in an adjacent building. A nice touch indicating attention to small details in the installation areas was a wall of small bins labeled by car make, containing manufacturer specific OE trim parts, grommets, factory connectors, etc. A separate room contained a well equipped and ventilated wood shop for fabricating mounting panels. A small upholstery work shop was located upstairs with their inventory storage.

I watched them doing a high end installation in the Ferrari roadster, while Scott explained the intricacies of keeping the cars they work on as clean and un-modified as possible. He described their efforts to inform owners of problems left over from other installations, such as missing panel vapor barriers, and working with owners to correct these issues. He seems to have a remarkable knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of individual makes. For example, he pointed out that the door switch weather seal grommets on one particular car were fragile, but if missing would allow the switch to corrode within months (he had new grommets in stock!). On the Ferrari he showed me how the leather was prone to fading, and where the multiple re-dyes on this particular roadster were making the seats and panels stiff and prone to cracks. The leather was almost creme color where exposed, but a tan color where trim strips had covered the leather. He was going to give the owner the names of some shops that had done Ferrari upholstery.

Oh, yeah, they also had a small display and showroom in with their offices. Obviously most of their attention was directed at doing the professional install, rather than selling equipment. An interesting feature in the office area was the coffee table. It consists of a pair of huge Nissan race car rear wheels (custom made by BBS for Nissan), supporting a thick clear glass oval top. Now that is furniture fit for a car enthusiast!