Anybody know of any in the Tampa Bay Area? JBLs website says the only one in Florida is in Miami... find that hard to believe.

 

There are plenty (like us at MCOR) who are through distribution. I'm assuming the only ones on the site are the ones who go direct with a buy-in. We don't typically stock any of their product, but the rep for the area is a friend of ours that I worked with at Circuit City Roadshop 6-7 years ago, and can also get us what we need in a pinch. Looking for something in particular? An MS-8 possibly?

 

That is exactly what I am looking for lol.

 

MCOR mannn! Since JBL changed the way they sell their product a few years ago, they sell only through distribution channels unless you are a big box chain store (kinda like Pioneer, JVC-ish, etc). Unfortunately, they never bothered to change the way their dealer locator works. Everyone has been complaining for years.

As far as the MS-8 however, the distributors are under pretty strict orders as to which shops they sell to. We had to sign a specific agreement to be authorized to sell these-and they limit the amount of shops that they sell to within each territory. It is a little more complex piece of equipment and JBL doesn't want to tarnish their rep by having every 18 year old with a set of tools installing it improperly then saying it is a piece of crap. We all know this has happened before and thankfully the big manufacturers have finally woken up to it!

It is an awesome piece and many millions of dollars went into the development of it. JBL has hinged the changing of their reputation on it. They are not happy with what has happened to their name over the last 5-6 years (ie: you can buy it from every crappy flea market/7-11 in the country...). And, the retailers agree-this is a pretty bad-ass piece...

 

I did my first MS-8 two weeks ago in a Porsche. Very nice product. It's got a few quirks and kinks like any early generation product but overall i was very happy with it. And the simplicity of it is fabulous!

 

Just about every review I have read says its auto-tune feature blows away what people can do with a H701/Bit One/ect in months, in a few minutes. I think this is the next piece going into the car.

 

I dont know if i would go that far, depending on the situation. A REALLY good tuner with a BitOne, an RTA, and an unlimited time frame could outdo the MS8's autotune. But in a more realistic world the MS8 will in 5 minutes do 90% of what that tuning guru will need 8-10 hours to accomplish. The MS8 lacks some of the "tweaky-ness" of the BitOne, because once it's tuned you'll likely stash the display and remote and not ever touch it again (unless you're using the aux input, and i highly recommend that you dont!). But for most people that's actually a lot better!

 

Just what I read.... but I have 0 experience in the tuning department so this should work excellent for me.

 

unfortunantly it has hit ebay and set its price
JBL MS8 - Amplifier, Signal Processor - New in Box - eBay (item 180572930094 end time Oct-11-10 21:44:36 PDT)

 

I really don't like buying off ebay (Car audio stuff at least). If a local shop can give me a really good price I will buy from them, if not I would rather buy it used from someone that got it from an authorized shop.