Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just bought a Toyota Tacoma 4 door p'up. First modification was replacing the stock head unit with an iPod/USB compatible unit. I was lucky getting the truck without the more expensive (200) 6-CD changer OR the JBL audio system (a $2,000 upgrade I had in a Sienna years ago and found lacking in many regards). Okay. Short of ripping out the storage paneling behind the rear seats - which I didn't want to do - and putting in a mondo amp, 12+ inch subwoofers and sound box for hundreds of dollars, all I wanted was more bottom in my audio. Over at the [...] forum I found the Boss system discussed, pros and cons laid out fairly clearly, and after looking at several other (more expensive) options, I bought the Boss Bass1200 unit (not, unfortunately, on sale, but $110 was a good price in retrospect). Getting the unit under the passenger seat (I keep a personal protection device under the driver's seat, it's 2010) was a little time-consuming, but there is definitely room there with about 1 CM clearance from the top edges. I was blown away by the first song I played (I recommend just about anything Chris Squire plays his '65 Ric on). I'm still playing around with settings. No it's NOT a 12 or 14 inch subwoofer box with an 1800 watt amp behind it, but it's more than adequate. I've got several years' experience running high-power PA systems for rock bands (hobby and roadie jobs over the decades) and again, this isn't an earschplittenloudenboomer rock the car next to you a stoplights box, but you WILL feel the low notes in your back and butt. Kind of makes you tingly all over. My ears ring already, I don't need LOUD, I just needed to feel the bass. Drums are equally impressive. How good is the bass output really? It makes my wife (a long-time Simon and Garfunkle, Josh Groban fan) nauseus. There is a remote output/volume control which is handy when she's in the car, just as easy to crank up and rock out when she's not or when I'm out with my 16 yr old (musician) son. I gave it five stars. For what it is, which is substantial, it's a great deal and probably the best of the options available. Buy one. And buy the wiring kit too, unless you already have the components lying around, you'll spend twice as much and much time tracking down the parts. ************************** THAT was THEN, THIS IS NOW March 29th, still playing email/phone tag with service trying to get a return authorization. DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE. Unless you like gambling. Do your online homework. Just about as many people are having problems with these units as are happy with them. I thought it was great, for the reasons mentioned. Then it died. About ten days after installation. Tech dept is VERY hard to reach by phone. Would NOT just issue an RMA. Insisted I return the amp to AMazon, who wouldn't take it without all original packaging (tossed w/ Christmas stuff, mistakenly). Did try a SECOND amp. Even stupider, it died in 3 days. New truck, new audio head unit. BOSS wants $15 to return the unit after repair. Which is fine. I'll try this once. $109 plus $30 (round trip) for a gamble that may or may not pay off. Might be good money after bad, just a fluke, I don't know. I've done worse. But this is just stupid. DON"T BUY ONE. May 3d, 2010. Sent unit out April 15th - what took so long was email/voicemail and delays from BOSS and trying to decide whether to use it as a doorstop or give it to a tech friend of mine to play with. I sent it back, with all hardware/cables. Just got the unit back from BOSS. No notes, invoice, just a sticker on the bottom of the unit with several lines of print of things that could be wrong with the unit, highlighted in yellow is "Power supply." Chomping at the bit to put it back in my car, I couldn't help noticing what wasn't in the box. The audio control cable I'd sent back with the unit. Sent an email to customer service, phone wait times are long and more often than not I've only gotten voice mailboxes. I'll keep you posted. Definitely throwing good money after bad. Do not buy, do not buy, do not buy. June 5, 2010. Got it back, got around to reinstalling, never did work. At all. No volume from box. Started out with all settings on minimum, tinkered around for about an hour. Three days later, little blue light on remote is dead. Unit was installed with a Boss installation kit, and while I'm not a "professional" I know my way around electrons, grounds, gain, etc. I've done this before, folks, have rebuilt several guitar/bass amplifiers, do home wiring, wired a homebuilt airplane, this unit is crap. I'm tempted, tempted now, to just gut it, add a subwoofer amp and use the speaker alone. Tempted even more to contact my credit card company and ask them to refund my money, I have the emails, and other information to submit. Don't buy this, or any boss product. Customer service is the pits, you can spend days playing phone tag, they charge you to return a unit THEY should be paying YOU to return (what is this with so many units dying? In the 7 months since I bought this, I have searched the web a half dozen times for problems with this amp, this company, and the list is getting longer. Good luck. August 13, 2010. Emails sent to company July 8 replied to with " call customer service at" I did. Left messages. Called again. Left messages. ONE GUY can make the decision, any decision, regarding this box. I don't want to pay shipping, again. Did that once. They didn't fix it. Hooked in, lights went on, no sound. fiddled with settings on amp and head unit for a week, lights went out. Lights came on a few weeks later, I noticed because there was all kinds of radio static/interference. But the amp doesn't work, at all. Customer service is virtually non-existent. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BUY ONE OF THESE, GOOGLE BOSS AUDIO PRODUCTS FIRST. 4 out of 5 stars isn't good enough. Sept 20. Sent this back three weeks ago. FINALLY got through to the one company rep who could send me a UPS call tag for THEM to pay. MAN they are slow answering email. I finally sent the rep a message saying "Dude, if you're going to blow me off at LEAST man-up and do it personally through email or a phone call." I got an answer the next day. Box went out two days later. That was around the 30th. Still waiting. Unit finally came back several weeks later. By then I'd gotten used to not having it around so it sat in the box for months. You know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, you must be a Boss electronic sales person... So I was driving down to Nashville in February for an annual business trip and decided to throw the amp back in. Followed the instructions to the letter regarding settings, it only took about ten minutes to pop it back in under the seat (use the velcro) and it's now July and you know what? It still works. Still interferes with the AM radio (there's an annoying squeal that goes up and down the scale from about 100 Hz to 2500 Hz, pauses, restarts) but when it's REALLY annoying I just pop a fuse from the subwoofer. Amp isn't as loud as it was before. I've played with the settings a LOT and played songs with a LOT of bass from several decades' collection through the thing and it just doesn't have the "thump" it had when it was new. Maybe it WAS broken when new. But it still sounds/feels (however marginally) better with the subwoofer ON than off. What I would recommend is just better speakers for the doors and a high-output in-dash radio and live with it, unless you want to replace the rear seats with a larger subwoofer.