Let me apologize to any and all installers, owners, dealers that I may have offended. Maybe I shouldn't have named names. I haven't lied or exaggerated any details of my experiences. Just reporting the facts. There are some great shops out there and even better guys working in them. Unfortunately some are not so good. To the guy in New Orleans. If you can offer a reliable amp that does rated then you were not who I was talking about.
I got a good guy an hour away, he sells AB, ct sounds, sundown, crescendo, tantric. The good stuff.
I can guarantee that if a shop offers you a Phoenix Gold Ti21300.1, a Rockford Fosgate T1500 or a MTX XThunder 1500.1 you'll complain about how it's too expensive and "it's mainstream durrr." If you like those internet brands then why even bother wasting local shops' time and just go to your "guy" that's only an hour away? People who are in the car audio business and have physical stores hate people like you, aka "I want everything for cheap but they better be good" morons. Car audio died because a lot of people became cheapasses, you think local stores dying is a good thing? No, they're the one who used to host shows and competitions, people used to be able to go to a shop and ask questions and get stuff fixed, now they have to go online and deal with idiots on forums who either bash what they own or just not helpful at all.
$50 for your Alpine M500 is almost too much for a shop, why? When a shop sells something and breaks then it's on them, why would they risk buying used equipment for resell knowing they'll have to pay for the damages if it goes faulty? If I own a shop I would just tell you that I'm not interested in used equipment, the dude was nice enough to offer a trade and you act all offended, that amp only goes for $70~90 used on
eBay anyway. When an authorized dealer sells and installs the amp you usually have 6 months or more for warranty so if it goes defective then they'll swap it out free of charge. When someone buys something online and it breaks then you'll have to either pay return shipping or wait for them to email a label, wait for however long for exchange and you're out of gear for awhile. Outside of the 30-day exchange period? Good luck, you may just earned a paper weight. RMA request got lost? "Sorry let me try to find it." Your requests and calls go unanswered? Too bad, what are you gonna do, send them an angry email?
Support your local shops, if you don't like their items then fine, but don't sit here and act like you know everything about operating a business, because you don't.