Typical. I see it all the time with kids around here that think they're wangin'. I have a TermLab so I meter a ton of these guys. They're all "It's GOT to be doing 150!!" I'll meter them and it's like 35-36 in the 40's.
I let them hear a good sub on clean power (lvl5 12 in a 6th order on ~ 2k at the moment doing 45@30 and 47@50) and they're like "WTF!?" And I STILL can't talk them out of JL or Kicker or RF or whatever. Even though it cost the same or more.
To us... Sundown or DC or whatever has "status." To them, it's the mainstream stuff. Like they want bragging rights with their buddies. It makes no sense to me.
I'll run whatever. IDGAF. If it's loud, fits my budget and reliable... I'm in. I don't care what's on the badge. And I've tried AP amps. I don't like them for a reason. I haven't tried AP subs, but I might for $150 bucks for that 4" coil one just to see what it can do. I also want to test the new APK's.
My buddy is working on a very big, very budget build and he's got an AP3k on the way. I can't wait to test that thing.