Did rockford really fall off ?

[klassic 10+ year member]

Yes Rockford Fosgate has suffered quite a bit since the early 90's mostly because:

A) they decided to make lower line products. In the early 90's the Punch series was the only series. Anytime you start making entry level products and your entry level products become your primary bread and butter your gonna lose prestige. If Audison made a line that sold at best buy for $199 their reputation would suffer too. Economics dictates these amps may be well built ect but cant possibly be using the best components. Focal makes entry level speakers but their Access line isn't domineering over their high end stuff like Rockfords Punch series is so there reputation isn't tarnished (not to mention their entry line isn't exactly best buy/circuit city entry level like RF's)

B) they decided to diversify. Too many **** products. Nobody can be the best at everything and quite frankly alot of their speakers, subs and head units hurt their reputation more than making two lines of amplifiers. Even their entry level amps are pretty good and can compete with enty level offerings from other companies. Cant say the same for alot of their speakers. Alot are just plain inferior to the competition for the same money or just **** all together. If all they made were amps and the occasional processor like they used to I think their rep would still be close to what it was.

But no they haven't fell off, the power series amps are proof in itself they still know how to make amplifiers with the best of them. They dont seem overpriced to me at all. I bet you my arm if you compare them with most amps with better watts per dollar ratio the Power series amps have closer tolerance and higher temp components, cleaner more reliable surface mount internals (they were kind of the 1rst to run with it) and are more grossly under rated. Not to mention all are 1ohm stable and quadrouple their 4ohm power into 1ohms. so what may seem to cost too much for a 50x2 amp suddenly doesn't seem overpriced to the customer who is getting 300x2 into 1ohms (rated 200x2 plus the gross underating). Sure thats gonna cost you more than the average 50x2 amplifier.

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

I'm less than impressed with my brothers T8002....he paid big bucks for it-the original let out the magic smoke a few months ago-now we are on no.2....gains are set literally 90% to correctly power a set of components @ 4ohm stereo (rated for 125rms x2)-gains were set similarly on the last amp as well. These a/b amps are very inefficient IMO and way too large of a footprint.

 

[Stillmatic22 10+ year member]

was it rocksford or fosgate that was/still is a really respected designer in the home audio industry? I remember reading an artical on it in audiophile...

Yeah, it was something like rockford hafler o something. I dunno

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

I still like their products, I hope to try the newer power line

 

[MadAudio 10+ year member]

IMO i would say they have definatly fallen off

ive had...

a pair of punch subs die in 12 days

a pair of power hx2 subs caught fire well lots of smoke anyways... had them replaced after some hassle ( they where less that 5 days old) the second set also caught fire i mean flames and all real get the marshmallows kinda fire tho they lasted much longer ( bout 8 months) had a 800.2 fry (replaced fried again said hell with it) and had a 700s have a complete meltdown ( also replaced with hassle)

the only rf stuff i have never had a problem with is the 400.4 amplifier ( thinking of using it in my se-r to power a pair of 9kv.2 ( bridged its like 120x2) or putting up for sale ill prolly also sell the 700s that is starting to show a bit of melting on the + input

as for bieng over priced... i bought a nine.4 a nine.1 and a mess of edead for about the price of my now dead 800.2 when i first bought it

my .02 cents

 

[Jayhawkk 10+ year member]

I loved and still love the RF line. they have always been reliable to me.

 

[MadAudio 10+ year member]

More often than not, blown speakers are the result of misuse by the user ...

i totally agree the thing is the speakers never blew ! the first pair started smoking like beasts ( there there is smoke there is fire) but never stopped playing ...the second set ( only one actually caught fire the other is in a box here somewhere im scared to use it or sell it ) simply caught fire ( real fire had to stop car and snatch box out of trunk )while playing and kept playing and to top it off rf said it happened because they were underpowered ....and mind u all the work was done by a rf authorized shop( cept for the 700s i put in when the 800.2 died its final death ) with all the pretty little certificates on the wall .. wiring,radio,amps,sub,subbox,fuses,tuning,etc

as for the 700s i got that from bestbuy. and when it had its melt down and i showed up at best buy with my extended warranty the after giving me the run around( long story) the manager says to me u had the amp running fine for almost a year and then it died... what more do u want? he didnt even want to honor the extended warranty and have it fixed. i know its sounds crazy but its the honest truth

maybe the shop was crap maybe they sold me b-stock maybe little gremlins fell from someones pocket who knows im just stating my experience and my honest opinion. but i had also had other work done by the same shop like for instance the premier 1040 dvc's nickel plated subs i bought back in 00 i think.... i sold them to my brother and he still has em in his accord some 5 years later

im not saying all rf stuff sucks ... cause honestly the setup while it ran hit hard as hell and sounded great but when the bad stuff happened i was left all alone

sorry im done ranting

ahh who am i kidding im just a bitter old man dont mind me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

in some areas quality might have gone down, but they still make top end things IMO

 

[Nukedsodapop 5,000+ posts]

I heard the Punch and Power series back in the late 80s early 90s were up there in the prices too...

 

[ntense702 10+ year member]

I haven't had much experience with RF, but from what I have been told it seems most folks say they aren't as good as they used to be, some of their new stuff (power subs and amps) look pretty sexy but for the prices they are asking it is just ludicrous compared to what else is out there.

 

[chosen1 10+ year member]

i guess there are no econ majors in here or else they would have told yall that it is supply and demand the more that people want your product or the demand is great the higher your price is gonna get

 

[BMW Sidewayz 10+ year member]

I heard the Punch and Power series back in the late 80s early 90s were up there in the prices too...

Yes they were. in 1997 6th ave electronics had them for $399.99 for the 400x4 ***** ana and that amp was rated at 40x4 also the 200x2 ***** ana was $420 and that was 100x2 - 200x2@ 2omhs and 400x1, so yes they were really expensive then, at the time their competitor was soundstream.

RF had almost no competitions back then, thats until they F'ed themselves in th A with the junk trapexoid models.

 

[smd4life 5,000+ posts]

what

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Lolz.

 

[BMW Sidewayz 10+ year member]

Yes they were expensive