Does anyone actually shop around for Car Audio anymore?

[southstylestang 10+ year member]

i agree with the others. either the shops here buy cheap shit and mark it waaaaaay the f* up or its a car shop that sells the high end shit. my stepbrother went and bought a volfenhag 2000watt amp and paid $250 + tax when they had it for $150 on ebay shipped. that shop sells the cheap *** dub audiobahns for $150 when you can get en for like $50 on ebay. the other shop im not sure about. last time i was in there their cheapest sub was a 10 jlw7. but as far as adire, re, diamond audio, profile, hifonics ive never heard of them till i looked on caraudio forums. most shops around here stick with high end stuff only rich people can afford or fosgate and audiobahn.

 

[Intercooler 10+ year member]

Where to start.

Maybe in your neck of the woods you have car shows, meets, etc... to see some of this stuff but not around here. As to the audio stores it seems like they carry near the same lines. You aren't going to find CDT, DLS, Rainbow, Dynaudio here either. Actually when I tell ANYONE including the shop people what I have you would think I am from another planet. I went off a lot of word-of-mouth and a little of having tried a few name brands earlier. I read a decent amount and kept tabs here before buying. I couldn't find a decent 250x4 amp anywhere until someone pointed me in the MB Quart direction. About the highest end audio shop around my way is Tweeter and their best was Boston Z-6's which I listened too. They had a $1000.00 price-tag on them there so I knew I couldn't buy them at their store... can't/won't afford that!

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

Excelent point Intercooler! Well this has been a very interesting thread. First of all, I do go to shops and listen to all kinds of stuff, talk to others ect. I am blessed though to live in the St. Louis area, so i have alot of access to car audio. Here is the deal though. This forum here has been incredibly helpful to me, what to look for. what not to look for brands, specs, ect... so when I go into these places I am armed with real knowledge. Its amazing what knowledge will do for you when you talk to these people, so they don't pull the wool over your eyes. Anything to sell you know in some places lol. Anyway my little brother lives in a small town far away from me and doesnt have acess to the hands on car audio I do. For him and many others like him, internet is so vital. So I understand the need to feel others info before making any desicions. Hell I NEED it too, thats what this forum is here for so I take the redundant questions with a grain of salt . You never know who may benifiet from all of the great info on here. Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks everyone //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

Study any popular theories in social psychology and you will see a common trend with respect to self-efficacy: people just want to be told what to do rather than think for themselves!!!

It is also very well known that if you took an individual, sat them down and explained all the costs or benefits that could be expected by making a given decision (ex. buying a new sub), it would have far less of an effect then if that person asked someone whom they respected (friend, family member, car audio fourm) advice on which decision to make!! Just turn on the TV and watch for 10 minutes and you will know exactly what I'm referring to!! If you haven't figured it out, it's called the power of suggestion. So, in summary just buy the god **** Type R already!!! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[hoodkid 10+ year member]

Unless you want to go to best buy and hear some shitty *** Sony's and Kenwood's i would ask for peoples opinions, because the majority of these subs alot of newbie's to car audio havn't heard, I mean come on when i first started looking at subs all i knew was Mtx, Jl, Kicker, pioneer, and fosgate,kenwood, and sony (even when i was a n00b I still knew sony was garbage ). So when i started checkin out all these other brands off subs, like RE, Adire etc.. of course imma ask how they sound and they perform to other subs.

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

I've noticed a serious increase of people asking questions that they should be answering themselves. "What subwoofer sounds best?" "What amp should I get?" With as many of those questions running around I've been wondering if anyone actually takes trips to the local audio store anymore, or does everyone just order based on reputation or price?
Does anyone actually go out and listen to demo cars, customer cars, etc anymore?

See, I dunno about you, but these subs I want to buy arent setup in car audio boxes in cars sitting in the demo room at the shops...AT BEST they are in a wall, and thats it.....I think ive been to like 2 shops that actually have them in boxes....and these places are your general "everyone knows it " brand that we have all probably heard 1,000's of times already.

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

Unless you want to go to best buy and hear some shitty *** Sony's and Kenwood's i would ask for peoples opinions, because the majority of these subs alot of newbie's to car audio havn't heard, I mean come on when i first started looking at subs all i knew was Mtx, Jl, Kicker, pioneer, and fosgate,kenwood, and sony (even when i was a n00b I still knew sony was garbage ). So when i started checkin out all these other brands off subs, like RE, Adire etc.. of course imma ask how they sound and they perform to other subs.

which is WHY WE SHOULD HAVE A PRODUCT A VS PRODUCT B SECTION!!!.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I have to ask questions right now because as much as I would love to go to a shop and audition equipment, unless I want to audition Hummer armor or the new LMG mount, there's sod all here in Iraq...

Funny thing is, for the first time in my life I live in a major US market (Las Vegas, home of SEMA and the CES) and the high end shop I managed to find (only non-chain store that carried JL, also carried Mcintosh and Diamond) had several demo vehicles. The problem that I had was that they were all *bling* show cars. Video monitors everywhere, showy install and the subs I wanted to audition (10W1v2) were obviously not part of the system.

RE is MADE right across town but there is nowhere to demo them that I know of in town. SplinterSound? Adire, Ascendant? eD? even CDT or Image Dynamics? Forget it. Unless I was to happen upon someone that had those brands installed, I have no way to demo them. My only choice is to ask the people on the 'net who have experience with the gear what their opinion is.

I agree with you though that there is no excuse for people asking the same question about commonly available gear for 7 of every 10 posts. Same goes for asking the same install related question 2 or 3 times a day. I would almost support a minimum membership time where a noob can't start a new thread just to force them to read what is already on the forum before asking the same question all over again.

 

[hoodkid 10+ year member]

which is WHY WE SHOULD HAVE A PRODUCT A VS PRODUCT B SECTION!!!.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif preech it!!!

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

I would almost support a minimum membership time where a noob can't start a new thread just to force them to read what is already on the forum before asking the same question all over again.

I would also support that effort. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/word.gif.64b12e39f936af3b4fff38a1c0bd0244.gif

But think about it, by the process of extinction, if no one ever answered those threads they would slowly dissappear. It's up to us to decide whether we want to give our advice/opinion and by choosing to do so, we support the cycle. This happens on ECA all the time, someone posts a "whats better" thread and no one answers it and it just gets buried. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif