Good brands/Brands to stay away from

[sjv13 10+ year member]

I was just wondering if someone could tell me what are some good brands that are respected in the community. Also, some brands to stay away from, which ones are Best Buy level stuff, and maybe which ones are the more controversial ones.

Im just tryin to learn something about this type of stuff so I can help friends, and also be able to tell if someone is telling the truth about how good their system is LOL.

My system is made up of Alpine, Focal, and Pioneer so you can see that I stuck with more of the big names so I knew I wouldnt fall for some gimick and get stuck.

So yeah, any information is helpful. And I'm not tryin to start something here, so please dont argue here. Thanks!

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[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Too broad of question.

 

[sjv13 10+ year member]

Hmmm... ok. So How about I do this:

1) Good/Bad speakers

2) Good/Bad subs

3) Good/Bad amps

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

no one will list the same brands on here. for instance, power acoustik is cheap and no one on this forum really likes it. im not big on the brand but the i like the BAMF series amps for power acoustik. for 200 and they do around 2k or little bit more they are rated for 3200(16volt). but your going to here alot of people say sundown audio, dc audio, digital designs Audioque(

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Most American made car audio products are pretty good quality //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Too broad of question.

this lol....

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

SSA, Sundown, Digital Designs, DC, Incriminator Audio, Fi, Hertz, Focal, Massive, Cadence, DLS, Rainbow, Obsidian, Skar, Crecendo, Image Dynamics... Just to name a few...

 

[jokers10 10+ year member]

The problem with this question is that it is entirely opinion based. You could list pawn shop brands such as Pyle, Boss, Pyramid, etc.. and there are actually people out there that feel that these brands are the best bang for the buck. Honestly, I would probably say that it is, due to the fact that bass comes from many variables, but the main component being cone area.

The best way to know if you are going to like the speakers you are buying is listen to them in a similar space that you have. A set of components run at 100 watts on a wall in the store sound way different that the same speakers in your door running 14 watts.

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

ZED, TC sounds, American Bass, B2, Dayton, Scan Speak, Hybrid Audio Technologies just to name some more...

 

[sjv13 10+ year member]

The problem with this question is that it is entirely opinion based. You could list pawn shop brands such as Pyle, Boss, Pyramid, etc.. and there are actually people out there that feel that these brands are the best bang for the buck. Honestly, I would probably say that it is, due to the fact that bass comes from many variables, but the main component being cone area.
The best way to know if you are going to like the speakers you are buying is listen to them in a similar space that you have. A set of components run at 100 watts on a wall in the store sound way different that the same speakers in your door running 14 watts.

just want to let you know that I do have a couple of amps lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Every company has lemons and every company has diamonds in the rough. Just research your purchase.

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

a lot of the "x company" doesn't make good products is b/c of the knowledge of the user. example, amps, if said brand says it's produces 1000 watts and someone clamps it and it does 800 watts RMS. all the nuthuggers will say that that brand is junk even though their amp is $50 than the next nuthugger brand that produces 500 watts rms. even on subs, if said brand says their 12" sub can handle 1000 watts RMS w/ a 3" coil and xyz specs. some nuthugger of another brand is going to put that sub on 2 SAZ4500s strapped but have gains on lowest setting and than all the nuthuggers gonna say that that sub is junk b/c it can't handle 8x's it's RMS rating. just look at all the "starter" companies that try and put out a good product but b/c they don't have those nuthuggers, they fail b/c they don't have the knowledge to try selling with store front and their online customers don't have the knowledge to know a good product. look at Shok for instance, they make a great product but b/c there aren't enough Shok wannabe's and they don't have a retail plan their going under just slowly. on the other hand look at Crescendo, they have nuthuggers to spare and they have no retail plan yet they are getting more popular by the day. even take a look at the finishing installers, they have guys that do excellent finishing work for peanuts but no one is willing to pay for that, they'd rather have a box with all their wires all over the place and be able to move a t-shirt with their window down than have something that looks good and sounds good. just look at all the amps out there that now put peak wattage on their case b/c they know that uneducated jokers will buy their stuff b/c it says "5000 Watts" on the case but only has 2 80a Maxi fuses (translates to roughly 1600 watts RMS). even those big companies like JBL are resorting to putting "1000 Watts" on the cone of their subs to get sales.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

just want to let you know that I do have a couple of amps lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

what kind of amps lol

 

[showpump 10+ year member]

It depends on what you want. SQ or SPL. Also a lot of companys overrate there amps. I had a Hifonics HFi2000D mono amp. It said it could do 2000 watts @ 1 ohm but once I hooked it up I knew it wasnt close, plus it sounded like shit. IMO Now days I just stick to ZED, incriminator, and some ARC amps, I would rather pay more for beter stuff that I can be proud of.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

Totally depends on the application of the chosen equipment. Install trumps price, assuming the system as a whole is capable of reproducing undistorted music within the human audible frequency range at the desired listening level.. The choices can be narrowed in the upper frequencies where the human hearing becomes more sensitive to detecting subtle differences in driver composition and placement. Equalization ability is a commonly overlooked factor as well, especially in the cabin of an automobile. I have seen a couple of installs using Pro Audio 1/3 octave eq processing and 12v Dc to 120v AC converters with amazing results vs. the cost and abilities of quality 12v. versions.