The shop salesman that is being referred to is Alex Avila. The shop he works at is Sound Decision in Montgomery, Ill. This shop has turned out many award winning and magazine featured vehicles. Co-Owner and Installer Sean "Crackie" Young was named MERA's Installer of the year for 2003. They also have a knack for building very loud street cars.
Alex set the DbDrag Racing World Record at the Audio Thunder 3X show in Toronto, earlier this season. His competitor profile can be found here
http://www.termpro.com/asp/competitorstats.asp?Competitor_ID=6039 . He is currently the 3rd loudest Stret A car in the states, 2nd place is held by his friend and fellow Chicago-area competitor Mike Skaritka. Also, he hasn't been to a DbDrag show in almost 3 months. His Aztec is more of a show car now, he did use it to comete with in 2003. It is also used to tow his CRX. The stock radio is still in there to retain access to many of the factory controls, steering wheel controls and satellite radio, that are tied into the factory radio.
The Hifonics subs are for real. In a recent visit up to Chicago Alex proved to me that these subs could meet or exceed the spl scores of the Kickers. I cannot comment on SQ as we only tested SPL in SPL designed enclosures.
On a side note, it is interesting to see how many of you are readily willing to bash a person or a product before you have all the facts. A new car audio enthusiast goes to a shop and gets a little confused about the info he is given and before trying to figure out the real facts you all begin calling BS. How many of you have tested both the Hifonics and Kicker? How many of you have built a world record spl car? How many of you have won a World Championship? Many of the newer car audio enthusiasts are quick to critisize and slow to get the real facts or to learn how to properly do things. Without proper knowledge your are just ignorant.