Infamous Good, Bad, and Ugly

[JookBocsBettie 10+ year member]

I thought this may be helpful for a lot of noobs including myself. Enjoy:goodbad:

This list is the property of:

Chris from Washington

GlassWolf

Ryan from Ohio

Justin from Detroit or

William from NOLA

At http://www.caraudiocentral.net

Posting this list in part or whole is not permitted without express permission or credit given.

This is the infamous Good, Bad, and Ugly list.

These are some generalized groupings and very subjective. We've simply stated our experiences with the products whether they are direct installs, personal property or extensive research. You should always physically audition a product before purchase because you are the one who will determine whether or not an item "sounds good" or not.

The overall groupings are based on performance, reliability, and build quality, without regard to price.

This topic, while being controversial, is simply a generalized guide meant for beginners in the hobby. Many brands specialize in certain items, ie. better amplifiers than speakers, better mids than subs, etc... Also almost all manufacturers offer entry level products as well as high performance lines. Good luck with your decisions.

We've broken this section into 4 catagories:

1: Bad (avoid)

2: Questionable (mixed reviews, disputed, unsure, or depends on the item)

3: Good (just about always worth consideration)

4: Highly Recommended (considered audiophile grade)

This is the general section:

Bad

American HiFi (Rockwood)

American Pro

Audiobahn (speakers and subwoofers)

Audiovox

Automobile

Becker

Boss

DHD

Dual

JDL

Jensen

Kenwood (speakers and amplifiers)

Kingwood

Kole

Kraco

Kronik

LA Sound

Legacy

Lightining Audio

MA Audio

Optimus (Radio Shack)

Power Acoustik

Profile

Pyle

Pyramid

Rockwood

SAS Bazooka (amplifiers)

Sherwood

Sony (anything by Sony except the older Mobile ES line)

Sound Storm (owned by BOSS Audio)

Sparkomatic

SPL Audio

Thump

Ultimate Sounds

Volfenhag

Questionable

Blaupunkt (Bosch)

Aiwa

Crunch

Elemental Designs (eD)

Harmon-Kardon (current, Phoenix Gold owned)

Hollywood

Infinity (amplifiers, reference components)

Kenwood (head units)

Kicker Solobaric (L5, L7, Solo-X square subs)

Lanzar

Lightning Audio

Matsui

Onyx Mobile Audio

Panasonic

Phoenix Gold (anything after the mid 1990s)

Pioneer (amplifiers)

SAS Bazooka (bass tubes)

Soundstream (current Power Acoustik owned products)

Visonik

Good

Adire Audio

a/d/s (present DEI owned items)

Alpine

Altec Lansing

Alumapro

Ample Audio

Audiobahn (amplifiers)

Audio Development

Audiomobile

Autotek

Avionixx

Boston Acoustics

Bravox

Cadence (current amplifier products)

CD Technologies (CDT)

Cerwin Vega (subs)

Clarion (head units)

Coustic

Crossfire

Crystal

Directed (DEI)

Earthquake

Eaton

Elevation Audio

Helix

Hifonics

Illusion

Infinity

JBL (amplifiers)

JVC Digifine

Kicker (excluding square solobaric speakers)

Lunar

Memphis Audio

MTX

Orion (current DEI products)

Phoenix Gold (older 1990s amplifiers, subwoofers)

Pioneer (subwoofers)

Planet Audio (amplifiers, owned by BOSS Audio)

Polk Audio

Rockford Fosgate

Soundstream (older pre-Power Acoustik amplifiers)

US Acoustics

Viper

Highly Recommended

a/d/s (older 1980s, early 90s pre-ADST products)

Alpine (old "6 green preset buttons" head units)

Alpine F#1status

Arc Audio

Ascendant Audio

Audax

Audiocontrol

Brax/Helix

Butler Audio

Diamond Audio

Digital Designs (DD)

DLS

DynAudio

Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten)

Esoteric Audio/Streetwires

Focal

Harrison Labs

Image Dynamics (ID)

Infinity Kappa/Kappa Perfect components

Iraggi Alternators

JL Audio

KEF Kar components

Kove

LCY

Luxman

MB Quart

McIntosh Laboratories

MMATS

Morel

Nakamichi (tape transports)

Ohio Generator

Orion (older SX, GX, HCCA, GS, and XTR lines)

OZ Audio

Pioneer Premiere (head units)

Precision Power (PPI)

Rainbow

Resonant Engineering (RE)

Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and early 1990s products)

ScanSpeak

SEAS

Sinfoni

Stinger

Treo

TRU Technology

US Amps

Vifa

Wrangler Alternators

Xtant

Zapco

This is the equipment-specific section:

Head units

----------------------

Highly Recommended

Alpine

Clarion ProAudio

Eclipse

JVC Arsenal

Pioneer Premier

Sony Mobile ES (from the early 1990's only, rare)

Good

Clarion

JVC

Nakamichi

Panasonic MXE

Pioneer

Questionable

Blaupunkt

Kenwood

Panasonic

Avoid

Audiovox

Boss

Dual

Jensen

Sanyo

Sony

Amplifiers

----------------------

Highly Recommended

Arc Audio

Audison

Brax

Eclipse

Esoteric Audio

Elevation Audio

Genesis

Harrison Labs

Helix

JBL (Crown made models)

JL Audio

McIntosh Laboratories

Memphis Audio

Orion (pre-DEI)

PPI Art series

Rockford Fosgate (early 90s, Punch and Power series)

Tru

US Amps

Xtant

Zapco

Good

Alpine

Autotek

Avionixx

Cadence

Concept

Crossfire

Diamond Audio

Directed (DEI)

Earthquake

JBL

Kicker

MA Audio

MTX Audio

Phoenix Gold

Planet Audio

Rockford Fosgate (Power and Punch series)

SoundStream

US Acoustics

Questionable

Alphasonik

Audiobahn

Cerwin Vega

Coustic

HiFonics

Lanzar

Lightning Audio

Power Acoustik

Tsunami

Avoid

Bazooka

Crunch

Jensen

Legacy

Optimus

Pyle

Pyramid

Sony

Visonik

Volfenhag

Main Speakers

----------------------

Highly Recommended

Adire Audio

Alpine (F1 Status components)

Arc Audio

Beyma

Boston Acoustics

Bravox (component sets)

CD Technologies (CDT)

Diamond Audio

DLS

Dyn Audio

Eclipse

Focal

HI-VI Research

Illusion Audio

Image Dynamics

Infinity (Kappa Perfect series)

JL Audio (XR components)

JL ZR component line

LPG

Max-Fidelity

MB Quart

Morel

Rainbow

Resonant Engineering

Scan-Speak

Seas

Vifa

Visatron

Good

Alpine

Boston Acoustics (lower model lines)

Bravox (coaxials)

Cerwin Vega

Crystal

Earthquake

Fusion

Infinity (Kappa and Reference series)

JBL

Kicker

Memphis Audio

Pioneer

Polk Audio

Rockford Fosgate

Questionable

Planet Audio

Avoid

Audiobahn

Boss

Crunch

Dual

Jensen

Powerbase/Powerbass

Sony

Subwoofers

----------------------

Highly Recommended

Adire Audio

Alpine (Type-X series)

Alumapro

Arc Audio

Ascendant Audio

Boston Acoustics

Crystal

Diamond Audio

Digital Designs (DD)

DLS

Dyn Audio

Earthquake

Eclipse

Elevation Audio

Focal

Funky Pups

recommended section is a joke,

in case anyone doesn't know.

Image Dynamics

Inhuman Audio

JL Audio

Kicker (CompVR series)

MB Quart

Memphis (Mojo series)

MMats

OZ Audio

Rainbow

Resonant Engineering

Treo

Good

Alpine (Type-R or S series)

Bravox

CD Technologies (CDT)

Cerwin Vega

Concept

Earthquake

Fi Audio

Fusion

Infinity (Kappa series and up)

MTX Audio (8000's and up)

Onyx Audio

Phoenix Gold

Pioneer

Polk Audio

Rockford Fosgate

Xtant

Questionable

Coustic

Elemental Designs

HiFonics

SoundStream

Avoid

Alphasonik

Alpine (Type-E series)

Audiobahn

Autotek

Bazooka

Boss

Crunch

Dual

Jensen

Kenwood

Lightning Audio

MTX (6000's and under)

Pioneer (lower models)

Planet Audio

Power Acoustik

Pyle

Sony

Volfenhag

Wiring

-----------

Highly Recommended

Audiopipe

Audison Connect

Hooker Audio

Knukonceptz

JL Interconnects

Streetwires

Tsunami

Good

Directed

Kicker

Phoenix Digital

Raptor

Scosche

Questionable

American Bass

Audiobahn (RCA cables didn't last long)

MA Audio

Avoid

(none placed here yet)

Batteries

---------------

Highly Recommended

Deka

Interstate

Kinetic

Northstar

Optima

Stinger

Good

Die Hard (sold by Sears)

Duralast

Eagle Picher

Everstart (Maxx battery only)

Exstatic

Scosche

Tsunami

Questionable

(none placed here yet)

Avoid

(none placed here yet)

Alternators

-------------------

Highly Recommended

(none placed here yet)

Good

Excessive Amperage

H/O alternators

Iraggi Alternators

Motor City Reman

Ohio Generator

Questionable

(none placed here yet)

Avoid

(none placed here yet)

Dash Kits/Install Accessories

---------------------------------------------

Highly Recommended

Metra

Good

American International

Scosche

Questionable

Scosche (the ones found at Wal-Mart only)

Avoid

(none placed here yet)

Click to read more...

 

[Colt9699 10+ year member]

so let me get this straight Kenwood amps are bad and Crunch amps are questionable......I call BS

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

LMAO this is an OLD list from like 2003.

 

[JookBocsBettie 10+ year member]

yes it may be old......just thought some would like to see....I actually wanted to see the response it got

 

[brtnboarder3241 5,000+ posts]

http://www.caraudiocentral.net is the shit man..thats where i first started and still current member..love it there,.,not full of stupid shits like some other forums..

and yes kenwood amp ****.. and the colts **** balls...but the main point is the newer crunch amps are becomin popular and still put out some good *** power

 

[mike dressure 10+ year member]

i disagree with a lot on your list!

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

http://www.caraudiocentral.net is the shit man..thats where i first started and still current member..love it there,.,not full of stupid shits like some other forums..

Then GTFO and leave ca.com??? Car audio wise diymobileaudio is better than most.

 

[brtnboarder3241 5,000+ posts]

Then GTFO and leave ca.com??? Car audio wise diymobileaudio is better than most.

i hope u kno i wasnt refering to ca.com but i should start seein u ****head go crazy over the littlist things..i mean come on u jump to conclusions to fast and dont tell me to gtfo.

 

[lookitsjim23 10+ year member]

Kicker Solobaric (L5, L7, Solo-X square subs) are questionable and Audiobahn amps are good? and they have Kicker wiring in GOOD...and not highly recommended...uh

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

i hope u kno i wasnt refering to ca.com but i should start seein u ****head go crazy over the littlist things..i mean come on u jump to conclusions to fast and dont tell me to gtfo.

k noob thanx bye.

 

[brtnboarder3241 5,000+ posts]

btw it is an old list put together by i believe 2 people (not sure) and its in their opinoins to better help out the community..everyone has a dif opinion..and everyone should respect that..

wow i bet u feel so special dont u?? go play your gay sport water polo and hit on some ***** men while in the shower?? ok thanks bye..

 

[mike dressure 10+ year member]

by the way....kenwood amps are good for the money so you might want to rearrange your list a bit

 

[mike dressure 10+ year member]

here come's another gay **** flaming thread......**** i wish this shit would end

 

[lookitsjim23 10+ year member]

wow i bet u feel so special dont u?? go play your gay sport water polo and hit on some ***** men while in the shower?? ok thanks bye..

why are you getting so mad?

 

[brtnboarder3241 5,000+ posts]

yes mike i completly agree with you for the money..they arnt bad..sry if i made it sound that way..didnt get my point fully across..my bad