Is Car Audio Alive and Well?

[simpsonbuck 10+ year member]

Ugh....the older you get the faster it goes.

Life is so **** special and we piss it away like cheap beer....oh well. This is the reason I care less about my long term hearing

I'll shoot you a message this Thursday.....thanks.

 

[simpsonbuck 10+ year member]

I already have my guns but I could always use a few more... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

All I need is my XD.....and maybe a Howitzer just to spice things up.

 

[ClubKnowledge 10+ year member]

You all are probably right about the money just not being there for the "Play Toys" as much as before.

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

It has slowed, but hope things will return to normal soon.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Yep, I think that's really what it is. Money just isn't right to do anything with the "systems" right now. People are getting by, getting ready to visit with family for the holidays etc.... They will soon be back on their Car Audio when all the other stuff is over with. I imagine car audio sales might be good right before and after Christmas if the gas prices can stay down long enough for people to recover....

I want to do some stuff with own vehicle but I am limited on time right now (lots of repairs in the shop) and money is tight too, customers asking me to "hold off" on repairing their amps because they don't have the money right now...

As for the guns sales being so good, I know if I could I would add the following to my Christmas wish list, a box of hand grenades, an RPG and an unmanned spy plane would be nice to have around.... things may get ugly if these ****ed terrorists don't chill out, seems like they don't like Obama any better than they liked Bush, they are still blowing up **** everyday.....

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

Yep, I think that's really what it is. Money just isn't right to do anything with the "systems" right now. People are getting by, getting ready to visit with family for the holidays etc.... They will soon be back on their Car Audio when all the other stuff is over with. I imagine car audio sales might be good right before and after Christmas if the gas prices can stay down long enough for people to recover....
I want to do some stuff with own vehicle but I am limited on time right now (lots of repairs in the shop) and money is tight too, customers asking me to "hold off" on repairing their amps because they don't have the money right now...

As for the guns sales being so good, I know if I could I would add the following to my Christmas wish list, a box of hand grenades, an RPG and an unmanned spy plane would be nice to have around.... things may get ugly if these ****ed terrorists don't chill out, seems like they don't like Obama any better than they liked Bush, they are still blowing up **** everyday.....

they've been blowing **** up everyday, regardless of who's president. Only way to stop them is be their allies, but even then...

 

[simpsonbuck 10+ year member]

The time for Israel to turn them into dust is near approaching. It is payback for the Babylonians razing Israel.

It is all in your history book called the Bible.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Being the very start of all IC and semi I would say that the economy is only to blame for about 10% or so. At least from a supplier stand point (that is what we are seeing).

I think its many things. One of the biggest is that quality has gotten so much better. Yes, most things are built in China, and this allows for cheaper costs. But you have people like Sundown and SI traveling and talking with these build houses and getting a quality product. So things are better than they were and cheaper. Rather than settling for the lower power or step down, we are buying exactly what we want and for the most part, people are content.

I think we are hitting a point where watts are not going to be as important as features. We saw this in the CPU segment not too long ago. The race for the most GHZ was non-stop. Finally consumers got to a point where they didn't care. We started looking at things like bus speed, cache, cores, etc.

I hope that the audio industry follows this. JL has in some regards with the amps they make running power at all ohms, but there is more out there to do.

Eh, Just my .02 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Yeah, some of the china stuff isn't that bad. You just have to push them to produce quality, it will always be cheaper there because labor is cheaper. The Sundown amps that are made in China are not that bad. And I think personally, the Maxxsonics Brutus and some of the other smaller Maxxsonics amps (but not all of them) that are made in China are top-notch, just as good of quality as the Korean made amps of their equivalent size. So the product being "Made in China" doesn't mean the quality isn't good, some are some aren't. Best way to gauge it is ask around to find out who is "happy" with their "Made in China" amp, alot of people are.

As far as features vs ? I am not sure. I think most amplifiers at least, since I don't deal with head units or any other components, just amplifiers, most amplifiers features suit the needs of the consumer already. People are simply price vs performance vs durability on amplifiers and I think that's always the way it will be with amplifiers.

 

[natisfynest 10+ year member]

i dont think its people dont have the money right now but more people are worried about what tomorrow is gonna bring with all these places cutting jobs and **** people are putting there money away incase they dont have a job next week or what not once job stability comes back people spending money will follow

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

Its weird though, I had a Chinese OEM just about shove some samples down my throat the other day //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif .. they might be hurting over there too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, some of the china stuff isn't that bad. You just have to push them to produce quality, it will always be cheaper there because labor is cheaper. The Sundown amps that are made in China are not that bad. And I think personally, the Maxxsonics Brutus and some of the other smaller Maxxsonics amps (but not all of them) that are made in China are top-notch, just as good of quality as the Korean made amps of their equivalent size. So the product being "Made in China" doesn't mean the quality isn't good, some are some aren't. Best way to gauge it is ask around to find out who is "happy" with their "Made in China" amp, alot of people are.
As far as features vs ? I am not sure. I think most amplifiers at least, since I don't deal with head units or any other components, just amplifiers, most amplifiers features suit the needs of the consumer already. People are simply price vs performance vs durability on amplifiers and I think that's always the way it will be with amplifiers.

I agree on the China parts. I think we as members could do more to help each other out with what is good and bad. I just picked up an Eenon (spelling wrong I'm thinking) dvd double din. I know it has gotten bad reviews online, but I worked out a decent price with the lady and I'm going to run a bunch of testing on it and write up a full review for the board. My thought on this was that it was only 240 or so bucks for this thing. It may have some short comings but I want to see what it does WELL. All of the reviews I read (some were horrible some were pretty good) were from other boards. I think we could do better on here with reviews.

I agree and disagree on the amp features and performance. I personally want a very well built amplifier, but I'm not as interested in power as I am quality and the likes. I don't want to turn it into "amps doesn't make a difference in sound quality" but I will say that some amps do a better job than others at not adding things to the signal.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Its weird though, I had a Chinese OEM just about shove some samples down my throat the other day //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif .. they might be hurting over there too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

They are more than we are. Takes far less money to make them run. Which is good when its busy, but even small changes impact them. Most of my suppliers have been coming in offering price reduction half way through contracts.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Good point, unemployment rate is increasing rapidly.... Makes people paranoid, as it should. I tell everyone that I see the economy having problems "as it is" as a good thing because in my opinion too many people have jobs where they don't do anything, they don't produce anything for the company, don't make the company that pays them well enough to cover their costs. Forces the companies to operate more efficiently and I can't think of a single reason why that is a bad thing, people with skills who "produce" should be getting paid good, people who don't have any skills, just a "body on the floor" or behind a desk just pushing paper need to get some skills and make some real money and will be looking for a new job when the companies are forced by the economy to become more efficient. The companies that survive will be stronger and more efficient than ever when the "slump" is over and that is a good thing. The people forced out of "easy non-producing" jobs will have skills because they were forced too and the US will have more "skilled" workers and more efficient companies when the economy rebounds I think that is excellent and I cannot see any bad thing about it period. I think rather that "it's about time" it happened....

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

wow, tell us how you really feel chris //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[simpsonbuck 10+ year member]

As The U.S. goes, so goes the World.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Good point, unemployment rate is increasing rapidly.... Makes people paranoid, as it should. I tell everyone that I see the economy having problems "as it is" as a good thing because in my opinion too many people have jobs where they don't do anything, they don't produce anything for the company, don't make the company that pays them well enough to cover their costs. Forces the companies to operate more efficiently and I can't think of a single reason why that is a bad thing, people with skills who "produce" should be getting paid good, people who don't have any skills, just a "body on the floor" or behind a desk just pushing paper need to get some skills and make some real money and will be looking for a new job when the companies are forced by the economy to become more efficient. The companies that survive will be stronger and more efficient than ever when the "slump" is over and that is a good thing. The people forced out of "easy non-producing" jobs will have skills because they were forced too and the US will have more "skilled" workers and more efficient companies when the economy rebounds I think that is excellent and I cannot see any bad thing about it period. I think rather that "it's about time" it happened....

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif

Darwinism at its best (if I spelled that incorrectly, you get the point). Too bad we can't just shoot those people

 

[duece212 5,000+ posts]

Good point, unemployment rate is increasing rapidly.... Makes people paranoid, as it should. I tell everyone that I see the economy having problems "as it is" as a good thing because in my opinion too many people have jobs where they don't do anything, they don't produce anything for the company, don't make the company that pays them well enough to cover their costs. Forces the companies to operate more efficiently and I can't think of a single reason why that is a bad thing, people with skills who "produce" should be getting paid good, people who don't have any skills, just a "body on the floor" or behind a desk just pushing paper need to get some skills and make some real money and will be looking for a new job when the companies are forced by the economy to become more efficient. The companies that survive will be stronger and more efficient than ever when the "slump" is over and that is a good thing. The people forced out of "easy non-producing" jobs will have skills because they were forced too and the US will have more "skilled" workers and more efficient companies when the economy rebounds I think that is excellent and I cannot see any bad thing about it period. I think rather that "it's about time" it happened....

I now feel bad for getting paid to post //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

Agreed though, efficiency isn't a bad thing

 

[natisfynest 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif
Darwinism at its best (if I spelled that incorrectly, you get the point). Too bad we can't just shoot those people

can we get a amen

 

[natisfynest 10+ year member]

i mean it ***** that alot of good skilled people are losing jobs due to lack of structure from upper management and accounting deparments not doing a good job