helotaxi 5,000+ posts
Kilroy was Here
Phoenix Gold has always been in Portland, Oregon for the record.
In my eyes, old school was back when subs and amps were made in the US, speakers were made in the US or Europe, processors were made by AudioControl or HiFonics, HUs were made in Japan. CDs were a luxury, and an annoyance. SpeakerWorks was still in the business of winning the IASCA finals with aperiodic sub installs and their in house waveguides. Speaker Warehouse was doing the same from the other coast with their signature blend of PPI amps (AM or ProMOS series, the Art series was still a few years down the road), MB Quart speakers, Alpine heads, AudioControl EQs and crossovers and their homebrew house brand sub; you may have heard of the brand: JL Audio.
Whole systems were run at that time off one 2-channel amp. A really small one at that. The thought of more than 1kw was almost laughable for all but the most hardcore competitor in a dedicated competition vehicle. Sub enclosures were sealed. Fiberglass in an install was rare. Vinyl, formica and Fleckstone over flat panels is where it was at. Accent lighting was neon, not LED.
Solobaric didn't exist. Kicker made SQ subs, in fact that is what the original Solobarics were. Soundstream products were blue, period. Amps were cooled with fins, not fans. Low power class vehicles had lots of speakers (37 in the Speaker warehouse Blazer that won in the 0-100W class 5 years in a row.) High power class cars had 6 (SpeakerWorks GN and Harry Kimura's Accord specifically).
The over-riding theme of the day when it came to serious aftermarket stereo was sound quality not sound quantity in a vehicle that was still functional as transportation. Flashy show cars didn't intermingle with the car audio scene. There were audio comps and there were car comps and never the two shall meet.
In my eyes, old school was back when subs and amps were made in the US, speakers were made in the US or Europe, processors were made by AudioControl or HiFonics, HUs were made in Japan. CDs were a luxury, and an annoyance. SpeakerWorks was still in the business of winning the IASCA finals with aperiodic sub installs and their in house waveguides. Speaker Warehouse was doing the same from the other coast with their signature blend of PPI amps (AM or ProMOS series, the Art series was still a few years down the road), MB Quart speakers, Alpine heads, AudioControl EQs and crossovers and their homebrew house brand sub; you may have heard of the brand: JL Audio.
Whole systems were run at that time off one 2-channel amp. A really small one at that. The thought of more than 1kw was almost laughable for all but the most hardcore competitor in a dedicated competition vehicle. Sub enclosures were sealed. Fiberglass in an install was rare. Vinyl, formica and Fleckstone over flat panels is where it was at. Accent lighting was neon, not LED.
Solobaric didn't exist. Kicker made SQ subs, in fact that is what the original Solobarics were. Soundstream products were blue, period. Amps were cooled with fins, not fans. Low power class vehicles had lots of speakers (37 in the Speaker warehouse Blazer that won in the 0-100W class 5 years in a row.) High power class cars had 6 (SpeakerWorks GN and Harry Kimura's Accord specifically).
The over-riding theme of the day when it came to serious aftermarket stereo was sound quality not sound quantity in a vehicle that was still functional as transportation. Flashy show cars didn't intermingle with the car audio scene. There were audio comps and there were car comps and never the two shall meet.
