Would it surprise you that when CD changers first came out that the CD transports were all made by one of two companies? Sony and Kenwood and a few other companies used the same changers. Only the control bus was different. I'd say that they qualify much more as giants than either JL or Alpine.
You seem to think that you have some sort of insight to the workings of the world. Economics are the workings of the world. There is no sound business reason to duplicate effort in the realm of high tech. You actually think that all the flat panel brands out there make their own panels in house. Last I checked there are a whole 2 makers of the actual panels for plasma TVs. All the name brands, from cheapest to most expensive, buy from them. LCDs are the same way. Stuff gets outsourced. Welcome to the global market. That doesn't mean that stuff doesn't get tweaked by the company marketing the product. Spec changes to some resistors here, transistor specs there, cap values and tolerances massaged a bit and the result is a different amp in either power output, load stability or reliability, but at its heart it's still the same amp. Same circuit layout, design topology and driving philosophy. Built on the same mainboard. Precious few electronic components are built in the US anymore, it just isn't cost effective. Whine all you want about jobs lost overseas, but most people whine more when they see the pricetag of a Made in USA amp. Even overseas where labor is cheap, tooling costs for a new product are not. If you can share that tooling cost with another company and each get a new and differently spec'd product out of the deal, you'd be a business fool not to. JL has proven for years that their leadership is anything but business fools. They may be very different amps, we'll see; but I would be more than highly surprised if this were the case. The similarities will far outnumber the differences.
