I could understand how those statements are confusing because I was responding quickly and not giving much thought to what I was writing. I apologize.
As far as the whole thread goes I am not confused because the whole thread talks about small companies that no one heard of offering better products than big companies that's all. Let's keep it simple. Before RF went to the mainstream US population in the US by going to Best Buy, their products were much better. They are great now but not like they were in 1980-1998. PPI, Orion and a few others were top notch in their time until Directed Electronics got involved in the picture. Kicker even made better products with their XR series of amps and woofers. The point is that since many of these big companies either got bought out or catered to different audiences they made better products. Today there are smaller companies that are making a name for themselves like Fosgate, Linear Power, PPI, Orion did back in the day and they are making better products because of it. Such companies are Treo, Audioque, Sundown, RD Audio, Digital Designs, etc. They are making better products straight up. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Ample Audio is one of them. Some of these companies cater to a very small audience and their reputation and quality of their products are what keep them in business.
I probably like you have been involved in car audio since 1989 before the punch hd series came out, when Linear Power was a small company, when Orion, Hifonics, Precision Power, Planet Audio, Crunch, ADS, Audio Art and Lanzar were big names. At their time, they made the best car audio products around and some even to this day. I heard many many many systems in the early years and I can tell the differences between them. Steve Mantz's company ZED audio mades better amps than 3/4 of all the bigger companies because he is not mainstream and cares more about quality than quantity. RF is still a top company but I would not longer rank them as the best like they were in their heyday. PPI, Orion and Hifonics are not even close to where they were.
Point proved. It's the same principle of going to a popular restaurant such as Cheesecake Factory or Olive Garden, when we all know that there are smaller hole in the wall restaurants who make their food homemade and use better ingredients and have been doing so for years.
