Trusted Brands / Budget Brands (slightly overrated) and Junk Brands List

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

SSA, FU Audio, PSI, Zed all trusted
Skar- amps are acceptable, subs go 50/50 and overall business practices are down right despicable I could put them in the junk category

I'd go budget on SKAR (some of their amps miss ratings but not by much) I have never dealt with Skar and don't know there business practices.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Agree fully. Precision Power and Soundstream come to mind when you say that. Heck even Hifonics (atleast previously)

hifonics fell into the pure junk category man. 1199 watts out of a "1700" watt amp at 14.95 volts is retarded as sh*t and thats their best line.

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

hifonics fell into the pure junk category man. 1199 watts out of a "1700" watt amp at 14.95 volts is retarded as sh*t and thats their best line.

Really? I haven't looked into their latest stuff, their old stuff almost seemed to get close to its ratings... but not quite make it. 500W off at almost 15V *****.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Really? I haven't looked into their latest stuff, their old stuff almost seemed to get close to its ratings... but not quite make it. 500W off at almost 15V *****.

might as well buy power acoustik/planet audio. Even audiopoop 1500.1 made 1314 watts at 14.05 volts and its almost half the price of that hifonics amp.

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

Junk brands:

Planet Audio (in the context of their new offerings)

Soundstorm

Power Acoustik

Sony

Jensen

JVC

Lanzar (optidrive series does rated power and can be budget category but I'm not sure if those are still made)

Soundstream makes mostly decent budget amps that do rated or close to rated power

Memphis, Mosconi and Mmats are all trusted

edit: thought McIntosh made car audio, I was wrong.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Junk brands:
Planet Audio (in the context of their new offerings)

Soundstorm

Power Acoustik

Sony

Jensen

JVC

Lanzar (optidrive series does rated power and can be budget category but I'm not sure if those are still made)

Soundstream makes mostly decent budget amps that do rated or close to rated power

Memphis, McIntosh, Mosconi and Mmats are all trusted

The newer sony and jvc head units have cleaned up in terms of build quality and reliability recently compared to a year or two ago.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Junk brands:
Planet Audio (in the context of their new offerings)

Soundstorm

Power Acoustik

Sony

Jensen

JVC

Lanzar (optidrive series does rated power and can be budget category but I'm not sure if those are still made)

Soundstream makes mostly decent budget amps that do rated or close to rated power

Memphis, McIntosh, Mosconi and Mmats are all trusted

Sony GS line up is good as well as all the stuff they only sell in Asia.

Zed is dead from having a ton of QC issues and **** CS.

Soundsteam and PPI are owned by the same company as power acoustic

McIntosh has been gone for years

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

Junk brands:
Planet Audio (in the context of their new offerings)

Soundstorm

Power Acoustik

Sony

Jensen

JVC

Lanzar (optidrive series does rated power and can be budget category but I'm not sure if those are still made)

Soundstream makes mostly decent budget amps that do rated or close to rated power

Memphis, McIntosh, Mosconi and Mmats are all trusted

Does Jensen even make amps any more? I know they barely exist in the marine world. Their parent company also owns POLK, and Polk stuff is good. Also same question with McIntosh.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

The truth is you can't say a brand is good or bad.

Well except boss.

99% of the crap brands today where once the leaders.

The top selling mainstream brands have done junk.

Really only the small brands have all good stuff BUT some are just off the shelf build house catalog stuff. Which I'm fine with as long as the price reflects it's a cookie cutter.

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

The truth is you can't say a brand is good or bad. Well except boss.

99% of the crap brands today where once the leaders.

The top selling mainstream brands have done junk.

Really only the small brands have all good stuff BUT some are just off the shelf build house catalog stuff. Which I'm fine with as long as the price reflects it's a cookie cutter.

Man your going to have to really define junk for me.

Junk to me are brands that get no where near its ratings and will likely not work out of the box or quit working within a year. To me junk has NOTHING to do with the price charged. If a product does what it says it will do, and can do it reliably after being properly set up... it's definately not junk

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

It's a shame that the leaders of 20-30 years ago were bought out and gutted and they rely on a diminishing reputation that is decades old. And they solve that problem by finding ways to make an even cheaper product to maintain their constantly diminishing profit margins.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

It's a shame that the leaders of 20-30 years ago were bought out and gutted and they rely on a diminishing reputation that is decades old. And they solve that problem by finding ways to make an even cheaper product to maintain their constantly diminishing profit margins.

As hispls says, its all about the race to zero.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Man your going to have to really define junk for me.
Junk to me are brands that get no where near its ratings and will likely not work out of the box or quit working within a year. To me junk has NOTHING to do with the price charged. If a product does what it says it will do, and can do it reliably after being properly set up... it's definately not junk

That's exactly what junk is. High return rates and inflated ratings.

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

Junk brands:
Planet Audio (in the context of their new offerings)

Soundstorm

Power Acoustik

Sony

Jensen

JVC

Lanzar (optidrive series does rated power and can be budget category but I'm not sure if those are still made)

Soundstream makes mostly decent budget amps that do rated or close to rated power

Memphis, Mosconi and Mmats are all trusted

edit: thought McIntosh made car audio, I was wrong.

They made some bulky amps.....but were very expensive. Still see some time to time that people want a mortgage payment for it.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Mc made some pretty amps. But power wise, they will get eaten alive now