I think OP is nostalgic for nothing. I remember the "good old days" and there was plenty of ghetto installs, plenty of misinformed people misinforming others, and loads of cheap foreign made junk (much of it being sold for whatever someone thinks you'll pay for it).
There's still plenty of shops doing quality work and still plenty of solid American made gear for those that want to go that route.
Granted the Korean stuff is very solid and cost effective, but IMO that's a good thing. God knows the little kids in the third world building the stuff get paid peanuts so the money is mostly being made in the distribution chain here and it keeps things generally competitive. I really hate to see manufacturing going overseas, but that problem would **** near take a revolution here to fix and is WAY deeper than the audio industry could deal with. IT goes along with getting more people into and excited about the hobby.
There's a good chance that the 18 year old kid that buys a 3KW Korean amp today or even a sony Xplod might be by your store for a Zapco 10 years from now when his college loans are paid off.... I know I buy some expensive gear today (much of which is made in the USA) and I started out with a lot of flea market **** and "big name" stuff that wasn't very good.
I say anything that gets people into the hobby is great for everyone involved. I personally don't have shops do my installs for me but if I had no time and loads of money I probably would.
No matter what, there's always going to be people who will always go the DIY route and there will always be people who walk into a store and buy whatever you show them. In business your most expensive 10% of your items is 90% of your dollar value and is typically the least profit margin. Dunno what's going on these days but when I worked in the industry in the mid 90's a shop's bread and butter was alarms, remote starts, and phones (LOL).
