When did car audio die?

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Things will always continue to evolve, and this has shown true with the explosion of car audio internet stores. It's true that internet stores have given people some better choices, but it has also screwed people too. The majority of online stores are not factory authorized, as were real car audio stores. Internet stores can only offer a limited warranty, unlike real stores where they can offer the factory warranty as well. Internet stores can offer more choices at lower costs to consumers, so thats a plus I guess, but at what costs to the economy and real car audio shops? Being a competitor and one that runs a competition organization I don't care for most internet stores. If it weren't for the "real" car audio stores we'd never have any competitions and people wouldn't have the chance to see some really loud systems and learn things first hand from some good guys.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

good job on breakin 150.
congrats

/ ot

Thanks.

 

[PaulD 10+ year member]

I was not implying that internet sales killed B&M's, on the contrary I think it has been their inability to adapt to the new rules. As far as info on the internet, I think all of you guys know how careful you have to be about advice you receive here (and elsewhere on the net).

 

[Sam Jackson 10+ year member]

Just a different game now, DD is about the only company that uses all US made parts.

********. it is not all US made..regardless of what they want you to believe..they are no more American than any other company is.

car audio died when korea took over...cheap ass amps for cheap price..now everybody sells the same **** for 19 different prices.

 

[Torgus 10+ year member]

WTF is wrong with you people. you sound like a bunch of *****y crying old ladies. ****. unless i'm mistaken CA is doing just fine.

there are more brands to choose from then ever

there are more powerful amps and beefier subs then ever

there are people breaking records still

some of the sickest installs ever are being done now it hasn't stopped.

Car audio is a small part of the car cultrure so to speak. now more then ever are tons of cars getting compete complex custom jobs inside and out. Car audio is a facet of the whole picture. ICE in general now has audio is just as important as the video, the interior mods, etc. If you want to survive now you need to own a customs shop because CA alone is hard to survive as a business, because of the internet. sorry things change. when i was growing up there were like 8-10 shops in normal driving distance. i could tell you now only 2.

people keep pushing the envelope and it hasn't stopped yet.

the only thing that is dieing imo is the **** CA shops which ripped people off for years and gave horrible advice...those are dieing off. The good shops/highend shops who grow with the culture and turn into partial/full custom shops are the evolution of it imo.

i'd rather buy online and read 50 reviews of the product by people who purchased it then go to a small shitty shop and have this guy tell me that's what i want because thats who's products he's allowed to carry. the Net is giving people more choice and information about the hobby then ever before.

personally for me, competitions are like meh who cares? i don't compete and don't really care what some other guy can put down. why should i? if i had any hope of winning i'd have to have a dedicated car/truck and a TON of cash to dump into it. sorry ANYTHING else is worth investing my money in then car who's only job is trying to win in a very small competition which will not make me famous/popular/getmelaid. it's boring to listen to people make subs fart. 1st time it's cool then it's like oh this again. wow so NOT impressive. get over it. have you ever been in a SQ car they honestly don't sound that amazing...the trick is to try and reproduce the sound 100% accurately, it doesn't mean it will necessarily sound good.

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

WTF is wrong with you people. you sound like a bunch of *****y crying old ladies. ****. unless i'm mistaken CA is doing just fine.
i'd rather buy online and read 50 reviews of the product by people who purchased it then go to a small shitty shop and have this guy tell me that's what i want. the Net is giving people more choice and information about the hobby then ever before.

and as for competitions who cares? i don't compete and don't really care what some other guy can put down. why should i? if i had any hope of winning i'd have to have a dedicated car/truck and a TON of cash to dump into it. sorry ANYTHING else is worth investing my money in then car who's only job is trying to win in a very small competition which will not make me famous/popular/getmelaid. ca has always been small for competitions cuz it's not popular. it's boring to listen to people make subs fart. 1st time it's cool then it's like oh this again. wow so NOT impressive. get over it. have you ever been in a SQ car they honestly don't sound good...the trick is to try and reproduce the sound 100% accurately, it doesn't mean it will sound good. f competitions.

Sorry, But I guess your mistaken. Cause car audio as a whole is in decline. With factory systems getting better there's less demand by the majority for an aftermarket system. You can get some good advice online, like here on CA, but you also get a lot of bogus info too, there's maybe a dozen people I've seen on here that really know what they're talking about. It's no different than going to a store. And about comps, there are a lot of people on here and other various threads that like competitions. It's no longer a matter of having the loudest "fart" boxes, there are a lot more and different classes than there used to be. It's not for everyone, but just cause you got your *ss handed to you at a comp doesn't mean they're all that bad. I compete with a daily driver system that sounds great on music, better than a lot of systems out there.

 

[Torgus 10+ year member]

maybe i'll come out next season to an event. i never noticed there was anything local around.

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

When did car audio die?Can anyone tell me the exact year, month, day it happened?

When did hundreds of IASCA and USAC sound off competitors all over the country stop

building there awesome SQ and SPL systems, and retire from the scene altogether?

When did the next generation of competitors give up the dream of winning 1st place

at the IASCA finals?

When did the car audio companies I loved in the 80s & 90s layoff all there employees

and lock there doors for the last time? When did Orion, Soundstream, linear Power,

Lanzar, PPI and others go out of business and sale there good names to some

big conglomerate, that turned there fine U.S. made high-end audiophile gear into cheap

junk made in China?

When did all my favorite Car audio magazines go out of business, what day did that happen?

Where is Auto Sound& security, Car Stereo Review, Carsound?

When did Car Audio&Electronics go from 130 pages, to 80 pages? When did all the installs

featured become Demo vehicles or rich celerity's rides?

Please tell me how 5000 watt multi 12" subs, all out, balls to the walls systems got replaced

with wimpy factory wantabe Infinity,JBL, Bose cookie cutter, my system is the exact same as yours

systems?

Please help me, when did car audio die? was I asleep when it happened, or is it all just a bad dream

and I'll wake up Christmas morning with a brand new PPI ProMos 450, Soundstream Class A 10.0,

or a chromed RockFord Fosagate Punch 500m under the tree.

the death of car audio started in Oklahoma,where you are from and

right around the time you joined this forum

so,thanks for phucking it up for everyone bish

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

Competition is alive and well in the Southeast //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

I don't think car audio died as it has changed so much in the last 7-10 years. Almost all of the products in car audio in the 1980's and 90's were made in the USA. That speaks for electronics in general. Around 1998-2000, the world went flat and started outsourcing almost everything including car audio (subwoofers, amplifiers, etc). Speaking from the standpoint of trying out newer car audio and older car audio, it is still very good but my preference is for the sound of older car audio (1996-2000) Lanzar, ESX, ZED, Precision Power, Fosgate (pre 1999). I am from a different era of car audio so my thinking is not on newer car audio companies.

I will give props to Sundown, Atomic and a few other good companies (even though built in Korea) that are still giving a good name to car audio today. Unfortunately for us, it is more cost effective for them to build good products in Korea.

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

maybe i'll come out next season to an event. i never noticed there was anything local around.

I personally hosted 10 SPL events around New England last season, USACi had maybe 5 events, Slapshow had 3 and there were a couple of independent shows too. Most were in Mass, including a big one right in Boston, but there were shows in Maine, NH, CT, RI too. Next Season we'll be looking to get at least one in VT too.