rate the following brands

Hey, please rate the following brands in terms of quality from highest to lowest. Elaboration, commentary, or other brand suggestions are appreciated.

Focal
Boston Acoustics
JBL
Infinity
Kenwood
Pioneer

The answer to your question is "it depends."  You've listed all mainstream consumer brands and as such they offer everything from low-end crap and higher-end decent stuff.  So it is impossible to say without comparing specific model numbers.  In general they are all decent brands.

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nfrank89 wrote:

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Hey, please rate the following brands in terms of quality from highest to lowest. Elaboration, commentary, or other brand suggestions are appreciated.

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You forgot Alpine. Eclipse. Even Dayton and Dual. (Kidding about the Dual remrk. [:P])

nfrank89 wrote:

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Focal

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Over-rated, over-priced and over-sibilant. Disliked deeply by me personally.

nfrank89 wrote:

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Boston Acoustics

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Over-rated, reaonably priced, and overall acceptable performance. The old G5 stuff was KICK***! Sadly they've fallen from grace, a bit. Better gear around for the fundage required for their entry fee.

nfrank89 wrote:

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JBL

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nfrank89 wrote:

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Infinity

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Thses two stablemates come from the same factory and design teams. Different appearances, inside they are nearly identical products, as far as the tech is concerned. The JBL is a little better as far as overall build quality, but as mentioned by others "depends" applies to these two more than all the others.

nfrank89 wrote:

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Kenwood

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High-end Kenwood is REALLY nice stuff now. It took me MANY years to like anything Kenwood, and to this day, I still wouldn't have the low-priced or entry level gear.

nfrank89 wrote:

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Pioneer

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Nothing in the basic line stands out for me as exceptional. The Stage4 stuff *is* really nice, if expendy...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

thanks for the responses. i understand that it depends but haemphyst pretty much gave me what i was looking for. all the brands listed are the better brands available to me via my distributors. there's a ton of conflicting information i've come across in my research on those brands so i thought i'd make my question as broad as possible, "over all" who offers the best high end stuff, who offers the best low end stuff, who offers the best middle of the road (speakers, subs, and amps) is what i really should have asked. I like kenwood and pioneer for head units although i've had some software problems with kenwood (bt945u specifically)

Pioneer is a very popular brand in the retail sector but be wary that they do tend to have a higher incidence of fault and may up your warranty overhead.  It's almost impossible to not offer them, but make sure you have a good return contract with your distributor.

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DYohn] wrote:

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Pioneer is a very popular brand in the retail sector but be wary that they do tend to have a higher incidence of fault and may up your warranty overhead.  It's almost impossible to not offer them, but make sure you have a good return contract with your distributor.

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CPD takes care of all our warranties, 1 year+ :)

I have been selling Pioneer among others for over 20 years, the subwoofers seem to be the weakest link, We have VERY few defective units out of the box.  MOST problems are with poor installations by customers and involve the RCA outputs.  Sub bass drivers aside, Pioneer is by FAR our best sellers. R.I.P. Premier!

why dont they just make an external fuse to fix that problem... save themselves a bunch of hassle

They could put an external fuse, BUT the problem is people running the systems with amplifiers either not grounded or poorly grounded.  They could ground the RCA audio return to the chassis like other manufacturers, but the way they do it, there is almost NEVER a ground loop issue, provided the fuses are intact.

The problem isnt the fuses, the problem is the installer.

The other issue there is that EVERYBODY would simply put a bigger fuse in place when the .1A external fuse DOES blow, from a crap installation. This'll burn the trace on the circuit board inside the deck, leaving you with huge warranty issues. NOW where's the warranty? Gone.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I have to jump in here now. To say Focal is over rated and over priced is someone whom has not heard them installed correctly. I personally have had Kicker, Infinity, JL, Boston, and Focal in my car and when done correctly Focal is tops. The experts seem to agree according to magazines as well. I would not have any other brand in my car now. I would say that if you think that Infinity or Kenwood is better you have not heard anything but mainstream store products as no brand on your list but Boston can compare. The smoothness and warmth of Focal tweeters are second to none I have heard and definitely not any of these brands. JBL, Infinity, Kenwood, Pioneer all make decent speakers but the tweeters are way to harsh for my liking but some people prefer tinty highs. So in short Focal and Boston = Great and the others = okay.

Focal
Boston Acoustics
JBL
Infinity
Kenwood
Pioneer

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"If a man made it, another can modify it...it just takes some thinking."
"If you ask questions, you're a fool for 5 minutes; if you don't, you're a fool for a lifetime."

You can believe what you want to believe... Focal *IS* over-rated, and I am not the only person that feels this way. There is no way that an aluminum dome can be fixed... Seven to ten years ago, they were probably the hottest thing going, but there are far better technologies available today. FAR better. Silk domes will rattle the pants off metal domes, for way less money. True ribbon drivers exist in the same price range that will walk away from Focal metal domes in the THD, transient capabilites, frequency response, and waterfall plot arenas. Planar magnetics are half the money, and offer the best of both silk domes AND true ribbons.

Overly bright, with raspy sibilants is the only way I can express the overall sound "kwality" of Focal aluminum dome tweeters. I have heard them in home systems. I didn't like them. I have heard them installed in ALL TYPES of car-audio installations, from ghetto jobs, used because they were expensive (and the job needed "cred"), to high-end jobs, used because they were expensive (used because they were expensive). I don't like them. I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that there are more people that know REAL high-end audio, that do NOT like them than there are people that DO like them.

Unless you have been in audio for as long as I have, and have heard as many systems as I have heard, you have NO reference to compare to what I know or do not know, in addition to audio being a completely SUBJECTIVE world. What I can tell you, and what I do know about Focal tweeters, is that they are too expensive, and for that fact alone, they are over-rated.

For the money you MUST spend for the "pleasure" of owning such a product, you can certainly buy MUCH better systems. They are gold-plated, mid-fi systems, reserved for they guy that has more money than brains; a.k.a "The BMW Buyer" of the car audio world. You sell them, don't you? You're the perfect salesman for Focal. Go ahead and like them, but don't try to sell them to me. I maintain that they are over-rated and too expensive. You can't change my mind.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

You may have been doing this for a while but so have I and also boast an extensive array of installs including high end jobs and cheap jobs. However opinions are subjective to experience and based on my experience the brands listed are mediocre save Boston and Focal. Not all of their tweeters use aluminum domes and the ones I own have silk dome tweeters. I too hate metal domes and agree that their low end stuff is no better then anything else but the K series isn't. Sounds to me that you have an issue with them because they get boasted by people so much...in your experience probably some blow-hard customers that read some tech data and wanted to be smart-ass, I have had the same with other brands but that should not lead to a bias. You accusing me of buying for name brand is a but presumptuous and ignorant actually as you know not how I became aware of them. I heard a system with them and inquired as to what they where and tried them out. Never had I ever heard of them because of the rarity in my area of that and other brands I wish where around more and loved how they sounded. And to answer your question, no I don't sell them nor does the shop I work at, nor am I a salesman, yet again another assumption falling short of it's goal. Just because you install a bunch of Pioneer and Kenwood doesn't make them greatest...sorry but there is a reason that some speakers are more revered than others and cost more. But again I do agree about metal tweeters sucking.

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"If a man made it, another can modify it...it just takes some thinking."
"If you ask questions, you're a fool for 5 minutes; if you don't, you're a fool for a lifetime."

Not trying to make enemies here, was just answering an opinion based question, BTW.

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"If a man made it, another can modify it...it just takes some thinking."
"If you ask questions, you're a fool for 5 minutes; if you don't, you're a fool for a lifetime."