Get what you pay for?

I have a really quick and hopefully simple question for you guys to answer. The age-old saying of you get what you pay for is sometimes true in the real world as in getting a good steak, eating a good burger, and maybe buying good beer. Now how true is that, in the world of car audio? I only know of the name brands of car audio such as Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, JBL, JL, Pioneer, JVC, and others. What I wanna understand or know, is will a 300 dollar amp or subwoofer sound better than a 150 dollar amp or sub? Or when you pay that 300 Dollars for a Rockford P5002, that more than 60 percent of those 300 dollars are mearly for the name on the amp? OR is it just the way you set up your sterio/amp/subs/box combo, that makes all the diffrence. What I mean by that is, not buying 600 watt subs and only powering them with a 200 watt amp. I have seen some set ups in my life, and it sounds good, hits hard, and so on and so forth, but when I ask what is in the trunk, they show me this amp with no name, and subs that look so nasty you would be like wow those things make all that rumble. Now from what I have read in these forums, a whole lot of you use diffent setups and diffrent brands. I basicly am just trying to understand, is for when the next time I overhaul my system, do I have to go get another bank loan just to buy name brand, or will cheaper stuff work just as good? I know some of you guys are partial to certain brands, so I just wanna make clear that I don't wanna offend anybody by saying cheaper stuff. Then again, you don't know what brands I consider cheap so that will be that...Thanks 

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JP

Depends on the cheaper stuff, pyramid is absolute crap on some of there amps i don't think it actually reaches the watts its said it will. Alphasonik(they rag on it here time and again) but hey i get great feedback from my customers, its got a great warranty, and its very efficent, and it is cheaper then the other main brands; but then again its also hard to find a dealer for it from what i heard but they got a list on the website and that right there assures quallity. My advice, look at the amp, if it says 1500watts and its got 8 gauge cable terminals, probally not a good idea to buy.

Some Lanzar products are pretty good. And Phoenix Gold Xenon's are a steal at the price they're sold for.

I've found with amps cheaper stuff usually sacrifices hi freq quality ( not important on woofer amps) and reliability. For cheaper subs it's mostly sound quality and reliability. Don't buy the most you can afford, buy the best you can afford.

the wonderful thing about car audio is that beuty is in the ear of the beholder...you like the sound...buy it...regardless of what anyone tells you...learn your own lessons on what to get and what not to get...they are the only lessons that will stick...it would be a sad thing to buy one amp and or sub and never buy another...there are many fish in the sea...so go sample some

we sell cheaper brands all day long (spl, lanzar, bazooka, kole, etc..) with no problem. you CANNOT abuse them or they will give out quick.

alot of our customers cant afford the Cadence, Soundstream, Hifonocs and JVC stuff. we just be sure to tell them that if they install it themselves and blow it because of a bad install then it may not be covered on warranty.  

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From my experience.  the stuff that is ugly and plain is the best.  The better it looks, generally, the crappyer the product is. In car audio never buy what looks good, close your eyes and listen to what sounds good.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

I'll tend to agree. Best amp purchase I have ever made? My Xtant 3300c 6 years ago. Have been beating it to death ever since, and not once has it ever let out a whimper or a whine. Simply the meanest 3 channel 300W amp I have ever seen. Pricey? yeah.... sound good? definately! It breathes.... such smooth highs. The only thing that I would say comes close to what that thing will do would be something much larger.... PPI DCX 300.4, maybe a PG TiElite.   It does truly boil down to you get what you pay for. That 1000w "xyz ultra mega hyper pos" that you found on eBay or at the flea market (same thing?) for $150 just doesen't cut it as far as I'm concerned...

Gus

PS- Are there any 300W amps out there that have 2 50A fuses on them anymore?

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Wherever I go, that is where I end up......

I just wanted to thank all of ya for your suggestions and comments. I guess the original reason as to why I was asking this question, is cause when I got what I thought was my first decent amp, it was a Lanzar Vibe 4 channel amp. It was supposdly rated at 1600 watts. I ended up paying 280 for it, and at the time I thought it was a great buy. The shop I got it for, also managed to sell me some 1000 watt Lanzar Vibe subs for 150. I got home that afternoon, and created a box, and installed all the fancy new equipment. At that point, I was satisfied with what I had. It hit and I was just overall very happy. Then...and I laugh at this part, a buddy of mine said dude you system sucks. I was like why. He turned his on and I was in awe. I told him, that it was just cause he had better subs than me. I told him dude I got a 1600 watt amp but that the speakers maybe weren't as good. SO we switched sub enclosures, and then I found out that the amp really couldn't produce the voltage to make his even hit a little. Bottom line, I walked away with my tail between my legs, and realized that maybe I did get the amp at a great price, but it really wasn't worth that much, and therefore was basily "shhh". I have since turned over to Rockford Fosgate in thier line of Punch. I have a Punch 5002 which I got for 300.00 and the Punch Stage One subs which I got for 130 for the pair. I still have all the other original power wire, remote wire, RCA wires, ground wire, and the box. Basicly I just swapped amp and subs and boy now it really hits and hits hard. So my lesson, I guess you could say I have learned. I was just curious as to if it was just a personal experiance of mine in bying cheap lesser brand name stuff, that didn't work so good, or if others had also xperianced this.

ss-installer: You mention that you can't "abuse lesser brands or they will give out quick." Would that mean that maybe those brands of amps and subs are better to install in a grandpa's ride. In one that isn't going to get turned on really loud, or that isn't going to be playing for three four hours at a time??

Alpine Guy: The simpler and uglier is usually the best you say...have you ever gotten like shhh from people saying dude your system looks ugly? Or are they usually in awe of wow..kinda like I was win I say my first no name system. I mean to me personally, if I did have no name systems no matter how hard it hit and how good it sounded, something in the back of my mind would always bug me in the fact of what other people are thinking. But then again, if it sounds good, I guess it really wouldn't matter...

Again thanks to everyone for xpressing thier comments~~

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JP

It's not a case of you get what you pay for at all. It is a case of how it is matched together and used. I can take the cheesiest of brands, match it together properly and use it correctly and thoroughly trounce my competitor...... it comes down to experience in most cases.

When a customer comes in he has a goal for a system. A proper store will explore that goal and develop a game plan to get you there. A clerk (usually some young commission sales goof), will sell you easy street or what ever he makes the most money on, not exectly taking into account the customers best interest.

So alot of this is related to how a customer is able to listen and learn, alot of it is being able to find a good salesperson and the balance of it is how the game unfolds according to plan.

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

Francious70 wrote:

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Some Lanzar products are pretty good. And Phoenix Gold Xenon's are a steal at the price they're sold for.

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Yea I'm actually really glad someone brought this up.... I've been noticing this too... why is stuff as high-end as that Xenon stuff selling *so* cheap? The Xenon amps I've not heard, but have inspected and the build quality is outstanding.

Is it because of the name or the marketing? I mean.. the woofers and the amps are, IMO, rather tastelessly designed and the branding "Xenon" is has a rather adolescent connotation to it... but certainly no worse than Rockford Fosgate. I keep hearing that the stuff performs really well.

If the MSRP is SOOO much higher than the selling price, it must mean a glut of inventory... anyone know anything about this line?

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

BTW, sedate... howz that EQX holding up? YTou like it as much as I did!

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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."

as far as amps go you do get what you pay for with a cheap amp, they work and everything but half the time they dont put out what they say they do so i a sence buying a crap amp is not a good idea, spend some extra money on the amp. now as far as subs goyou jsut have to ask around what is good and what isnt really, and it all depends what ur looking for in subs, if you jsut want heart pounding bass or you want clearity.

not grampas ride, the REGULAR JOE ride. you should know what you are doing when installing though. one wrong turn and the amp is fried. 95% of our returns are from people installing incorrectely. you can abuse a RF Punch amp all day (trust me, ive done it) and its ok, but abuse a lower line and youre sending it off to be fixed.

AMP ABUSE IMO means wrong ohm load, wrong gain and frequency settings and crappy grounds. "dont strip the wire and wrap it around the seat bolt". do the shhh right and it usually lasts.

if you cant install it that pay someone that does (not $20 to some crackhead that says he can do it. )

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Phoenix Gold is making really good amps right now exspecially the Xenons, they are outstanding, you can abuse them at the minimum load and they will work all day long with no problems, they are a little exspencive but not at much as other amps that will perform the same way.