Brands, what do you carry and why?

gregory863 wrote:

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mtx is cool stuff but i smoked 2 amps that where perfectly installed and was told i'd abused them. i wanna say look people want to play your amps loud!! make them tougher dammit. i remember installing fosgate stuff back in the days that was strong. it didn't go up in smoke easy and the company seemed to understand that people wanted to crank up their systems hard!like jlaudio i love jl's gear but you can't abuse it. if you do it smokes.

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Did you feed them perfectly with the perfect power? mtx amps are very power hungry and if you don't give them the right power and you play it at high volume you can smoke them  easily, and that's not perfect.

pmh61] wrote:

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he manager/installer was telling me that the thunder9500 was better than the JL W7 and the kicker L7 (not saying he is right or wrong) I have worked more with kicker,jl, memphis more than any other brands. He was saying that 9500 will out do kicker or jl for spl. 

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Unfortunately he is basing this on a marketing paper MTX wrote, which is pure BS.  They describe "benifits" their subs have without disclosing the consequences of those design choices.  You see, speaker engineering is a practice of compromises.  You choose one feature, but are forced to compromise elsewhere.  for instance MTX claims to utilize a smaller enclosure requirement.  However Hoffman's Iron Law states that if you choose to use a smaller enclosure, you must give up either efficiency or low frequency extention.  Also, they are comparing manufacturer suggested enclosure sizes, which MTX always rates way too small.  Comparing the two subs in a sealed enclosure with an identical Qtc shows that the JL sub actually requires an enclosure less than half the size.  Another example of the compromises is the voice coil diameter.  Sure having the larger diameter voice coil helps for power handling.  However it also means more moving mass to deal with, as well as a higher inductance which produces more distortion.  I personally would much rather have a W7 any day of the week.  However, as Rob suggests, the 9500 may actually be better for someone else.  So it would still be a good woofer to offer to customers.

yeah guys 1-0m wire perfect bolted ground upgrades to all underhood wires. i've been installing since 1981 it was right. plus i talked to some other guys that had the same problems. but i'm not saying mtx bites i'm just saying it's not my fave right now.

Most shops sell what they know is going to sell, of course. You wouldn't sell something that is so expensive that nobody is going to buy it. Regardless of how good that product is, people are going to pay for whatever they can afford. Reliability and performance surely play a big factor as well for a shop owner, but I would say that price is the biggest factor. A perfect example would be the kind of brands I seen getting sold here in the south compared to where I'm originally from(Wisconsin). In WI they were selling high-end stuff with brands like Nakamichi, Precision Power, Alumapro, Orion, Eclipse, etc. Down south I'm seeing cheaper products from Memphis, Boss, Planet Audio, etc... I've also talked with a lot of people here in the south and almost all of them said that they wouldn't want to spend more than $500 for a good stereo system, whereas up north I know people that wouldn't even hesitate to drop a couple grand to get something good.

I too seen that limited product distribution crap when I moved to the south, where shops can only sell certain brands that the other shops around town don't have. I think that is completely wrong! A shop should be able to sell whatever they want regardless of what the guy across the street is selling.

Protected lines are good and bad, I have a competitor about 10 miles away  and he doesn't not care about anything do with the market he makes all shops look like crooks when they will sell things dirt cheap ie remote starts installed for $99. I know I would (customers view) have to say what the hell are these guys makin' on these things if they can sell them for this. The reason I use this example is I have been trying to get Eclpise product line but the rep wants to split it with this other shop, makes me leary who would buy something from me when he'll sell it $10 over cost. I can see both sides to the coin but I lean towards semi protected lines, although if opening a new shop if you buy in to these protected lines I hope you've got some seriuos capital to play with it ain't cheap. Sorry about the run on sentences its still early....