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something i found on caraudioforum. suppose to be a little old but most of it should still apply.

This is the infamous Good, Bad, and Ugly list.

These are some pretty generalized groupings and also very subjective. We've simply based our experiences with the products whether they are direct installs, personal property or extensive research. You should always physically listen to a product before purchase because you are the one who will determine whether or not an item "sounds good" or not.

This topic, while being controversial, is simply a generalized guide meant for beginners in the hobby. Many brands specialize in certain items, ie. better amplifiers than speakers, better mids than subs, etc... Also almost all manufacturers offer entry level products as well as high quality lines. As I stated before, this is a GENERALIZED guide. It is your responsiblity to research and audition every brand before you purchase anything. Good luck with your decisions.

We've broken this section into 4 catagories:
1: Bad
2: Questionable
3: Good
4: Highly Recommended


Bad

American HiFi (Rockwood)
American Pro
Audiovox
Automobile
Becker
Boss
DHD
Dual
JDL
Jensen
Kenwood (speakers)
Kole
Kraco
Kronik
LA Sound
Legacy
MA Audio
Optimus (Radio Shack)
Planet Audio (Boss, by any other name)
Power Acoustik
Profile
Pyle
Pyramid
Rockwood
SAS Bazooka (amplifiers)
Sherwood
Sony (anything by Sony)
Sound Storm
Sparkomatic
SPL Audio
Thump
Ultimate Sounds
Visonik
Volfenhag


Questionable

Alpine (lower model speakers)
Autotek
Audiobahn
Blaupunkt
Aiwa
Crunch
Elemental Designs (eD)
Hifonics
Hollywood
Kenwood (amplifiers, head units)
Kicker Solobaric (L5, L7, Solo-X square subs)
Lanzar
Lightning Audio
Matsui
MTX (subs)
Onyx Mobile Audio
Panasonic
Phoenix Gold (ask on specific models)
Pioneer (amplifiers and speakers)
Precision Power (PPI) (newer non-US made amplifiers)
Rockford Fosgate (current products)
SAS Bazooka (all products)


Good

Alpine (amplifiers, Type-R speakers and subs)
Altec Lansing
Alumapro
Ample Audio
Audio Development
Avionixx
Boston Acoustics
Cadence (current amplifier products)
Cerwin Vega (subs)
Clarion (head units)
Coustic
Crossfire
Crystal
Directed (DEI)
Earthquake
Eaton
Helix
Illusion
Infinity
JBL (amplifiers)
JVC Digifine
Kicker (amplifiers & Comp/CompVR subwoofers)
Lunar
Memphis Audio
MTX (amplifiers)
Phoenix Gold (some models)
Polk Audio
Rockford Fosgate (some models)
Soundstream
USAcoustics


Highly Recommended

a/d/s
Adire
Alpine (head units, signal processors)
Arc Audio
Audax
Audio Control
Brax
Butler Audio
CD Technologies (CDT)
Diamond Audio
Digital Designs (DD)
DLS
DynAudio
Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten)
Esoteric Audio
Focal
Harrison Labs
Image Dynamics (ID)
Infinity Kappa/Kappa Perfect components
JL Audio (subs, XR components, slash series amps)
KEF Kar components
Kove
Luxman
MB Quart
McIntosh Laboratories
MMATS
Morel
Nakamichi (tape transports)
Ohio Alternator
Orion
OZ Audio
Pioneer Premiere (head units)
Precision Power (PPI) (Art series amps, old)
Rainbow
Resonant Engineering (RE)
Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and 1990s models)
Sinfoni
Streetwirez
Stinger
Treo
US Amps
Wrangler Alternators
Xtant
Zapco

I take no credit for this list at all. None of this is mine or even my opinion.

 
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NICE! Memphis Subs = Good
Clarion speakers = Good
Pioneer Amps = recommended by audio store owner who KNOWS THEIR STUFF!!! REALLY HELPFUL TOO.

 
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double post

 
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Dynaudio makes some of the best drivers in the world, and some of the best home audio speakers around- http://www.dynaudiousa.com/products/...e/82/aud82.htm

Mcintosh also makes well regarded high end amps. These are ususally very pricey though.

If i were looking to get some of the most musical, most accurate car speakers out there then id probabaly put my money on the dane's.

And if by MA audio they mean Monitor Audio then that is just wrong. Monitor Audio makes decent gear.

 
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I would have to disagree on the placement of Elemental Designs (eD) and Hifonics

 
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whats the deal w/ the "smallstream" (underground) in w/ the mainstream brands?

IE, underground brand ppl mention nowadays:Image Dynamics (ID),Adire,Nakamichi (tape transports),Resonant Engineering (RE),Digital Designs (DD). those arent even popular and theyre in the reccomended. i hope the dude whom came up w/ this list was on dros or somthing.

this is pretty biased and inacurate info to bring up. how did this ranking occured?

btw, PPI are pretty correct w/ its history of ownership.

 
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Why shouldnt the underground brands be mentioned with the mainstream brands?

 
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What is considered underground? The non consumer grade stuff? Stuf you can't buy in best buy and circuit city?

 
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cause theyre just now known to ppl. it takes yrs of testing and feedback to become its household name.

taken i.e., audiobahn... 6-7yrs ago when audiobahn was a big contributor of 1ohm stable amps and testers from couple forums always mentioning audiobahn for a good amp w/ power. iono if youre following about these brand (along w/ lanzar and others) but they didnt come out as its household name until today. and today, most ppl think its sorry amp.

so thats what i mean about underground and mainstream. it takes time to be tested and have feedbacks. its also helps the biased issues.

the list shouldve been atleast divided into 2 diff area of ranking like the title says. when ppl see that theyll object to that listing like the dude above w/ eD (and thats how feeback/ranking goes, from ppl to ppl). there are too many parameter or variables when it comes to ranking which importantly takes times.

for times to evolve w/ the underground names, theres not much testing from ppl to ppl or installers to installers to be listed in the same name as the mainstream ones.

 
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the one thats not mainstream ....JK

you really cant, am not sayin i can sit here and exactly tell you the diff but thats what the title says. the reason why it needs to differentiate is to take out biased issues from ppl to ppl. but then again, you cant diff the two.... so this ranking is obsolete.

and the dude that ranks like is prolly doin it by what he hears but not how he tests.

 
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Interesting reading, but I have to stick with my original opinion. That these choices can only be made considering all factors in each situation. For instance, if you wan't to have a system without subs, then infinity speakers drop from the good list to the don't-even-think-about-it list because they severely lack midbass. Or, if you only have a small budget and just wan't to replace speakers, I say that kenwood speakers come off the bad list for sure. They are excellent low end speakers for cheap money. What if you aren't concerned with build quality, you aren't entering IASCA, you don't have a lot of dough and you need a good amount of power for a sub? I think HiFonics would be high on your good list for that application. Way too many things go into deciding an amp to make any list in my opinion. At best you could make a couple lists and include brands that typically are good or bad in each category, like Build quality - good = Arc audio, Bad = Sony. Noone can argue that, but good and bad in general for every amp is subjective and situation specific.

EDIT- Also, so many "highly recommended" companies have inferior lower lines. And some low end companies have pretty good top of the line stuff. It matters not just the company but also what line we are talking about. I don't Quarts' Discus series 5 1/4. I prefer my Q-series 6.5" over everything out there I've heard.

 
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Mine arent even on there. I give them a Good rating. There are better, but definately the majority of what I hear are not as clean. I have G&S Designs. I would throw those under good. Not that anybody has ever heard of them. lol. They have alike 4 amps, 4 or 5 different subs, components, decks, and probably video sh**. 2 250 watt subs for 35 bucks a piece. Online they go for over 100 a piece.

 
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MTX good lolololololololol

 
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Kenwood Amps are questionable? I think not. Kenwood amps perform well and last forever. (kinda like Hondas) I'd give them at least a good.

 
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thats how testing should be done. speaker measurements only tell about 10% of what you actually here, measurements cant detect sound characteristics like ambience, decay and detail .

Pretty much all cdp's measure alike, going from the best cdp int he world to the worst the measurements will be almost identicle. But, the sound will not even be close as far as quality is concerned.


Samething with amps, tube amps have much more distortion than solid state amps, but the distortion is of a different kind and cant actually be heard while repdroducing music. depending on what type of distortion it is, an amp that has a lot can sound much cleaner than an amp that puts out virtually no distortion.

 
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I had a kenwood amp before, and it did put up some pretty good numbers. The sound from the kenwood amp was not too impressive though.

I think this list is based on SQ and not how long the product can last for. It sorta states that in the first line.

 
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the current rockford fosgate should be GOOD or HIGHLY reccomend instead of the questionable.... wtf

 
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this should be sticky so everyone can see this for quick refrence

 
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how is my rockford fosgate amp and cap be questionable???

 
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O.k. I gatta throw my two cents in, J/K. The only thing I seen that I disagree with is polk audio - there made in china and I have personally installed there highend line and they couldnt cut it at all, they sounded poorly made. I agree with the lot of ya, specially j187, but that nacamichi and mcntosh are about the only companies I have seen that dont really make low end lines, Mainly becuase they cater to the rich! and that has been the bases for there companies.

 
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why its old...