Most recent list of good and bad car audio brands

[SPL BRONCO II]

Note: This list was already existant, I just updated it and moved some brands around. If anything looks weird or out of place i may have overlooked it.

We've broken this section into 4 categories:
1: Bad
2: Questionable
3: Good
4: Highest quality


Bad

Absolute
American HiFi (Rockwood)
American Pro
Audiovox
Automobile
Becker
Blackmore
Boschmann
Boss
Craig
DHD
Dual
Emerson
JDL
Jensen
Kenford
Kole
Kraco
Kronik
Legacy
MA Audio
Optimus (Radio Shack)
Pheonix Digital
Planet Audio (Boss, by any other name)
Power Acoustik
Profile
Pyle
Pyramid
Rockwood
Seicane
Sound Storm
Sparkomatic
SPL Audio
Stetsom
Thump
Ultimate Sounds
Urban Audio
US Amps- the newer stuff
Visonik
Volfenhag


Questionable

Alphasonik
Autotek
Audiobahn
Audiopipe
Blaupunkt
Aiwa
Crunch
Elemental Designs (eD)
Hifonics
Hollywood
Kenwood (amplifiers)
Lanzar
LA Sound
Lightning Audio
Matsui
MB Quart
Nakamichi (newer products)
NVX Audio
Onyx Mobile Audio
Panasonic
Phoenix Gold (ask on specific models)
Pioneer (amplifiers and speakers)
Precision Power (PPI) (newer non-US made amplifiers)
RE Audio- newer stuff
Rockford Fosgate (lower series products)
SAS Bazooka (all products)
Sony Xplod
Vibe


Good

Alpine (amplifiers, Type-R speakers and subs)
Altec Lansing
Alumapro
Ample Audio
Ascendant
Audio Development
Avionixx
Boston Acoustics
Cadence
Cerwin Vega (subs)
Clarion (head units)
Clifford (alarms)
Cliff designs
Coustic
Crescendo Audio
Crossfire
Crystal
DC Audio
Directed (DEI)
Dynamat
Earthquake
Eaton
Ground Zero
Helix (lower series of products)
Hushmat
Illusion
Incriminater Audio
Infinity
JBL (amplifiers)
JVC Digifine
Kenwood Excelon (HU)
Kicker
Kinetik (batteries)
Lunar
Massive Audio
Memphis Audio
MTX (amplifiers)
Orion (newer products)
Phoenix Gold (some models)
Pioneer- HU's
Polk Audio
Powerbass
Rockford Fosgate (Power Series amp and subs)
Second Skin (deadner)
Skar Audio (owner/company seems to be very shadey/unethical)
Soundstream
SSA Audio
Stereo Integrity
USAcoustics
Viper/DEI (alarms)

Highest Quality

a/d/s
Adire
Alpine (head units, signal processors)
Arc Audio
Audax
Audio Control
Audison
Brax
Butler Audio
CD Technologies (CDT)
Diamond Audio (HEX)
Digital Designs (DD)
DLS
DynAudio
Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten)
Esoteric Audio
FI Audio
Focal
Gladen
Harrison Labs
Helix (Higher series of products)
Hertz
Hybrid Audio
Image Dynamics (ID)
JL Audio (W6v2, W6v3, W7. ZR components,Slash and HD series amps)
KEF Kar components
Kove
Luxman
McIntosh Laboratories
MMATS
Morel
Mosconi
Nakamichi (Older products)
Ohio Alternator
Orion (older products)
OZ Audio
Pioneer Premiere (head units)
Precision Power (PPI) (Older PowerClass and Art series)
Rainbow
Resonant Engineering (RE) Older Stuff
Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and 1990s models)
Sinfoni
Streetwirez
Stinger
Sundown Audio
Treo
Tru tech
US Amps (older amps)
Wet Sounds
Wrangler Alternators
XS Power (batteries)
Xtant
Zapco
Zed Audio
*Funky PuP

[dulas]

Hey great list...

Im loving "Kenford"....Kenwood and rockwood combined = Crap

[ainaarix]

Where is Vibe? One of the biggest in European market.
I think they are Questionable. Several series could be good.
Hertz, Orion, and DLS....... You think all models are highly recommended?

[Jimi77]

I'd say JBL belongs in the highly recommended section. Many of their subs offer some of the best bang for buck, all their amps are rock solid and their comps if good if you like aggressive sounding speakers.

[SPL BRONCO II]

Originally Posted by ainaarix Where is Vibe? One of the biggest in European market. I think they are Questionable. Several series could be good. Hertz, Orion, and DLS....... You think all models are highly recommended?

Added Vibe under questionable.
I changed the category name from highly recommended to highest quality.

Originally Posted by Jimi77 I'd say JBL belongs in the highly recommended section. Many of their subs offer some of the best bang for buck, all their amps are rock solid and their comps if good if you like aggressive sounding speakers.

Agreed on JBL. The previous owner of the list had the list as "highly recommended" in which you would be correct JBL should have been on there but I changed the category name since we are basing each list on quality level only.

[only126db]

Originally Posted by SPL BRONCO II Added Vibe under questionable. I changed the category name from highly recommended to highest quality. Agreed on JBL. The previous owner of the list had the list as "highly recommended" in which you would be correct JBL should have been on there but I changed the category name since we are basing each list on quality level only.

you may want to state that the brands are organized based on full line performance regaurding their build quality, reliability and sound quality combined.

[Duct Tape]

stickied and added some formatting to the headings to make it easier to read.

[Duct Tape]

i've unstuck the thread per Hank's request; to promote discussion before the list gets stickied.

[GM4WALLS]

There are some brands on the list that are no longer around... realistically if someone is looking for those products, they already know what they are.

Lightning Audio is great for wire and cabling, sucks for anything else... Orions HCCA line is still very good, Memphis, Lunar, JBL should be higher, Earthquake should be lower, that would be my only reccomendations.

[GM4WALLS]

Massive Audio isn't on the list either... Their products should be reviewed... I will post a review of some Massive comps later, maybe someone that is using or has used their subs and amps could chime in.

[only126db]

Originally Posted by Duct Tape i've unstuck the thread per Hank's request; to promote discussion before the list gets stickied.

I thought your job was only to deal with spam???

[Adcom]

Where's Sinfoni Hank?

[Duct Tape]

Originally Posted by only126db I thought your job was only to deal with spam???

you are right, i should delete your post and ban you.

[denim]

SSA and Ascendant?

[SPL BRONCO II]

Originally Posted by Adcom Where's Sinfoni Hank?

That was on the high quality list from the original poster.