Car Audio Central - Ultimate Car Audio Forum and Community

I gotta ask...

HOW DO YOU SHAVE $250 OFF THE COST OF A SUB?

You just dont shave $250 off the sub by changing the cone and surround...

Just by lowering the mark up on the sub. Cost actually went up on it a little bit, overall mark up went down to make it more competitive.

Justin from Detroit wrote:Just by lowering the mark up on the sub. Cost actually went up on it a little bit, overall mark up went down to make it more competitive.

definitely makes it more competitive with a lot of stuff out there.....

I was about to say, I'd like to see a sub that costs $250 to manufacture. Manufacturers make quite a profit off of subwoofers-especially high end ones.

My wife always says "how can a speaker cost $200 to make?" And I just reply by pointing out that her $150 running shoes cost about $10 to make

I admit that I don't know a lot about the speaker building industry, but I'm guessing that most of the money is spent on design and promotion rather than materials and labor. There certainly isn't much money going in to traditional sources of advertising.

The old X had 20mm of Xmax, the new X has 32mm of xmax

Mainly R&D. You have to take a lot of things into account to design a *good* speaker

Subs, on the other hand, aren't as difficult to design because there are fewer things to take into account. Which would explain why they saturate the market.

But most companies don't even build their own speakers. Most pull parts off some shelf in Asia. More respectable companies base their stuff off of OEM manufacturers such as Vifa, Peerless, SEAS, Scan-Speak, LPG, Eton, Morel, and others. Then they may modify the design a bit with a motor/suspension that caters itself to a car more, or just specify that with the manufacturer.
Only a handful of car audio companies design and build their own stuff.

If you look at the Alpine F#1 Status speakers, or the Genesis Absolutes, they're modified Scan-speak Revelators. The Alpine Type-X comps are modified Vifa XT drivers.

The $10,000 Rainbow Audio Reference speakers license the SEAS Excel motor design.

There are numerous examples.

Retail price of car audio is just ridiculous, really, you're better off in the end buying enough processing and amplifier to be able to go the DIY route. Most of the "high end" car audio speakers are garbage compared to what you could get in raw drivers for the same price, or even substantially less for that matter. They just have most people snagged because the average car audio person couldn't tell you what a crossover does, let alone design one.

Ryan from Ohio wrote:I dont like the new Pro basket...

SQX looks decent.

There subs are still pricey IMO, but look cool!

RE-tard

I just like the old basket design better...

But even with the change they still look pretty cool...

Basket design/color wouldnt stop me from buying a good product however