Most underrated brands

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:07 pm

As we all look over most car audio forums, you see what's becoming popular and how a certain product will eventually consume an entire forum for a period of time until the next boner comes along. I think we can all agree on that :) And of course, in relation to that, these products tend to pop up every time an inquiring mind asks for a recommendation, whether the person helping has actually used the product or not.

I thought it would be nice to make a thread dedicated to products that we would consider underrated, underappreciated, underrepresented, whatever. A chance for us to represent the type of product that a lot of people would tend to overlook for no reason other than they didn't draw 100 posts that day, or didn't see in a magazine ad, or whatever. Show a little love for the brands that don't seem to get it enough :)

For example, I think Boston Acoustics newer product is overlooked more than they should be. They are offering very competent equipment that works extremely well in the car environment, giving lots of flexibility with excellent performance and SQ. They have a good track record of responding to customer feedback in order to further improve product, and Boston has some of the best customer service out there, very informative, helpful, and will go the extra mile to make sure you're satisfied with the product. Their car speakers offer similar advantages to companies like CDT in that they focus on designing systems that will give optimal results in more common installations, as well as in dedicated competition setups. And a big advantage over CDT is that they don't use cheap Vifa drivers

Their performance is especially evident with the Z series, which are some of the most impressive components I've ever heard in car audio.

audiobass10 · Post by **audiobass10** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:14 pm

Dayton has a lot of offerings that seem to be promising. I wouldnt exactly consider them totally overlooked in the HT department, but I don't see many people using them in car applications. The Titantic is a beast of a sub, and for the price I would imagine it would match up with some of the higher priced long throw, high output woofers from companies like Adire/RE/Asendant etc.

sinister audio · Post by **sinister audio** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:17 pm

i think Bravox is a brand that nobody dosnt know very much about or even heard but their stuff is top notch. id have to say its the best company that im a dealer for and they stand behind everything they sell for 3 years and have a fair price. their coaxs list for 90 bucks and they will blow away big name brands that list for 150-200. their subs are pretty much second to none along with their comps. and they keep adding new and better products to their line up.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:03 am

Atomic has to be one that comes to mind. So many people have never heard of them, but just look for yourself:

http://www.atomicspeakers.com/productin ... XX18D.html

That sub there properly powered would DESTROY about any sub on the market...

Problem is powering it :happy048:

The plain X series is awesome as well.

Shocker Audio... I think they are now defunct but some products can still be found for sale. I guess shocker was about 45 mins away from me in NW ohio...

They had some excellent stuff about 2 years ago...

Earthquake. The PHD amps were and still are awesome amps. They also make a bunch of subs that seem to always be changing. Good quality stuff for sure!

Can you say Holees or subzero?

Last but certainly not least Digital Designs.

I just cant understand why they are not used more?

audiobass10 · Post by **audiobass10** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:46 am

If I remember correctly, Earthquake's amplifiers had some designs flaws. They put out plenty of power but people had problems with them blowing often. Digital Designs is a great company, but their subs are just overpriced IMO. Most people aren 't willing to throw down that much money on their top dog SPL subwoofer which is inferior to the RE MT in some peoples mind.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:49 am

"Most people aren 't willing to throw down that much money on their top dog SPL subwoofer which is inferior to the RE MT in some peoples mind."

RE MT isn't built nearly as strong as a 9500 or 9900 series DD. MT has a lot of issues frying coils in competition. Most cases the DD gets louder, too.

audiobass10 · Post by **audiobass10** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:02 am

I haven't heard of any issues with the MT frying coils? I'll take your word for it, but my point was for the price tag i'll take 2 MT's over 1 DD9900 anyday. Arent they around $1k-1.2k per sub for the 9900s? Like I said some people prefer the MT..i've had no experience with either woofer.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:14 am

"I haven't heard of any issues with the MT frying coils? I'll take your word for it..."

Keep in mind these are the results from SPL competition, with enormous power put into it. With a more average user, they aren't really going to have any issues. For some reason there are a lot of guys wanting these in their daily driver, though they don't intend to get full potential out of them.

DD is pretty renowned for building the toughest subs in the industry. Whether that justifies the price tag is up to the user. I wouldn't plop over 1 grand on an SPL sub, but I'm not an SPL guy, either.

The next underappreciated brands IMO are Clarion and Eclipse(head units). Especially the DRZ9255 HU and Eclipse 8455. Eclipse makes extremely good Navigation and DVD units as well. Overall, both very good head units that tend to be overlooked in the world of Alpine pushers.

OnYrMrk · Post by **OnYrMrk** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:26 am

Believe it or not, Digital Designs started out in Home audio. they have some of the sweetest sounding home theater applications I have ever heard, and they cost less than the JM labs I just bought. Back in '96, a guy locally here in OKC coerced Digital Designs to fabricate him some subs to use in his comp car. The guy's name was Randy Coles. DD then built him some subs at roughly 2500 bucks each, since they never really built subs for a car before. Randy bought all three and competed in IASCA with that car (toyota celica). That car hit harder than his last car with 8 Kicker 15s powered by 2 Power 1000 Rockfords. If I remember correctly Randy used 3 Orion 2250s to power the DDs. He went to IASCA nationals, not sure where he placed, but I am nearly certain that is where DD started getting into the car audio field. I was at CES that next year ('97) and DD was rolling out their line of Car Audio subs.
People couldn't get enough of them when another team from Oklahoma City used 6 15's with about 6000w to each to win DBDrag's National Champs (David and Daniel Baldwin) and their suburban. I remember that truck was awarded "World's loudest daily driven vehicle" by the DBdrag people.

Any whoo...DD is definately a force to be reconned with.

Justin from Detroit1 · Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:38 am

People don't use DD because they are a month back in production. I was going to be a dealer for them, but I was then informed that whatever I order will take them a month to build and ship to me. Let's be honest no customer wants to wait a month for a subwoofer.