These are some generalized groupings and very subjective. We've simply stated our experiences with the products whether they are direct installs, personal property or extensive research. You should always physically audition a product before purchase because you are the one who will determine whether or not an item "sounds good" or not. The overall groupings are based on performance, reliability, and build quality, without regard to price.
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 performance lines. Good luck with your decisions.
We've broken this section into 4 catagories: 1: Bad (avoid) 2: Questionable (mixed reviews, disputed, unsure, or depends on the item) 3: Good (just about always worth consideration) 4: Highly Recommended (considered audiophile grade)
Bad
American HiFi (Rockwood) American Pro Audiobahn (speakers and subwoofers) Audiovox Automobile Becker Boss DHD Dual JDL Jensen Kenwood (speakers and amplifiers) Kingwood Kole Kraco Kronik LA Sound Legacy Lightining Audio MA Audio Optimus (Radio Shack) Power Acoustik Profile Pyle Pyramid Rockwood SAS Bazooka (amplifiers) Sherwood Sony (anything by Sony except the older Mobile ES line) Sound Storm (owned by BOSS Audio) Sparkomatic SPL Audio Thump Ultimate Sounds Volfenhag
Questionable
Blaupunkt (Bosch) Aiwa Crunch Elemental Designs (eD) Harmon-Kardon (current, Phoenix Gold owned) Hollywood Infinity (amplifiers, reference components) Kenwood (head units) Kicker Solobaric (L5, L7, Solo-X square subs) Lanzar Lightning Audio Matsui Onyx Mobile Audio Panasonic Phoenix Gold (anything after the mid 1990s) Pioneer (amplifiers) SAS Bazooka (bass tubes) Soundstream (current Power Acoustik owned products) Visonik
Good
Adire Audio a/d/s (present DEI owned items) Alpine Altec Lansing Alumapro Ample Audio Audiobahn (amplifiers) Audio Development Audiomobile Autotek Avionixx Boston Acoustics Bravox Cadence (current amplifier products) CD Technologies (CDT) Cerwin Vega (subs) Clarion (head units) Coustic Crossfire Crystal Directed (DEI) Earthquake Eaton Elevation Audio Helix Hifonics (amplifier power ratings are a bit exaggerated) Illusion Infinity JBL (amplifiers) JVC Digifine Kicker (excluding square solobaric speakers) Lunar Memphis Audio MTX Orion (current DEI products) Phoenix Gold (older 1990s amplifiers, subwoofers) Pioneer (subwoofers) Planet Audio (amplifiers, owned by BOSS Audio) Polk Audio Rockford Fosgate Soundstream (older pre-Power Acoustik amplifiers) US Acoustics Viper
Highly Recommended
a/d/s (older 1980s, early 90s pre-ADST products) Alpine (old "6 green preset buttons" head units) Alpine F#1status Arc Audio Ascendant Audio Audax Audiocontrol Brax/Helix Butler Audio Diamond Audio Digital Designs (DD) DLS DynAudio Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten) Excessive Amperage Alternators Esoteric Audio/Streetwires Focal Harrison Labs Image Dynamics (ID) Infinity Kappa/Kappa Perfect components Iraggi Alternators JL Audio KEF Kar components Kove LCY Luxman MB Quart McIntosh Laboratories MMATS Morel Nakamichi (tape transports) Ohio Generator Orion (older SX, GX, HCCA, GS, and XTR lines) OZ Audio Pioneer Premiere (head units) Precision Power (PPI) Rainbow Resonant Engineering (RE) Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and early 1990s products) ScanSpeak SEAS Sinfoni Stinger Treo TRU Technology US Amps Vifa Wrangler Alternators Xtant Zapco
