this is not an attempt to slash, bash, crash, be crass, or trash anyone in here who gives advice to the ignorant (having a lack of knowledge).
I just ask all of the experts and tech-sperts in these rooms (you know who you are) to not be so condescending, cynical, and sensitive to the sheep who look for a shepard (including me) when it comes to car audio.
I would like to say that most of in here are adults and would like to be treated as such.
There is no purpose of trashing the products that others are buying because it does not fit the upper class of components that the "audio elite" recommend.
I would be safe in saying that 90% of us in here is asking for cut and dry advice, not the lousy choice speech about the products given, unless they want a recommendation. All of us in here are stoked, jacked, and hyped-up about car audio and need a place to show their enthusiasm.
Only those that ask for the "what do you think about this?" answer should get it. I have fallen suspect to that and had verbal altercations in here due to that.
None of us need anyone to hold our hands in here like children (although some of in here are and/or act that way), but a simple, "hey, let's make what you have sound the best it can" attitude. I know that it is hard for some in here to grasp the fact that "they want me to give them advice about this sh!+?! I'll just tell them to get better sh!+ !"
We all ask for advice in here, but flat out most of us are pretty content with what we have. otherwise, we would not get Audiobahn, Sony, or Kole Audio (my brand) clan members that throw up "gang" signs about their products.
If the products we have are lousy and total crap, just say, "Good for you!! Glad you like it." and keep the uncontrollable laughter outside of the screen.
I know big dawgs, it is hard to see people waste their money, but hey at least it is not yours!!! Smile people!!!
Car audio is truly an "art and science" hobby; the creation of a mobile sound system is technical and objective, while appreciation of the result is entirely subjective. Each of us has an opinion of what is "good" and "bad" based on our experiences with the objective and subjective aspects of certain equipment. It is unreasonable to ask anyone to separate the two.
For example, if I know speaker X has good sound but a very high failure rate, it would be a disservice to the community to restrain from commenting just because someone asked "will this sound good?". The cut and dry answer would be "yes, it will sound good". Reality is that it's a poor choice. This is especially true when people are asking for advice on their purchases, because no one wants to see money wasted.
However, everybody has (and is entitled to) their opinion. You only need look at some of the rhetoric between myself, Jonathan, and Glass to understand that subjectivism still plays a major part in the discussion. No one wants to see their equipment on someone else's sh!t list, but it's still just their opinion.
I answer every question as though it were my money making an otherwise-blind purchase and, for the record, I do not have an audiophile budget. I want the best for my money, even if it means my previous impressions are wrong. I would lose respect for Jonathan if I saw him tell someone that their prospective all-Jensen setup looked good. The reality is that they'll go spend the $500, plus $200 to have it installed, then come back in six months and say that Jonathan was a retard because the staging is crap, the sound is crap, and the paper cones now have holes. To a degree, it would be Jonathan's fault for knowing better and not saying so.
In 37 days, I have posted 200+ times. Of those posts, I would say 1/3 were broken/blown/fried equipment, 1/3 were troubleshooting, and the last 1/3 were purchase recommendations.
Regardless of your current loyalties, you should want to hear what other people have to say. I know I do. I like Kenwood Excelon amps but, having been here enough, I appreciate that the equivalent amps from Hifonics are probably a better choice. It just means that I was less informed. Or, for another example, I hadn't heard an Elemental Designs sub until last week, so wouldn't have recommended it. But now, y'know, that's some really good equipment for the money. It's experience that I get to bring to the board and will affect how other people think of 'em, too.
All that being said, Koles use paper cones and have a really low Xmax for the money. Does that make us enemies? I should hope not, it's just an opinion.
Matt said it in a nutshell. It would disgrace us to give advice like "those Sony's will do great". I'm personally not here to appease anybody, I'm here to help them. If we said "good, I'm glad you like them" to everyone on this thread, there would be numerous posts about how much we suck because their equipment died on them. And, there would be a lot of crappy systems out there. We're always willing to try to accomodate someone's budget, and when that question is asked we give advice that will fit a person's needs and usually leave him/her off better than he/she would have been. A lot of people get mad when we say "you need something better" while overlooking the fact that we're willing to find them something better in the same price range. I've had numerous posts where people were looking at crappy stuff, but with the budget I helped put together a great system for the same cost. I don't think that's cynical or condecending at all, the person will thank me in the long run. As far as the technical side of things, you can look on the forum, you don't see many technical questions, the majority of them include "what sub is the best" and "I want great stuff for a small budget". The technical questions are very rarely asked, and if they are they are quite simple and have been answered millions of times. You'll also notice that most of the problems on this forum are due to lackluster equipment, extreme misuse, and people being cheap by not buying the proper components and accessories to start with. We do the best we can, but there are limitations for what you can get with a small budget. This is a hobby, and requires money to be successful in just like anything else. Sorry if I offended you.