- Aug 24, 2000
- 4,153
- 4
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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and really date myself. But the last time I was serious into car audio (early to mid 1990's) a few brands were standouts above the others and I'm wondering if they're still as good as they once were or of the game has changed.
Head Units:
Eclipse and Alpine: Couldn't get better than this. Blaupunkt is another honorable mention. Moving down the scale was Pioneer Elite, Sony ES series, and Kenwood Excelon series (which were all brand spanking new to the game with what they called their high end lines back then).
Amplifiers:
Cream of the Crop were:
Phoenix Gold, Alpine V12 series, PPI Art Series, and Rockford Fosgate Punch series amplifier. PPI and Phoenix Gold being about the cleanest thing running with Alpine V12 and Rockford Punch being more about brute power back then.
Other Honerable mentions were the Lanzar Opti-Drive series and Orion HCCA for being some of the first 1/2 ohm stable stuff to arrive.
Speakers (Components):
MB Quart, Infinity, and Boston Acoustics all competed for top honors here with BA edging out the other two in sound quality despite coming up a little short on power handling sometimes.
Subwoofers:
JL Audio, and OZ if you wanted it to sound good. Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, and in particular Ground Zero if you wanted it to slam your brains out.
Power Conditioning:
For wiring, fuze blocks, stiffing caps, alternators, etc.. there was one name, and Stinger was that name..
So fast forward 20 some-odd years and who are the players today?..
Head Units:
Eclipse and Alpine: Couldn't get better than this. Blaupunkt is another honorable mention. Moving down the scale was Pioneer Elite, Sony ES series, and Kenwood Excelon series (which were all brand spanking new to the game with what they called their high end lines back then).
Amplifiers:
Cream of the Crop were:
Phoenix Gold, Alpine V12 series, PPI Art Series, and Rockford Fosgate Punch series amplifier. PPI and Phoenix Gold being about the cleanest thing running with Alpine V12 and Rockford Punch being more about brute power back then.
Other Honerable mentions were the Lanzar Opti-Drive series and Orion HCCA for being some of the first 1/2 ohm stable stuff to arrive.
Speakers (Components):
MB Quart, Infinity, and Boston Acoustics all competed for top honors here with BA edging out the other two in sound quality despite coming up a little short on power handling sometimes.
Subwoofers:
JL Audio, and OZ if you wanted it to sound good. Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, and in particular Ground Zero if you wanted it to slam your brains out.
Power Conditioning:
For wiring, fuze blocks, stiffing caps, alternators, etc.. there was one name, and Stinger was that name..
So fast forward 20 some-odd years and who are the players today?..