Thread: What type of car audio person are you?

Oh yeah, one more thing as far as price is concerned, & this is a FACT:

mediocre equiptment installed correctly will give better results than top of the line stuff installed incorectly, the install is just as important as the equiptment, if not even more important in most cases.

Originally Posted by ZenerDiode

Not that I disagree with you on the "overpriced" comments (i'm actually ambivalent)...you comparison with Ferrari is simply not true, IMO.

You can easily explain to Joe Schmoe why a Ferrari costs so much by breaking down the measurable performance numbers (admittedly exterior design and rarity factor into the pricing, but those two can be somewhat quantifiable).

When it gets to audio components, however, more often than not, measurable performance numbers do nothing to justify the cost of an item. In its stead, one often gets the "you just don't understand" argument. At least the car audio world is nowhere near as bad as the home audiophile market...(can you say Red Rose Music?)

I'm a "best bang for the buck audiophile".I buy my components wherever I find the best deal.From Zener's comment of "measurable performance",that's the key.....some folks with more money than sense,speaking of home audio,will actually buy,3 feet of speaker wire made of unobtainium for $1000!!! Of course,they're going to "hear" a difference even if it's not objectively verifiable,lol.
How do you find the best equipment for you? Listen to it....to hell with what other people think.If Kraco moves you,well,hell,you've got money for other inconsequential things like,say,food.
That being said,I try to buy the best built,quality equipment I can afford.

Originally Posted by seanshine

I'm a "best bang for the buck audiophile".I buy my components wherever I find the best deal.From Zener's comment of "measurable performance",that's the key.....some folks with more money than sense,speaking of home audio,will actually buy,3 feet of speaker wire made of unobtainium for $1000!!! Of course,they're going to "hear" a difference even if it's not objectively verifiable,lol.
How do you find the best equipment for you? Listen to it....to hell with what other people think.If Kraco moves you,well,hell,you've got money for other inconsequential things like,say,food.
That being said,I try to buy the best built,quality equipment I can afford.

Very true, I have even heard of people (as in millionares) going into a car audio shop, and saying "You know... this doesnt sound quite right..." and give them a few thousand dollars JUST to rewire everything.

And setup is VERY important as well, as mentioned above, which is one reason why I only want to spend 350 on some of the Adire Kodas rather than spend a thousand or so on Rainbows, becasue the fact is, I couldnt get them installed perfect, especially not while keeping the stock look (clean is key to me)

Matt

Originally Posted by ZenerDiode

Not that I disagree with you on the "overpriced" comments (i'm actually ambivalent)...you comparison with Ferrari is simply not true, IMO.

You can easily explain to Joe Schmoe why a Ferrari costs so much by breaking down the measurable performance numbers (admittedly exterior design and rarity factor into the pricing, but those two can be somewhat quantifiable).

When it gets to audio components, however, more often than not, measurable performance numbers do nothing to justify the cost of an item. In its stead, one often gets the "you just don't understand" argument. At least the car audio world is nowhere near as bad as the home audiophile market...(can you say Red Rose Music?)

i'm talking more about the R&D and manufacturing processes leading to the cost....not the performance so much......of a ferrari

Originally Posted by turbocad6

I like high end stuff & my favorite source units are alpine. sure there is better stuff out there, but I just love the versatility & function of the alpine products, there lattest processor, the pxa-h700(701) is an increadable example of this, & as far as thorse wining over price, realize that you get what you pay for. I was so impressed with alpines new processor that I would have easily paid DOUBLE the list price, it is that awsome, I was extremely happy to see this technology available for less than $700!!!!who's complaining!!!!!!

I will agree wholeheartedly on this comment....I'm running that processor in my car right now and have nothing but praises about it....for what you are getting for what they ask for it....DAMN! what a steal!

It all depends how much you enjoy your audio, my system cost more than alot of peoples whole car, but I wouldn't want any less, **** I'd take a beater with a kick *** system over a late model luxury cruiser with no tunes any day, depends where your prioritys are. I see a lot of guys with new cars complainig about the cost of this or that, if there prioritys were straight thed have a few years older car with a kick *** system for the same price!!!! prioritys man!!!!!! don't stop the music, no.....

I get this all the time from people....why would you dump all that money into a car that only costs this much?! I never was able to see where this train of thought came from....why do some people buy a house and put a bunch of money into it? same thing....people have things they enjoy....they are called hobbys...without them this would be a boring world....a hobby means you are going to spend money on it...some people are more into hobbys than others.....

I think the reason a lot of people complain about the cost is because it's not as important to them....and to those people I say...you have no right to whine about cost, especially being that you aren't that interested in it in the first place....chances are that you have something else you sink your money into that outsiders would look at and say....god! why would you spend that kind of money on something like that?!

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Originally Posted by Red GTi VR6

I will agree wholeheartedly on this comment....I'm running that processor in my car right now and have nothing but praises about it....for what you are getting for what they ask for it....DAMN! what a steal!



I get this all the time from people....why would you dump all that money into a car that only costs this much?! I never was able to see where this train of thought came from....why do some people buy a house and put a bunch of money into it? same thing....people have things they enjoy....they are called hobbys...without them this would be a boring world....a hobby means you are going to spend money on it...some people are more into hobbys than others.....

I think the reason a lot of people complain about the cost is because it's not as important to them....and to those people I say...you have no right to whine about cost, especially being that you aren't that interested in it in the first place....chances are that you have something else you sink your money into that outsiders would look at and say....god! why would you spend that kind of money on something like that?!

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Hey, finally that VW chick agree's with me on something
I agree with what you say about importance, there are people out there that are so into there "sport" or "hobby" that they will spend many multiples of what it would cost for average, just to get a little better. That is the reason why there are $8,000 fishing reels, $3,500 tennis rackets, $6,000 mountain bikes(I have one, when I first entered the "hobby" I said,yeah right, for that kind of money it better have at least 750cc's, but then you learn the difference). There are $3,000 paint guns & $3,000 ski's, there are rc cars that cost many thousands(don't get me started here)

the bottom line when it comes to price is that good equiptment is available at a reasonable price now adays across the board. what used to cost big money in electronics has dropped in price dramaticaly & today you can get a better head unit for around $200, than what $500 would have gotten you 5 years ago. but the flip side to this is to get better costs more, & when you get to the point that something is REAL GOOD, it becomes harder even to make it better, not impossible, but it will take extreme mesures to squeeze the last ounces of performance out of a product. this is where research & delopment come in, which costs money. this is where exotic materials & propritary construction comes into play, to squeeze a little more out of it, but this too costs money. the reason why jl stuff costs more than say an audiobahn is because of the money jl puts into r&d & special construction, where audiobahn spends on chrome & bling looks, the uninformed will look at an audiobahn sub at half the price of a jl & to them, the audiobahn looks better at half the price. wow it even handles TWICE the power, it MUST be at least as good!

as far as those who poke fun of someone who spends a large sum of money on a wiring upgrade is to not understand the basic concept of squeezing out that last ounce of performance. this happens in all forms of performance stuff, once you get to a certain level, it becomes increasingly difficult to get better, & when you get to the point that it's pretty maxed out, you will have to really push the envelope to get better.

it all depends on how good your willing to settle for, if just good is good enough for you then settle there, it's all up to each individual as to how good is good enough, but don't critisize what you don't understand, no one is telling you to spend this much on this or that, but understand that there are individuals out there who will go to great lengths to get a little better in many things, car audio is just one of those things.....

I'll bet that many here haven't had the pleasure of hearing a competition winning system, if you had you would understand the difference, if you had the luxury of spending some time with a competition system you would start to become enlightened of the differences, but it's up to you to decide if you even give a **** or not, an average guy will settle for average sound, law of averages here....but fair warning, if you like car audio & you did have the oportunity to spend some time with a competition system you will be RUINED FOR LIFE!!as everything else will start to sound like **** to you. I guess the VW chick summed it up best, how important is it to you?

Originally Posted by Red GTi VR6

i'm talking more about the R&D and manufacturing processes leading to the cost....not the performance so much......of a ferrari

In which case I would have to disagree with you even more. GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota, etc...invest way more into R&D and manufacturing processes than either Ferrari or Porsche does...although the end goal is at the extreme end of Ferrari's--maximizing profit per car per segment level. But I digress.

I do agree that in the end, it's all about your priorities. I have sat in an accord with $12000 system. It definitely sounded better than mine...much better. But then personally, I would have put that $12000 into upgrading my WRX to an STi, and listen to the sound of that turbo instead

BTW...great thread...

Originally Posted by ZenerDiode

In which case I would have to disagree with you even more. GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota, etc...invest way more into R&D and manufacturing processes than either Ferrari or Porsche does...although the end goal is at the extreme end of Ferrari's--maximizing profit per car per segment level. But I digress.

I do agree that in the end, it's all about your priorities. I have sat in an accord with $12000 system. It definitely sounded better than mine...much better. But then personally, I would have put that $12000 into upgrading my WRX to an STi, and listen to the sound of that turbo instead

BTW...great thread...

gm, ford & chrysler have the luxury of spreading there r&d dollars over many hundreds of thhousands of units each year, how many ferrari's do you think are built each year? when production numbers go way up the cost of each unit usually goes way down. if you were able to pay a private company to build you a ford taurus from scratch it would cost you well over a million dollars for the first one. this is why a small specialty manufacturer will always cost much more than a mass produced cookie cutter type deal.

thanks turbocad6 - you just made it so that I don't have to type all of that out....lol

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