What are some good unknown audio brands? I want to get a good sound system for my car, but I want to get the same quality as some of the top audio brands out there while saving some cash at the same time.

 

I know a place that is cheap - I think it's cheap - I nevered order through this company before......


http://www.cmttrading.com

 

I would also like to know what you mean by unknown..
And when you say top brand what do you mean..
I am not grilling you here, just trying to figure out what you are using as a reference point, how much you want to spend, or hope to save in some fashion.
There are products that are indeed good deals in their price range but these companies are not really little, small, boutique, or unknown. The unknown stuff is mostly expensive mid fi to high end esoteric stuff that cost big dollars...

 

lmao!!! pyle audio is well.. a pile... of ****..
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BMW CAR CLUB OF AMERICA

 

cmt trading does a lot of biz on ebay. pretty good service, but the products are a bit on the low end side.

i'm assuming you mean non-mainstream stuff that will last and hit hard as well as sound good, so here are a few:

-fusion (higher end)
-gs designs
-autotek
-visonik (subs, amps, multimedia)
-ma audio
-massive (good stuff, but i got word their design guy is jumping ship)

all relatively cost effective, but good quality and will most often times outplay a lot of mainstream stuff.

 

kicker is pretty good though, their amps are underatted and are tuff when abused. JL is... a ripoff.. good quality but what you pay is not what you recive
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ALTO LAPIN

 

i can name a ton of high quality non bandwagon brands lets see here are a few. adire,cadence,dd audio,beyond audio, Resonant Engineering,shocker all these are of very high quality at a resonable price as for a head unit i highly suggest to stick to a pioneer,eclipse,panasonic etc.. as most of the so called non bandwagon brands dont make decks just amps and speakers. i myself use an image dynamics idq15 soon to get a 12" adire brahma and a jbl 1200.1 or other 1200 watt rms amp.
as for the ma audio amp for $850 thats crazy i would pay more than $375 for it if i did it would be fore a cadence mono block or earthquake shredder.

 

yeah those are awesome brands, but most of what you named are kinda pricey, and mavurik wanted it to be kinda cost-efficient. (altho the adire shiva is a solid buy at $125 shipped...)

beyond audio inhuman...

curious, it seems on every board i go to, the adire brahma is synonymous with the jbl 1200.1 amp. jbl should hop on this and partner up with adire on some package deals. (or vice-versa)

beyond audio inhuman...

anyhoo, if you want good quality at decent prices for a non-mainstream brand, look into autotek. and seriously, i was surprised at visonik's line as well. surprisingly good stuff.

 

Bottom line in car stereos is its up to you, and your wallet. Car stereos fall in the category of "you get what you pay for". Yeah you can get hooked up sometimes from homies or this and that, but bottom line is, if you want a really killer car systme you have to shell out chedda. There's no two ways about it. The only thing is the amount of chedda you shell, is directly related to what you care to listen to. I could have $10,000 to blow on a system and I could probably never be satisified. So you just have to fiure out what you are looking for as far a listening goes, and then calculate your costs accordingly.

 

holy crap, i'm almost there... why can't i be happy with what i've got?

 

you're looking for some good sound or bang for the buck right?

i know MB quarts might be high priced,but they are worth it for the inside.

as for subs, i know of some DOPE!!!! SUBS, that are cheap in price. theya re called the blue print driver. i had a 1201 and that thing hit harder than 2 jl w3's, and it is cheaper and hit cleaner.

www.bluprintdrivers.com

there are other speakers such as the sheeva, which is good for the money.

i'm stricly MTX because i'm satisfied witht he sound. and it fit my budget.

you can buy my subs since i am ordering 2 infinity kappa perfect 12.1's.

 

another heaping pile of crap.

 

Mb quartz, Mmats, Diamond Audio, and Jbl.

 

This is all finally getting around to the logical point. Audio is what you invest. There are "small" companies that build nice stuff, but much of it is not cheap. Nor in my mind should the lowest price drive decisions about either hardware, or where you purchase.
I like small companies like McIntosh, Audison, Genesis, Nakamichi, Dynaudio, Diamond Audio,and Focal. None flood the market with product like Pioneer, Sony, or Kenwood. The ones I mention are very good but pricey- it takes a signifigant investment on the manufacturers part to come up with a quality design, test it , and manufacture it to high standards.
If there were great small inexpensive companies, then we would all be purchasing it, and they would end up being pioneer or kenwood.
So good luck in the search for the magic mix of low low price and superior product, and let us all know when you find it!

 

How I would approach the car audio in Mazda Protege with a fairly limited budget.

First of all I agree with the phrase "you get what you pay for"

Why go so cheap that you are dissatidfied with you money spent?
You would of been better just staying stock. At the same time you don't have to buy the best. If you are on a limited budget you aren't going to be winning any competitions anyway.

Shop around on the web....you can save a lot of money buy just doing a thorough search. For instance I prefer Infinity Speakers for my budget. You can find leftover models that are still top notch and brand new for greatly reduced prices.


The first thing I would change is the Head Unit. If you put new speakers in without changing the HU chances are you will damage them due to the amount of distortion and lack of power.

Then work on the door speakers.....
Later down the road when you can save up more money place a sub and amp. Just the new HU and speakers will be a drastic improvement in itself.

I just picked up a PRO5 last week and I have installed probably about a dozen car stereo systems in the past so I am nowhere near a pro but am comfortable helping some friends out.

For my PRO5 I will probably be going with a Pioneer CD HU with 6.5 Infinity Kappa Components up front and 6.5 Infinity Kappa 2-ways in the rear....someday down the line I will invest in a sub
and amp. The Infinity Kappas claim a bass rating down to 45HZ.

Hope I helped. If not, oh well....I tried.