Decline of car audio??

[bigaltexas]

yeah we need to keep on grindin lol

but for real. that sucks :/ i got a noise violation.. and im still beatin wtf>?!

[CJ18]

I think you have to attribute alot to the down turn in the economy right now. People just dont have extra money to put into audio systems. Another thing I would say is a problem, and I have experienced this personally, is pure greed on the part of stereo shops. I cant speak for any other shops other than my local one so I dont mean to offend any shop owners or employees on here, this is just my experience here. I understand that it is a business and you have to make money, but sometimes you can got to far in trying to make money, especially in this economy. Here is an example from last week. A guy comes into the shop and say he has a $3500 budget so build a system. I draw up a system to include 4 AA Havoc 18s 1 soundstream d3400 amp 2 XS Power d3400s and 2 sets RF 6.5" components. This came to a total of $2300 total cost for equipment. The shop owner told me that $1200 profit wasnt worth doing that type of system. He says this when he will be doing very very little of the work, maybe running a few wires from the front to back batteries. I would be doing most of the work....AND I DONT EVEN WORK FOR HIM!!!! This is just pure greed and I think is causing part of the down turn in car audio. When you dont have quality shops that do quality work it really hurts the car audio world.

[keepinitloud]

I got into it cause I love music so my system had been created to give me that enjoyment can listen to what ever I want and its like a concert for me without all the people but I get what people are sayin it does seem that no one is interested in the smaller systems gotta be multiple woofers or 18"s to get any attention people gettin into this should build there system for there own self enjoyment not what the trend is or what will get you the most attention cause its in your car and you have to live with it day in and day out and the bigger the system the more money it takes to fix anything that goes wrong better be prepared to fork over the cash but hey if you want a demo vehicle that gets attention go for it as long as that is truly what you want

[CortezDTV]

X2 my local stereo shopps are the exact same, they rip people the fuck off, a rockford fosphate T2 cost 799, id rather go get 2 dc xls for the same price

[n8ball2013]

I feel you on the newbie point. The way I see it is like this... A young kid rolls to a comp with his 1000 watt Sony and some kickers and puts up a 13x.xx. Then he sees all these guys with big setups putting up 15x.xx. Either he is gonna get bit by the bug or more realistically hes gonna get discouraged.

When people listen to my truck i get alot of them that start to talk shit about there own stuff. I stress to them that its not always about putting up the highest number or having $10k worth of equipment in your car. I always ask them if they like how there car sounds? That's what matters.

I think we have to many big headed assholes in this hobby that are so into them self that they forgot what fun it should be.

Have fun and help the next guy.

This is spot on. I always try to tell people that put down their own stuff that they dont have the time or money into it as I do and if they ever need anything all they have to do is ask. If they need a new box I can help etc. Granted its been awhile since I had a big build

[AI James]

X2 my local stereo shopps are the exact same, they rip people the fuck off, a rockford fosphate T2 cost 799, id rather go get 2 dc xls for the same price

maybe you should look for another stereo shop.

[JEMT8]

In my area at least up here in central Massachusetts, it seems like everyone just wants flea market systems with name brand equipment. It HAS to be JL or Rockford to get known around town but mostly people have xplods, the budget kenwoods, whatever is on the shelf from Best Buy. People just throw their shit in and don't even want to gain further knowledge on the equipment and just talk out their ass about it. No one really seems to have the drive to compete either except with words and based of what equipment you own. I got into the game with xplods myself because I didn't know any better until I found this forum.

What drives me is my passion for music first of all and to gain knowledge about car audio. And to be louder than the loudest kid I went to high school with who had a set of those aluminum series eclipses. apparently I'm not there yet according to my friends but my local shop thinks I can win a trophy easily at a competition. Maybe that kid has the same bug as me. I've never talked to him in person or heard his system so I don't know what he is about. On another note. now some people know of Sundown around here.

To me, it doesn't matter what you have for a set up, I want to hear it anyways. I have an appreciation for be in all shapes and sizes.

Having someone appreciate the work and the cash you put into your system is always a motivator to keep going.

[MADVIBES]

I agree car audio has hit a monster decline. I remember my first car show at the autorama 1995 in sacramento there were at least 50 cars. Some jack off had 15 18" jl subs in a hyndai excel. It was kinda sick all sealed crazy design. He was hitting 155 on the old audio control mics. There was another dude who had 8 18" subs in a k5 blazer they were kickers. I remeber a nissan king cab that had 12 15" soundstream granite pro subs in the king cab. It was a sick ass show. The cars that had walls all hit over 150 legal and had been able to knock there wipers clean off the windows a couple of inches. To be honest when I go to the autorama now I dont remember anyones shit. No one is getting really creative with multisub systems. Yes I do realize that people are hitting the same number with less, but I get tired of seeing 4 18" and 4 amps and stuff like that. Yes, I am guilty of the same thing! Another thing is people keep getting their stereos stolen so they stop putting them back in. I have had to comp stereos stolen from me since I started competing back in 1997. That shit really sucks. always having to wonder is this the day I go into the store come out and my stereo is gone. SQ shows would bring a good mix of people out to the shows iasca had the soundq+ event. That was a fun style event. Kept away the trash/dangerous installs. I do like loud bass. I even like spl so long as the vehicle can pick up 30-40hz. end rant. My feeling is that bass will not come back like it was in the early 90's. old people cant tolerate it at all! maybe when we are all 40-50 then car shows wont get shut down by coops because some old fuck cant handle loud music for a day. Cal expo has the best possible venue for a stereo show! Far away from everything.

[Guest grim83]

i agree the greed needs to go, i know i personally cringe when someone talks about going to these local shops there is only one that has any talent and he wont rip people off. so when someone says theyre gonna go to shop xyz i tell them theyre better off either paying this one or doing it themselves. and this greed goes beyond the shops even some of the manufactures are doing it, i mean lets look at maxxsonic they own mb quart hifonics and crunch yet the only difference i have found is the price tags and labels. there are a few others also that get theyre stuff built in the same places and use the same parts as other "lower" companies yet they charge ungodly amounts.

[CJ18]

maybe you should look for another stereo shop.

Thats the thing though, there are very few good honest stereo shops out there. They get all pissed when a customer brings in their own equipment that they bought online for 1/2 the price of what they would charge for it, and asks to have it installed. Dont get me wrong I know it is a business and you have to make money but i mean charging $750 for an amp that cost you $399...FUCK THAT! The way you get more business is by word of mouth. If you give someone a good, fair price on a GOOD product, then they will tell someone who will tell someone and that is how you grow a business. You cant try and make all of your money from 1 job. The other thing that really makes me mad as hell about stereo shops is that they will push shitty ass products at you just because they have them in stock and bought them cheap and are gonna make alot of money from them. Another example---guy comes in the other day with an 02 escalade truck wanting to do a decent sized system in the bed of the truck(those trucks have the cut though already so a blowthrough is easy), I tell him i would do 2 AA havoc 15s on a soundstream Dtower 3400...these are the products the shop owner can get. Instead of listening to me he starts trying to push some of the shitiest powerbass 15s, that I honestly think you could fart louder than they would get. It is things like this that really piss me off about stereo shops. This is why I got into buiding my own stuff. I dont mind paying for someone that does good quality work, but when its just about how much money they can make and how fast they can finish it, quality goes out the window.