Found this on a great car audio forum, this is a great generalized guide for people new to car audio.... have fun, sticky it please i think this would be a great add on
This is the infamous Good, Bad, and Ugly list.

These are some pretty generalized groupings and also very subjective. We've simply based our experiences with the products whether they are direct installs, personal property or extensive research. You should always physically listen to a product before purchase because you are the one who will determine whether or not an item "sounds good" or not.

This topic, while being controversial, is simply a generalized guide meant for beginners in the hobby. Many brands specialize in certain items, ie. better amplifiers than speakers, better mids than subs, etc... Also almost all manufacturers offer entry level products as well as high quality lines. As I stated before, this is a GENERALIZED guide. It is your responsiblity to research and audition every brand before you purchase anything. Good luck with your decisions.

We've broken this section into 4 catagories:
1: Bad
2: Questionable
3: Good
4: Highly Recommended


Bad

American HiFi (Rockwood)
American Pro
Audiovox
Automobile
Becker
Boss
DHD
Dual
JDL
Jensen
Kenwood (speakers)
Kole
Kraco
Kronik
LA Sound
Legacy
MA Audio
Optimus (Radio Shack)
Planet Audio (Boss, by any other name)
Power Acoustik
Profile
Pyle
Pyramid
Rockwood
SAS Bazooka (amplifiers)
Sherwood
Sony (anything by Sony)
Sound Storm
Sparkomatic
SPL Audio
Thump
Ultimate Sounds
Visonik
Volfenhag


Questionable

Alpine (lower model speakers)
Autotek
Audiobahn
Blaupunkt
Aiwa
Crunch
Elemental Designs (eD)
Hifonics
Hollywood
Kenwood (amplifiers, head units)
Kicker Solobaric (L5, L7, Solo-X square subs)
Lanzar
Lightning Audio
Matsui
MTX (subs)
Onyx Mobile Audio
Panasonic
Phoenix Gold (ask on specific models)
Pioneer (amplifiers and speakers)
Precision Power (PPI) (newer non-US made amplifiers)
Rockford Fosgate (current products)
SAS Bazooka (all products)


Good

Alpine (amplifiers, Type-R speakers and subs)
Altec Lansing
Alumapro
Ample Audio
Audio Development
Avionixx
Boston Acoustics
Cadence (current amplifier products)
Cerwin Vega (subs)
Clarion (head units)
Coustic
Crossfire
Crystal
Directed (DEI)
Earthquake
Eaton
Helix
Illusion
Infinity
JBL (amplifiers)
JVC Digifine
Kicker (amplifiers & Comp/CompVR subwoofers)
Lunar
Memphis Audio
MTX (amplifiers)
Phoenix Gold (some models)
Polk Audio
Rockford Fosgate (some models)
Soundstream
USAcoustics


Highly Recommended

a/d/s
Adire
Alpine (head units, signal processors)
Arc Audio
Audax
Audio Control
Brax
Butler Audio
CD Technologies (CDT)
Diamond Audio
Digital Designs (DD)
DLS
DynAudio
Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten)
Esoteric Audio
Focal
Harrison Labs
Image Dynamics (ID)
Infinity Kappa/Kappa Perfect components
JL Audio (subs, XR components, slash series amps)
KEF Kar components
Kove
Luxman
MB Quart
McIntosh Laboratories
MMATS
Morel
Nakamichi (tape transports)
Ohio Alternator
Orion
OZ Audio
Pioneer Premiere (head units)
Precision Power (PPI) (Art series amps, old)
Rainbow
Resonant Engineering (RE)
Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and 1990s models)
Sinfoni
Streetwirez
Stinger
Treo
US Amps
Wrangler Alternators
Xtant
Zapco

 

We had something like this stickied a while ago and general feeling is that it's helpfull to some but it's based on opinion so it doesn't need to be stickied. Thanks for contributing though.

 

And you put MTX & Kicker in the same category as Lanzar, Lightning Audio, Crunch...

 

WOW. Im very impressed with some of the highly recommends... i didn tthink anybody else on the planet knew about KEF or Butler or Morel for that matter.



However, Audiovox has come a loooonnnngggg way since they started out. They are whipping out some fo the better lcd screens on the market. And I must say Optimus was a great bang for the buck. All of my house subwoofer rock old school 'Pro Series' subwoofers by radio shack because they were cheap but yet very good in quality for what they are.

 

Like AMG said, Audio is a subjective matter. I sell it(high end albeit ie:morel, focal diamond, eclipse) and can tell you from experience that beuaty with audio is in the EAR of the beholder. Its only as good as you think it sounds, there is no "best" well, I have my opinions but thats my point. Mostly an accurate list, debateable(sp), but eh thats exacly what I'm trying to say I guess. Oh yeah, and I rock a set of old school Akai's, for those that remember that brand for my home monitors!!

 

i have to disagree on Power Acoustik being under "Bad". Sure, they are cheap but there subs do out perform most budget setups. My friend has 4 **** 12's in his deville and 2 power acoustik amps and it hits so hard its hard to breathe.

 

yea but 2 12 inch memphis subs and a decent class d amp will blow them out of the water. SQ and SPL

 

again everyone, this is a guide based on trials and errors and is only meant as a general guide for new guys in the game. "generally" speaking, power A isn't going to sound good when put up against higher end products. Fight it all you want, but thats th hard fact, i think we can all mostly agree that your product quality is going to depend on the price(unless your paying for the JL name........ like me.... lol) For example, those 4 power A subs were lets say $75 eachish (i think thats what they run for) but your telling me that that $300 would beat 2- W3's in SQ, or 2 alpine type-r's in SPL??

 

i think audiobahn makes some good subs. they can be pricey but if you know what your looking for they can hit pretty damn hard

 

i agree with you there, audiobaun can hit hard, but what about sound quality?? leaves alot to wish for....