Call me old school, but have the amplifiers of today become Wussified? What ever happened to the good old days of design where amplifiers looked like amplifiers not pretty little peices of art. Remember the Kicker ZR series or the old school Orions? Those were about power not pretty.
What do you think? Should they bring back the old school?

 

Working in car audio retail, more often then not you will sell an amp because of its looks over power anyways. Its mostly because anybody whos anybody and knows nothing thinks they need systems and dont know what there doing.

 

I agree, I used to work in a Audio/Video install shop and the more neons on the damn thing the more we sold.

 

Several times when I worked retail Electronics in about '92 I would hear just as long as it has a lot of lights and buttons for me to play with. How sad.

 

Its all about the "bling bling" these days.A amp can be a p.o.s but people will buy it just because it has alot of chrome or it lghts up.

 

I was thinking about this issue last night as i pour over head units.
I was thinking and started to amek a list and it started as features i need.
at that moment i wanted to slap the **** out of myself i dont need any of this stuff.
The stock worked just fine.
Car audio is about want.
Now if you are doing competitions i will put you in a different classification the rest of it is just that bling bling.
So some 17 year old ricer kid wants the shinny factor while you may want the power factor.
Isnt it all just choice? Now i prefer power of shinny lights and buttons.
But if i was going for asthetics and i wanted the amp to be the focal point of my trunk i might go with a shiny one.
Really it comes down to personal choice.

 

Yeah, I vote old school. Most of the newer amps are weak. I miss the days of Real Rockford Fosgate, Orion, and yes, the Kicker ZR series. Those old amps would play louder and louder when you turned them up until you shut if off or your battery went dead, one of the two. Most of the amps today seem to get to a certain volume level and then they don't really get any louder.. I can understand the argument for the bling factor, I do a lot of car shows, but what good is it if it doesn't sound good. I was talking to a Phoenix Gold rep and even he said its been very tough because people want bling. They would rather have a chrome audiobahn than badass phoenix gold. I don't understand it, it doesn't make any sense to me. How about the new deal these days where the amp puts the same power out at 1 to 8 ohms. What the hell good is that? I would rather bridge it down to 2 ohms and double my power, maybe even 1 ohm and double it again. Car audio definitely isn't what it use to be. Sorry for the long post.