What are some top of the line car-audio brands

[Burzhui]

Please don't mention Alpine, Sony, Pioneer, or Panasonic

I need something extremely exclusive. the price matters only in the sense that the more expensive the better.

[AlpineJay]

Dynaudio speakers.

[DarkFury]

More expensive doesn't always mean better...

BTW... there is nothing wrong with Alpine (I know you said not to mention it... ), however if you want "extremely exclusive" then why not buy some of the "higher end" versions of these brands.

I mean c'mon.. not everyone want's to pay $2000 for a head unit... but if you want the Alpine with the built in 7 inch monitor and complete car stereo interface, then that is about what you are going to pay for it.

http://iweb.alpine-usa.com/img/asb/iva-d901.gif
Alpine IVA-D901 - MSRP $2400.00

Mobile Multimedia Station/CD/DVD Receiver/Ai-NET Controller

[brain]

Eclipse.

[Burzhui]

Brain you are right on the money i am looking for things like eclipse.
DF alpine will not fly, essentially i am looking for brands to export, little business on the side sort of thing

[DarkFury]

Brain you are right on the money i am looking for things like eclipse.
DF alpine will not fly, essentially i am looking for brands to export, little business on the side sort of thing
Are you serious?

Well in that case.. you ain't lookin for "high end" stuff... you are lookin' for "flea market" stuff... cause the main places I see selling Eclipse brand Car Audio is usually grey and flea market dealers. :shrug:

Aiight man... sorry I misunderstood what angle you were asking for. :shrug: :2far:


I guess if you wanna go that route, then here is a list of car audio products up your (back) alley:

Profile, Pyramid, Crunch, Alphasonik, Power Acoustik, and the list could go on and on...

[ufcrusher]

McIntosh used to make some super high end car audio equipment.
Clarion -- I believe had some higher end pieces
Eclipse

I even think that in other countries you can find both Nakamichi and Denon head units.

[DarkFury]

Hell.. if you wanna go that route:

Blaupunkt
Volfenhag
Swiss Audio

and the list can go on... :D

[SnowSurfer]

Hmm i dont understand what you are trying to say.......

but eclipse is pretty high up there

the pioneer touch screen that feels like real buttons (im pretty sure its pioneer) is nice too...i mean if you could get one for under 1000....:)

[Bires]

This should help a lot, but keep in mind, it's not perfect. Many brands have a huge range of quality, within their own brand, and many brands assemble in 3+ locations worldwide.

A ranking of mainstream and smallstream brands (http://www.caraudioforum.com/vbb3/showthread.php?t=211119&highlight=dynamics)

[Burzhui]

Are you serious?

Well in that case.. you ain't lookin for "high end" stuff... you are lookin' for "flea market" stuff... cause the main places I see selling Eclipse brand Car Audio is usually grey and flea market dealers. :shrug:

Aiight man... sorry I misunderstood what angle you were asking for. :shrug: :2far:


I guess if you wanna go that route, then here is a list of car audio products up your (back) alley:

Profile, Pyramid, Crunch, Alphasonik, Power Acoustik, and the list could go on and on...

I don't know man, Eclipse is pretty high up there in the quality chain

[Merlin]

Please don't mention Alpine, Sony, Pioneer, or Panasonic

I need something extremely exclusive. the price matters only in the sense that the more expensive the better.
You going P3rsian on us? :hmm:

[DarkFury]

You going P3rsian on us? :hmm:
That's exactly what I was thinkin' as well.... I just didn't wanna be the first to say it. :heh:


I don't know man, Eclipse is pretty high up there in the quality chain
I guess that would just depend on who was buying it...

I personally don't think that brand will EVER grace my ride. :D

[Thesifer]

I have Oz Audio Speakers and Nakamichi for my Amps.. U.S. Amps out of Florida is a pretty great brand that isn't that well known though.

[bachviet]

Orion amps

[Mike_N_Ike]

I used to have an eclipse deck in my civic. I think it was the 5443 or something like that. Anyways, those things put out amazing sound quality even with lousy speakers. I never swapped the speakers on the car but I used to get comments all the time like "What kind of speakers/subs do you have to get the sound that clean..."

It was fairly pricey though. It's funny you sbould mention how you only see it at flea markets and what not. Over here, it's difficult to find a place that carries it because very few are licensed Eclipse dealers. The ones that are however, tend to be more reputable than your average car-audio shop.

[Thesifer]

Treo

[MikeD]

I personally don't think that brand will EVER grace my ride. :D

:stupid:

I'm with DF on this one. When I think Eclipse, I think Pep Boys or Wal-Mart. I sure don't think high end audio.

Nakamichi is good stuff, not known by the average consumer because you don't see it in Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. But it's high quality nonetheless...

[kimchicowboy]

i've seen a factory nakamichi sound system in a lexus LS400 about...8 years ago. hehe.

[sizemic1]

Eclipse isn't all that.
I'd take a Sony ES deck over any eclipse deck.

[Showtime]

hi end eclipse hu > just about all in sq (sound quality).

if you want to compare flea market eclipses, compare it to other flea market crap. If you want to compare hi end stuff go check out car audio mags or websites. a good High End eclipse will put out some of the cleanest sound you can find.

hi end alpines and pioneers are also really nice.

circuit city was/is deciding between pioneer and eclipse. it looks like pioneer will be their new line. mostly cuz their customers would appreciate more features/flash and the name.

[bachviet]

Sony HUs are the worse you could get for your money. :disa:

Kenwood over Sony any day of the week

[DeepFreeze]

that list is off. i actually install car audio

not only is Alpines top end $400+ head units good build. but they last.

my current Alpine deck, read, made in 2000, STILL runs flawlessly, with S/N ratio within the manufacturers limits in 2005!!!
now, i will say 2004 and 2005 alpine is garbage. yes, garbage. too many i have had to return. only the F1 status ALpine gear is above par this year. but F1 gear is not cheap.

also, Eclipse- has stepped up their game this year, equally good stuff.

kenwood's touchscreen monitor is also excellent this year.

Mak decks are also HIGH end. again, these are the only ones id putin my car. MCinTosh would also go in, but i dont have $1900.


and for the record, Elemental Designs is not questionable.

[civicdidex]

always been a fan of mb quartz

[DarkFury]

always been a fan of mb quartz
Ummm... MB Quart maybe? :shrug:

http://www.mbquart.com/

[civicdidex]

haha yeah, i was just typing what i was thinking "mb quart's"

[ArkiStan]

Everybody here is trying to claim how good certain brands are. I don't think Burzhui doubts that those mainstream brands are good. He's just looking for rare and exotic brands for export.

[EvilHorace]

Gotta ask....WHY?
What exactly are you looking for (assuming you're only talking about a head unit)? Why does it have to be some seemingly more exotic and thus costly brand? Me, I look for the features, controls that I want and I've found that one can buy a very decent unit with good quality w/o spending ALOT of cash. I won't mention my brand choice as it's in one of your "don't mention....." list above.
Btw, I've heard many of these so-called high-end units and wasn't impressed, probably because the rest of the system wasn't very good. Any head unit's worthless w/o equally good amps and speakers. I see many cars with replacement head units yet still using OEM speakers so IMO, they've gained nothing but perhaps better or different functionality.

[InfiniteNothing]

Read the thread. He wants to market the rare stuff... for profit... it's a niche.

[DarkFury]

Gotta ask....WHY?
What exactly are you looking for (assuming you're only talking about a head unit)? Why does it have to be some seemingly more exotic and thus costly brand? Me, I look for the features, controls that I want and I've found that one can buy a very decent unit with good quality w/o spending ALOT of cash. I won't mention my brand choice as it's in one of your "don't mention....." list above.
Btw, I've heard many of these so-called high-end units and wasn't impressed, probably because the rest of the system wasn't very good. Any head unit's worthless w/o equally good amps and speakers. I see many cars with replacement head units yet still using OEM speakers so IMO, they've gained nothing but perhaps better or different functionality.

Cause "Foriegn Folks" will spend ludicrous amounts of money for things they perceive are "exclusive" / "exotic"...

We use former member p3rsian as a prime example of this...

[Apex]

Speakers:

The best: Accuton Thiel & Partner GmbH D²30-6 Diamond Tweeter (http://www.accuton.com/e/data/products/d_drivers/D30/e_D30-6.html) & D²50-8 Midrange (http://www.accuton.com/e/data/products/d_drivers/D50/e_D50-8.html)

The membrane is a single piece of pure diamond, giving you extremely low harmonic distortion, unsurpassed stiffness to weight ratio, and the highest sound propagation of any material currently known to man. Those tweeters are $3700 each, and the midranges are just over $9000 each. So, your typical small/medium sized vehicle install with 1 pair of tweeters and 2 pairs of midrange drivers will be $43,400. Oh yeah, don't forget you'll need subs too.

On the off chance that's too much:

Rainbow Reference Speakers (http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/introduction.php?lan=2&pro=1)
JM Labs Focal Utopia Beryllium (http://www.focal-fr.com/car/en/utopiabe/index.htm)
Dynaudio Automotive (http://www.dynaudio.de/eng/auto/mobile/driver.php)

Amplifiers:

JBL A6000GTi (http://www.jbl.com/car/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=A6000GTI&ser=GTI&cat=AMP)

[EvilHorace]

Read the thread. He wants to market the rare stuff... for profit... it's a niche.

????????? Let me get this straight, he's at a PC related websight (vs an AUDIO websight) asking for opinions on rare, exotic stuff to buy cheaply in order to sell to others for a profit?

Doing searches via Google will find anything available with prices and reviews, then there's Ebay.

[Realrammstein]

Speakers:

The best: Accuton Thiel & Partner GmbH D²30-6 Diamond Tweeter (http://www.accuton.com/e/data/products/d_drivers/D30/e_D30-6.html) & D²50-8 Midrange (http://www.accuton.com/e/data/products/d_drivers/D50/e_D50-8.html)

The membrane is a single piece of pure diamond, giving you extremely low harmonic distortion, unsurpassed stiffness to weight ratio, and the highest sound propagation of any material currently known to man. Those tweeters are $3700 each, and the midranges are just over $9000 each. So, your typical small/medium sized vehicle install with 1 pair of tweeters and 2 pairs of midrange drivers will be $43,400. Oh yeah, don't forget you'll need subs too.

On the off chance that's too much:

Rainbow Reference Speakers (http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/introduction.php?lan=2&pro=1)
JM Labs Focal Utopia Beryllium (http://www.focal-fr.com/car/en/utopiabe/index.htm)
Dynaudio Automotive (http://www.dynaudio.de/eng/auto/mobile/driver.php)

Amplifiers:

JBL A6000GTi (http://www.jbl.com/car/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=A6000GTI&ser=GTI&cat=AMP)

Apex,
Glad you mentioned Diamond (their speakers are going in my new car ;) ). I do like Oz, as well (for mids and tweets). Personally, I won't buy Alpine....

http://www.diamondaudio.com/

[DarkFury]

????????? Let me get this straight, he's at a PC related websight (vs an AUDIO websight) asking for opinions on rare, exotic stuff to buy cheaply in order to sell to others for a profit?

Doing searches via Google will find anything available with prices and reviews, then there's Ebay.
He's just asking friends here ... as a long standing community member (maybe he just wants our opinions on the topic).

Why are you questioning the way people post and the questions they ask all of a sudden? :shrug:

BTW.. this is a DEALS site. Not a "PC site"... however PCs and Cars are things that we like to talk about, hence forums are dedicated to those topics here.

This isn't Anandtech.com's forums... now if he asked the question there, then yeah, maybe you'd have a valid point.

[EvilHorace]

Why are you questioning the way people post and the questions they ask all of a sudden?

..because I too am a member here and CAN question anything I see. Asking questions is not a bad thing, is it?

[DarkFury]

..because I too am a member here and CAN question anything I see. Asking questions is not a bad thing, is it?
Questions in general are not a bad thing... Questioning what a good standing community member posts can be considered disrespectful and in general bad taste.

Just because you "can" doesn't always make it right.

BTW... just to let you know in case you didn't realize... you can change the wording of what you say and change the entire tone of it. For example... what if your post said the following:

"BTW... you might be able to find alot of information on the topic you inquire about at the "insert place of information here". (and leave out all the "why you posted that here" stuff...)

That would be in good taste and would still get your message across. But hey, it's only a suggestion...

[AlpineJay]

????????? Let me get this straight, he's at a PC related websight (vs an AUDIO websight) asking for opinions on rare, exotic stuff to buy cheaply in order to sell to others for a profit?

Doing searches via Google will find anything available with prices and reviews, then there's Ebay.

dude, chill. no need to get heated up here. he was just asking a question in a community where there's a good number of people who know this stuff very well (showtime, apex, etc)

[EvilHorace]

Wow, again...I meant no harm here either nor do I need pointers on how to post. I'm hardly new at that.
I was initially curious here in this thread as to why. That question is still not answered by the treads creator but whatever, not my problem.

[ArkiStan]

????????? Let me get this straight, he's at a PC related websight (vs an AUDIO websight) asking for opinions on rare, exotic stuff to buy cheaply in order to sell to others for a profit?

Exactly what kind of "PC related" information were you expecting to find snooping around here in the "Automotive & Transportation" forum anyway?