shakes

Cheapest one I can think of is Audiocontrol epic-160 at about $200. Other than that you could look for a used one.

Nice pics, i've never been out west, it looks a hell of a lot nicer than Minnesota right about now.

21 and no license? It's time to grow up.

I didn't see this done here before, if it was forgive me. The Xcon in the door thread got me all nostalgic. What was your first system and what was it in? My first system was in an 88 Sunbird convertible, 1 Cerwin Vega XL-12 powered by an Earthquake 250x ( think that's what it was called at least) later I added some Blaupunkt 6x9's powered by an Alpine 3522. I upgraded to a pair of punch XLC's shortly thereafter and eventually some Audiobahn Alum 10's before I junked the car because a large portion of the top tore off and it had no heat in January in Minnesota. I remember driving around for hours at a time going no where at all and in a huge hurry to get there. I miss 95 cents/gallon gas.

How old is this kid, 15? 16 maybe? I remember being 15 and 16, I loved car audio and I knew everything about it. Come to think of it I knew everything about everything else in the world as well. Nasa used to pay me to listen for alien activity in the outskirts of the universe. After I retired from that I designed the better mouse trap and invented the internet. My 15" Thumps powered by my 1000 watt Rockwood amp were awesome. I built the boxes out of old doors and s few 5 gallon buckets. But seriously, before you get to angry about what he's doing, remember, subs don't have feelings, they're inanimate objects and we were all young and knew everything at one point, too.

Woodworking Assembly Hardware - T-Nut There you are, sir.

Never buy something you don't need on credit.

Yeah I don't have the patience to do that, or the time. I think I made my first box, with a buddy in an night after school. It was such a disaster.

Looks a hell of a lot better than my first box.

I don't understand why I'm childish and close minded for thinking something else. I don't have any aversion to being wrong. I'm sure I've been wrong on more things than I've been right on if I add up everything I've said in my life. We disagreed on what happened and gave reasons as to why our respective theories would be correct. Neither of us had real solid evidence to support our claim except the statement released from Rockford which is what I was disputing. It appears I was wrong and I'm not butt hurt over it, in fact I really don't care. Obviously no one on here knows me but I don't actually take internet arguing seriously. The statement released from Rockford seemed kind of puffy to me considering I had heard otherwise from a Best Buy insider (which admittedly could be biased). It's like a resume or a job interview. No one wants to lie but distorting the truth to make you look better is commonplace. For the record, I've been running my own business for 5 years now and it's run completely on cash flow with no investors, partners or debt. So being wrong on a car audio forum on one topic really doesn't make me an idiot at everything else in life.

There's a 1600 watt Hifonics in the classifieds section for $200.

And you seem to refuse to accept the fact that Rockford may have been dropped, should I call you kid? What we're having is a disagreement, neither of us actually know 100% what happened. We're more or less guessing. Is that a fair statement? I know Rockford released a statement saying one thing, Obama said he was going to cut taxes. I was just supplying a speculative argument to support the story I heard. I was told in passing that Best Buy dropped Rockford, people read Rockford dropped Best Buy. I'm not so close minded that I would refuse to accept something proven to me. It hasn't been proven yet and I'm of the school of thought Best Buy dropped Rockford, no one has proven otherwise, just posted their opinion saying I was wrong. If it turns out Best Buy did drop Rockford will I call you close minded and you couldn't accept the fact Best Buy could have dropped Rockford? No, we don't know either way yet.

Time will tell. But the consequences of which he's talking about are really only perceived. I really don't think anyone on this forum will really know what happened or the details though. We're all merely speculating.

Rockford was a niche company, grew and expanded, then moved to the big box arena just 10yrs ago. Once that happened, their company image dropped and people started complaining about a decrease in quality. Seriously, I couldn't tell you the number of times I've seen or heard someone say something equivalent to "RF's gone to crap since they started selling them at BB". Funny, I googled "rockford+crap+best+buy" and the very first link it pulled up was a thread on another forum with the first post being: "I don't know if this a good or bad thing for Rockford, but it has to be good for speality retailer like my shop. Best Buy picked up Kicker to replace them. I can tell that rockford going to best buy wasn't great for the image in the highend dealers eyes. It made them look cheap. Maybe rockford can change there image be changing there direction." Interestingly....that sounds like EXACTLY the effect I was talking about. Hmmm...... You're trying to discredit my "theory" of what happened with your own theory of why what may have happened happened. You're using second hand information as if it were facts to dismiss my second hand information. Only difference is I admit my information may not be fact. Who knows. Maybe Best Buy lied to their employees because them losing Rockford would be detrimental to their business. Maybe Best Buy dumped Rockford for whatever reason. As for me only looking at the monetary aspect of it I suppose that's closed minded but money is the number one objective of a company. Someone else's opinion coinciding with your own doesn't make you right. For all we know it was a mixture of both our theories, maybe the relationship between the companies went sour over who knows what. Looking back on my argument and yours, we got a little off subject I guess and I probably started it by repeating what I had heard from someone at Best Buy corporate. Honestly I really don't care either way what happened. I don't shop at Best Buy, the only Rockford equipment I have is 10+ years old. I have no interest in seeing either company slung through the mud. Maybe Rockford was trying to change their image and they and Best Buy couldn't come to an agreement on what to do and how. Maybe Best Buy couldn't successfully market Rockford's higher end equipment as they thought they could have with the acquisition of Magnolia? Who knows. I'm tired and rambling. We'll see who is right (like it matters) in the future, if you're right you can call me a business idiot all you want, my company is doing just fine.

I think I'm right, you guys think you're right. We're not going to change each other's minds. In my opinion given the information I heard Best Buy dumped Rockford, if it's the other way around, so be it, but don't try to pass off business theory as fact. I honestly don't know for sure what happened. I heard it all second hand but to me, it seems more plausible that Best Buy cut the Rockford line. Rockford isn't exactly a niche company, it's a mainstream big box company and has been for some time. Maybe they do want to change, then again, maybe they don't. Call me kid, call me dumb, say I don't know how to run a business. My business still makes money and I don't think it's on accident so apparently my philosophy works as well. I just don't understand why a simple debate has to resort to insults, people can disagree and remain civil at the same time.

Dick doesn't run the whole show over there, Best Buy is set up just like any other international multi billion dollar company. Think of it. Rockford isn't run by audiophiles, it's run by business men who have an obligation to the investors, not to steer the company in a less profitable direction because they want to deal with "core audio". The people in the board room don't give a shit what Rockford produces, sells or how it works, all they care about is making the company money, their salaries depend on it. RF making money is directly related to what RF produces, sells, and how and where it's sold. It would be impossible to make business decisions at that level without an understanding of what the market is demanding, what the market will support, how RF's product mix in both features and qualities as well as price fits with those demands and how RF's products compare to it's competitors, what markets it wants to compete in and how it wants to compete in them, etc. That's a pretty naive view to take. There are several reasons why a company may choose to pull out of the "big box" market. The Man Who Said No To Walmart Given your posts in this thread, I'd gander a guess you don't much understand business. I was speaking objectively from a business standpoint. The people in charge of Rockford are interested in one thing, money. The creative design is left to those in the field. Believe what you will but I think it's naive to think in any terms other than money. I know in my business, if someone wants to buy, I sell. I don't care about their ideals or anything else, if they're going to buy, I'm going to sell. That's a cute story about the lawn chairs, but I'd be willing to bet it's not common. For the record, I understand business quite well. I'm sorry if you don't believe me. You're not looking at this from a business standpoint, you're looking at it from a standpoint of a guy who's into car audio, don't get your passions in the way of business. Given what I was told and how the average business is run I find it hard to believe Rockford dumped Best Buy. There's a lot more reasons to keep your largest customer than not to. I'd be amazed if Rockford's profits went up from this decision.

They will. Every installer I know started in sales and worked their way up. It definitely wouldn't hurt though. I'm just being objective and realistic from a business standpoint.

this is what I heard also... The last thing rockford wants is to appear as though they've been axed. The statement they released screams they've been dumped. Do they really expect someone to believe they care about the audio and not the money? Please...

Don't get too caught up on the certification. It won't give you a whole lot of credibility. You'll have to prove yourself on the job. I highly doubt you'd be hired right into an install bay based on a certification.

Dick doesn't run the whole show over there, Best Buy is set up just like any other international multi billion dollar company. Think of it. Rockford isn't run by audiophiles, it's run by business men who have an obligation to the investors, not to steer the company in a less profitable direction because they want to deal with "core audio". The people in the board room don't give a shit what Rockford produces, sells or how it works, all they care about is making the company money, their salaries depend on it.

BBY stock is at $38 and a solid investment. Rockford is a penny stock. Do you think a large corporation would give up it's largest sales tool on principle? I didn't think so.

Are you talking about Best Buy? Get a job anywhere in the store, with the turnover rate and the dynamic structure of the business if you let the right people know your intentions you could be in car audio and eventually installing.

Nope, I heard from an insider who was at the meeting where the decision was announced. It was supposed to be kept quiet, but Rockford leaked the story to look as though they dropped BBY.

Yeah, when I worked there it was hard to sell the bottom barrel garbage, even after adding up the cost of a decent stereo there was always sticker shock, it was always hard to sell them on financing too and even when they would go for it not a lot of them would qualify and if they did it was only for like $500 so what you could get them set up with would be very limited.

I loved it, I did what I enjoy and made some money doing it. It's hard to work so hard on other peoples stuff, doing custom fabrication and such, then have them come back a few days later saying "I turned up the gain knob cause it made my bass louder, played half a song, and the bass went away." That reminds me of a story, when I worked at Best Buy, I got into an argument with some kid because he was looking at some mono amp and kept asking me how many watts it made in 2 ohm stereo, he ended up going to the manager to complain that I didn't know anything about car audio, manager tried to explain it to him, in the end he was pissed, said we were stupid and we lost the sale. Ignorance is a big part of any work, but when it's something you enjoy and have a passion for it can get a little personal and demoralize you thoughts on what you do. That's pretty well dramatized but you get the idea.