[kattan_tha_man]

Sounds like almost the same story as...........

Eclipse
Alpine
Clarion
Infinity
Phoenix Gold
Cadence
Memphis
Xtant
Image Dynamics

I miss the stereo shop I used to manage. We had almost all those brands in their heyday plus DD, Crystal, Rainbow, Interfire (literally, they all caught on fire), etc... They all had a purpose and a price range/demographic that made them all viable products in the same ecosystem.

Then much like EVERYTHING ELSE I USE IN LIFE the NWO decided the WHOLE WORLD could have mediocre car audio with a massive profit margin instead if we just make it with slaves in China............ And if we whore it all out on the internet for $1 over dealer we won't even need car audio stores anymore....

"Why did RF buy it and bankrupt it overnight?"

Easy also. Same thing that happened with alot of home audio brands in '08 when things hit the skids. Buy your competition and eliminate them....



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I agree with you about infinity going downhill, but on the bright side JBL seems to be on an upswing. Pretty much the same stuff but with higher end options.

 

[kattan_tha_man]

It seems to me that while the good ole brands are no more, better sound has gotten A LOT cheaper overall.

 

[Old'sCool]

I agree with you about infinity going downhill, but on the bright side JBL seems to be on an upswing. Pretty much the same stuff but with higher end options.

Gotta disagree with Infinity (for the most part) going downhill. They still offer some great speakers for the money. Sure, their budget stuff is lower-grade, but it's also 2021 and (most) consumers won't buy $200 coaxes at Best Buy.

Infinity/JBL are essentially the same thing. You can almost always find an identical model across most/many of their lineups.

The JBL amps are Infinity amps in a new shell. Both borrow from Harman's home tech, too.

 

[Old'sCool]

It seems to me that while the good ole brands are no more, better sound has gotten A LOT cheaper overall.

This is very true. To go back to Infinity again...Compare a set of older Infinitys...say, a $289 pair of Kappa 5.25 coaxes from 1999 to the $99 pair today. $289 in 1999 money is like $418 or more. So, you're getting Chinese made stuff these days, which sounds 80% as good, for less than 30% of the 1999 price. It's a trade-off spawned by the need to meet consumer demand.

People used to wait WEEKS for mail order. These days, if they don't have a tracking # by the next night, they moan and whine and leave a bad review.

 

[kattan_tha_man]

This is very true. To go back to Infinity again...Compare a set of older Infinitys...say, a $289 pair of Kappa 5.25 coaxes from 1999 to the $99 pair today. $289 in 1999 money is like $418 or more. So, you're getting Chinese made stuff these days, which sounds 80% as good, for less than 30% of the 1999 price. It's a trade-off spawned by the need to meet consumer demand.

People used to wait WEEKS for mail order. These days, if they don't have a tracking # by the next night, they moan and whine and leave a bad review.

It's a tradoff we have to deal with. and I love how you put it. 80% quality for 30% cost. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'll take that.

 

[RNBRAD]

I still have my old reference 3 way MB-Quarts in my 89 Comp truck running off 1st gen Mcintosh amps. All the equipment in there is 27-31 years old except for the Audio Control DQXS which replaced a dead RF Symmetry. What a change in SQ just from switching out the Symmetry to Audio control!! Lol. The midrange and midbass drivers are incredible even to today standards. Only issue I have are the tweeters take some tuning smooth out the harshness. I have AF in another car and thought of changing out just the tweeters but then again I want to keep it as old school as I can. I still have some RKC-110's I've had sitting in a box forever as a just in case replacement when things went south for German manufacturing.

 

[jtkc7]

this has been a very good read. i came across it from a MBQ related web search. i turned 16 in 93 and had my first car as soon as i had my license. while i may not of been fully active in the car audio scene of the mid 90's i did usually have some sort of not oem stereo setup in every vehicle i owned and drove. i did maintain a subscription to Car audio mag among other magazines at the time (3&4 wheel atv, RC car magazines, lol and had a couple active memeberships to bmg and columbia house cd music stores, 20 cds for a $1 or something like that. and i had friends quite a few that did have the extra cash that alllowed them to have system setups like a buddys firebird running 3 jl 10 w6's off a og hifionics zues or thor amp with a ppi art series 404 and a ppi pc series (still usa made) multi ch xcross over, with mbq pro components and ppi comp series? or whatever their premium line of coaxial were, and a couple others who were running jlw1 10's 12's and 15's, one of them was running a mbq pro mids highs and a pair of jl 15's and borrrowed a friends pair of jl w1 10's also running a zues or thor hifionics amp and i think soundstream or ppi amp for the highs with a clarion cd deck in his 89 4dr integra hit 150db in that thing at a local i want to say brandsmart db comp

so between reading cover to cover every article and then taking from what friends would talk about, etc i kept up with things

my first intro to car audio systems and the lot started off with a pair of lanzar pro? 8's in a box that i got on trading
this list kinda goes in a somewhat timeline but i cant recall exact dates or precise timelines for this part of it,
the guy a silver painted with blue yellow stripss around the MTX logo 2 or 3 way xover i found at a discount retail surplus place, then had a pulliout la sound tape deck, psl a150 amp, then a pair of petra 10's, what i believe was the GRANITE series Soundstream multi ch xover (it had a designated center ch in or output as well as front rear mid high channel outs on it, a blue and aluminum colored Orion Cobalt series amp, Crunch procast 6.5 mid drivers, (crunch logo was pink and blue and yellow colors the magnets and baskets were bigger than cone and surrrounds on damn things lol, ive had a pair of super blue 12's urban audio or audio god multi ch system amp. learned the entry level at the time 94, standard so to say guide lines of how to build a proper sealed or ported enclosure. jammed to nemesis munchies, AMG, dj quick, etc

then some ******* broke into my car,, stole my amp rack and that prety much was when i paused on big system installs in my rides, but i maintained keeping up to date, we all pretty much acquired our gear from this one local private car audio shop who is pretty much the only shop that made it through all those early 2000 years and is still in businness, does a lot of toxi loc installs, has expanded to doing more tint jobs, has pretty much maintained the same installers he orignally had when he opened in mid 90's he was the only JL auth retailer for car audio in this area and still is, his other inventory would vary slightly over the years, he kept up with where the amplifier engineers migrated to of certain companies, ie the original XTANT audio amp designers, and Zapco, and zed and then etc and has always carried some nice quality audio brands over the years

i bought a component set of Diamond audio M3 series components that i got from the owner on a discount, as i knew to always go in and ask him what he might have back in the store room collecting dust lol. and originally bought a clarion cd player, then made the shift to Kenwood Excelon, which this was back in 03, and ive had an excelon h/u ever since,

my sorta point in commmenting on this thread is because with my current setup i kinda seem to fall into the middle ground of what yoiu might say might be a really decent potluck sorta configured audio system.
MY main theme being See how much SQ WOW you can find/ squeeze out of the gear, for the best lowest investment price if possible and stay within your monthly budget,

i have had this luck you might call it of coming across some decent albeit random deals on car audio as well as other various items,

so why i say that i have a mix up of old new and inbetween
my current setup
pair of jbl gto 629 6.5 coax scored these in a bundle buy from a guy selling his setup
that included a 5,25 jbl gto coax
alpine bluetooth doubble din with nav headunit
jbl entry level 8
and the main item that caused me to comment AN MBQ FORMULA FX1.400 AB CLASS MONO AMP 200X1 400X1 @2OHM RMS
that i bought for 300 bucks
2 pairs of infinity 6.5 6032 reference coax 50/pair off amazon back in 2013
Alpine Mrv-f357 multi ch multiconfig v12 series amp that wasnt in prestine physical condition but it operates flawlessly bought off fb marketplace for the bargain price of $35 bucks
also haave a polk MM1240 um series dvc 12in sub picked up for 75 $ deliverd to my door, NOS, and scored a 50ft roll of auth Hyper twist premieum ofc 0 awg stinger power wire for 190$ shipped to me, and stinger krome premium dist blocks and other hardware for the same steep discounted prices

now back on point, Having run the alpine mrv-f357 in full 5ch operation and then running it only with the 4ch for my 2 sets of coax, and then having that MBQ formula Fx1.400 ab mono amp (which i call it a sq amp due its on paper low THD at 12.5v and hearing it play, im no expert or snob nor do i know what year it was made it does have the MAXSONIC logo on the side or end cap panel but it runs smooth sounds great for a sub amp i never thought they made ab class mono sub amps, but having bought it in a bundle deal and it essentialy costing me 50 bucks, i cant say anything bad really about it.

that mrv-f357 makes my infinity 6032cf reference 6.5 coax's sing LOUD AF and the clarity is beautiful makes the jbl's do the same
rest of gear is in sig hu dpx793bh,
ive found some uncompressed or i guess hires hifi version of certain iconic songs one that is synomous that most anyone will know that has gone somewhere and had the sales man at the audio store demo you some speakers
Live performance of hotel california,

now im never one to overstate, or state something hastily or thats not been vetted via extensive repeated siimliar input
but when i have the system at full volume, and that song playing, (alan parsons project eye in the sky hiq version also has same results) and i get people that have made me stop in the paraking lot outside some restuarant or retail store and they appear to listfully trvel back to a time in place when they heard them livew and then thank me and compliment the stereo system all maybe 350 total rms watts of it (including the 200rms for the subwoofer ) and it sounds way better than the when i have the New Kenwood excelon XR 901-5 system amp hooked up for mids n highs (there are slight or minute differences i notice, in comparing the v12 apline to the kenwood, but the v12 sounds superb imo and i love my infinity's and aim to purchase a set of kappas because if reference series sound as amazing as they do i cant imagine just how to much better the kappas will sound..

anyways idk if this is confusing if it helps just hope it contributes, i didnt set out to buy a max sonic era mbq product, but and i might of jsut happened to get the right year mfg amp without knowing it but its not a bad buy at all, idk how in comaparison it would be to mid 90's mbq but im pleased with the money spent and sound made from it.

also there was ONE other audio company that always seemed to be MBQ competion in profesional builds in the magazines and at comps for SQ and that was OZ AUDIO when they had the superman shaped icon with pearl reflective font color id always see either that series OZ audio mids n tweets or MBQ pro in the builds

 

[INFRNL]

Supposedly the original MB quart are still around, just under a different name. Still made in the exact same factory in Germany.

I can't currently remember the name, I'd have to look

German Maestro... someone might have already mentioned this

 

[Patriot83]

Supposedly the original MB quart are still around, just under a different name. Still made in the exact same factory in Germany.

I can't currently remember the name, I'd have to look

German Maestro I think but can't confirm if they are top quality like MB Quart was back in the day. I had some of MB Quart's best speakers. They were some of if not the best back in the day.

 

[INFRNL]

German Maestro I think but can't confirm if they are top quality like MB Quart was back in the day. I had some of MB Quart's best speakers. They were some of if not the best back in the day.

Supposedly they are of the same quality but i haven't heard them either.

MB quart and A/D/S were my favorites back then. I couldn't afford mb quart and our shop didn't carry them, so i got my A/D/S for excellent prices. My favorite speakers to this day. Sadly I don't have them anymore

 

[Patriot83]

Supposedly they are of the same quality but i haven't heard them either.

MB quart and A/D/S were my favorites back then. I couldn't afford mb quart and our shop didn't carry them, so i got my A/D/S for excellent prices. My favorite speakers to this day. Sadly I don't have them anymore

We're going WAY back but ADS was the the orig best. That was a long time ago. Car speakers have changed since then.

 

[INFRNL]

We're going WAY back but ADS was the the orig best. That was a long time ago. Car speakers have changed since then.

yeah, I've noticed and I'm not as happy as I once was, LOL

I graduated in 91 I believe, 17 going on 18 iirc and started getting into car audio when I was 16, will be 49 this year. But I don't think I bought My AL6's until I was around 20.
I used to only go to one shop for all my gear, shortly after I spent a ton of money on car audio and home audio; I ended up getting a job there doing custom home installation but had access to killer discounts. I will not pay retail for anything ever again unless I'm desperate. Everyone is just greedy anymore and not willing to help others.

Another benefit to working at a shop is access to a variety of equipment.

 

[xBlitzkriegx]

German Maestro I think but can't confirm if they are top quality like MB Quart was back in the day. I had some of MB Quart's best speakers. They were some of if not the best back in the day.

GM literally IS old MB Quart. this is explained in the first post. now, five years later, this may not be the case any longer but it was correct at the time of the initial post.

additionally, im pretty sure maxxsonics worked out something with GM right around the 08-10 timeframe because for a while, they both used the identical tweeter designs. they shared the .75" tweeters most of us remember but also a 40mm titanium tweeter before GM moved on to their own titanium, reverse dome, ceramic coated tweeters. interestingly enough. you can buy GM speakers that still use the EXACT SAME .75" tweeters from back in the day.

Fake MB Quart has since moved on to silk dome for a bit but iirc they currently use shrill aluminum domes on the cheapest lines, then titanium, then finally magnesium domes for their top of the line.

 

[sushieats]

Oh wow. I thought he looked familiar. He's featured in 5Star Audio's AudioControl tour.

 

[troy1160]

Good thing I still have 2 pairs of ADS 320i and 2 pairs of 300i speakers and an old Soundstream and ADS amp.

 

[chuyler1]

Greetings, long time no see. Like others, I’ve been out of the loop for a while and it was good to catch up with current (aka decade old) events and brand consolidations.

I was pretty active here through the mid to late 00’s (I guess the kids call this time period the Oughts?). Then I got into working on home speakers and old cars and the local scene seemed to dissipate. When I pulled my dream system from 2007 out of the car in 2014 to trade it in, it just never ended up in the new vehicle, except for that JBL MS8 which basically made a factory system sound better than I could ever tune anyway. Now between my wife and I we have 5 vehicles and I realize if I’m keeping some of the classic rides they really need better sound for cruising.

At a yard sale last year I happened across a complete set of Q series 6.5” components, the seller had no idea what he had which confused me at first, but I played along and took home a set of tweeters, woofers, and crossovers along with a Nakamichi 60x2 amp for about $30. Turns out one of the tweeters was blown but I have sourced a replacement that should arrive soon. i listened to a lot of different equipment through the first part of this century but never sat in a car nice enough to have these components. I am already impressed with what they can do in a cardboard box.

it saddens me to see the brand has gone the way of so many others. I knew this before even reading the thread after finding newish MB Quart gear for sale on FB Marketplace and Craigslist at flea market prices with comments like “bought this subwoofer to replace my Sony but I don’t like it and just resinstalled my old sub”.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to some future installs in our toys, perhaps I’ll document them like the good old days. I suspect I may just end up sourcing old trusted gear though, because I am finding it difficult to navigate the brands to know what is on par with what I used to consider high end but not snake oil.

 

[OldOneEye]

What a stroll down memory lane. Seems like a little bit of context was missing.

Rockford Fosgate felt like they had to be a one stop shop. Despite the fact that they had some engineering horsepower of their own making component speakers, the perception was they couldn’t make SQ speakers. And generally speaking, speakers have had more margin that amplifiers do.

So they bought MB Quart. Bought lightning audio too. At that time it was pretty narrow offering with minimal overlap between the three brands. Lightning Audio made accessories. MB Quart made speakers and components and Rockford made amps, woofers, speakers and accessories.

By about the time they dumped MB Quart, MB Quart had subs, amps and speakers. Lightning had subs, amps, accessories and speakers (offered in good, better, best) and Rockford had subs, speakers, amps, signal processors and accessories (most with a good, better, best offering). So a TON of overlap here of product that competed against each other in quality and in price.

Also, I believe the MB Quart side was very hesitant of making any changes to the product or to how is was being made. It was expensive to make and lots of it was made by hand. Also the product didn’t seem to have really changed with the times (keep in mind Rockford was making amps and subs in the US so it wasn’t like they wanted Chinese type of costs and production output, just more efficiency (possibly through updated product but also probably through automation).

But that didn’t happen. German labor laws didn’t exactly make it easy. The worker is well protected so if you wanted to let go of someone with a few years under their belt in seniority it would cost you lots in severance, unemployment and retraining costs. Think the United Auto Workers union but at a much larger scale (so across most the workforce I guess).

So now Rockford had designed high end speakers in their Rockford Fosgate and Lightning Audio brands and felt like they might not need MB Quart as much.

So next comes Maxxsonics. Best I can say is all the same economic, dated product and cost of production factors were still there that Rockford encountered. Maybe the plan all along was to buy the IP and turn the lights off on production in one of the most expensive countries to hand make stuff, I don’t honestly know. Maybe they thought they had leverage and reached an impasse in negotiations. This part of the story is more murky. But pulling the plug is what happened.

A reminder that a lot of our favorite companies (3 out of the 4 that dominated IASCA in the late 80s - early 90s) all changed hands. PPI, Streetwire and MB Quart. JL Audio was the exception of that one (and for good reason, I think they stayed in their lane and when they went into new fields (amplifiers, home audio) they took their time and did it right. Several others (Orion, Soundstream) faced similar fates. Most of these killed themselves slowly. Of course many made great product but if you're barely breaking even on each one or even losing money of course the consumer is getting a deal. (Like buying a new Chrysler in 2009 when they had $8000 rebates and incentives to get their duds off the lot).

 

[Genesis]

Interesting post (was one of the recommended ones on bottom of page). I never liked quarts. Boston was always much better sounding to me, and focal was on another level entirely. Still interesting to learn about some of the back story.

 

[christoepurrr]

Very interesting. Growing up as a kid, I remember my uncles discussing how great MB Quart was and how they imported their components for install on their cars. Now as an adult, I always wondered why I never heard about MB Quarts too often when browsing forums. I see why now lol

 

[BobTheBirdTurd]

Very interesting. Growing up as a kid, I remember my uncles discussing how great MB Quart was and how they imported their components for install on their cars. Now as an adult, I always wondered why I never heard about MB Quarts too often when browsing forums. I see why now lol

Thanks, now I feel old.