Best amp for entire system.

[Palmer812]

Originally Posted by Alien Mantis

Is the price difference ever $15 more?

It has been my experience that a local shop can be TWICE as expensive.

Discounts over time? How much product am I going to have to buy, before I start getting a decent deal on stuff?

Local shops are there to make money.
They want to do big upgrades, and custom installs.
They are not in the business of moving large quantities of product, at competitive prices. Local shops can also haggle with you about a warranty issue, if you do not pay them to do the install. They can try to say it was not properly installed or configured, and that is why it failed.

REPUTABLE online retailers move large volumes, most of them do not do installs, so they automatically understand the customer will be doing the install, they never give you any crap about returns as long as you follow their return policy, shipping is usually the same or LESS than local sales tax, ( in many cases it's FREE ), local shops typically only stock a very limited product line, online retailers stock a HUGE variety, local shops screw you on the price of wire and cables, ( they seem to have a huge markup on that stuff, must be another trick they use to talk people into letting them do installs ), local shops demo stuff in their showroom to push people into the higher-end stuff where they have larger profit margins, etc... etc... etc.

I am not a fan of local car audio shops. I played the game, and I see how it works.
Since I do installs myself, I do not need their services.
I need quality audio gear at a price I can afford, with a guarantee.

I GET THAT FROM SONICELECTRONIX.COM

I understand your feelings if you have had bad experiences before but you are going to the wrong shops. I gladly match prices from Sonic and Online Car Stereo and give out free advice on a daily basis to customers who are doing their own installs. And as far as warranty goes why the hell would I try to hassle you or deny you warranty? It doesn't cost me anything to warranty a product. Last week I had a customer poke a hole in his new speaker with a drill while installing it. I gave him a new speaker on the spot under warranty. I can't tell you how many times I have gone out to a customer's car that they have installed something and are having problems where I showed them what they did wrong and sent them on their way at no charge. I also have customers that have been buying from me for over 15 years. When I changed companies and moved 20 miles away they still came to me. I know some shops try to get rich off of people but they are idiots and will go out of business if they think they can keep it up. Things are not the way they were 15 years ago when I started in the industry. You have to adapt. I offer great prices and great service and free advice and I survive just fine from repeat customers and referrals. I would rather make $10 or $20 profit on an item than have you buy online and make $0.