Having just recently gotten serious about car audio, I performed my
usual routine of learning a new subject through intensive research and
data collection. What I found really surprised me, being an amazingly
flooded market with over a hundred brands for each component. How can
this many companies succeed in the current economy?

It also makes choosing products a serious headache for the informed
purchaser, I've already spend far too many hours comparing them and am
still torn between over a dozen options.

To illustrate this insanity, I've included the list of 105 amplifier
brands I compiled with only a moderately thorough search. Some are
obviously crap quality, but they still sell enough to be in business.
What do you guys think of this situation? If you were to boil them all
down to your favorite 20 companies, which would you choose?

Aaron


Absolute
Adcom
a/d/s
Alpine
American Bass
American Pro
Ample Audio
ARC Audio
Audiobahn
Audiobank
Audiopipe
Audison
Audiotec Fischer (Brax & Helix)
Audiovox (Prestige, Rampage, SPS)
Autotek
Avionixx
Bazooka
Becker
Blaupunkt
BM Audio Labs (Boschmann)
Boss
Boston Acoustics
Butler Audio
Cadence
Cerwin Vega
Clarion
Concept
Coustic
Crossfire
Crunch
Crystal Mobile Sound
Cyclone
Debezt Audio (Discontinued?)
DHD Power Cruiser
Diamond Audio
Diesel
Digital Audio
Directed Audio (DEI)
DLS
Dual
Earthquake Sound
Eclipse
Emerson
Esoteric Audio
Fusion
Genesis
GS Designs (Discontinued?)
Harrison Labs
Hart Professional
Hertz
HiFonics
Hollywood Sound Labs
Infinity
Interfire
JBL
JL Audio
JVC
Jensen
Kenwood
Kicker
Kole Audio
Kove Audio
L.A. Sound
Lanzar
Legacy Audio (Discontinued?)
Lightning Audio
Linear Power
Logic Soundlab
MA Audio
Massive Audio
McIntosh
Memphis Car Audio
Mobile Authority (Thump!)
MTX
Nakamichi
Obcon
Orion
Performance Teknique
Phoenix Gold
Pioneer
Planet Audio
Power Acoustik
Poweramper
Precision Power (PPI)
Profile
Pyle
Pyramid
Reactor
Resonant Engineering
Rockford Fosgate
Rockwood
Sinfoni
Sony
Soundstream
SPL
Swiss Audio
Ultimate
US Acoustics
US Amps
Viper Audio
Visonik
Völfenhag
Xtant
Zapco
Zenas Audio