And now that I have 2 minutes, let me ramble on a bit about why I have Audiobahn products.... haemphyst.
About 4 years ago I had paid off my first car (I had it for about a year and a half when i finished paying off the beater). Immediately I started saving up for the audio components I wanted to put in. I was still in highschool, so money was tough to save up, with all sorts of odds and ends to pay for, while only working a few hours a week at minimum wage...
So I saved up what I could, working long hours and busting my "butt" just so I could buy what was (and still is) considered THE BEST OF THE BEST for my car.
When the day came, I ordered an Eclipse Head unit, with 4 Boston Acoustics speakers, and a JL Audio 4 channel amplifier. The Subwoofers were a little to much for me to buy at the time, so I had to wait to save up.
No more than a month after having them professionally installed at a reputable car shop here in Boston, the Eclipse head unit suddenly stopped sending out a signal to the amplifier. After digging up the receipts, I went to the shop where I got new eclipse head unit under warranty. Unfortunately, another 7 weeks later, it died again. I then just told them to give me a new one, and sold it on Ebay....used the money I made and bought an Alpine head unit, which hasn't failed me to date.... So I am currently biased against Eclipse at this point.
The JL failed me soon after. 2 channels went progressively mute, until one day they ceased to work. THis was about a year after purchase.
I then scrapped the amplifier, and did research on other brands. I had many personal references to brands Like Audiobahn for Amplifiers, Infinity to speakers, and, of course, Alpine for the head unit. Seeing as I already had the alpine head unit, i went out and bought a 4 channel audiobahn amplifier, and kept my boston acoustics...
THe audiobahn has been running without a problem for almost 3 years now. So when it came to buying a Subwoofer setup last year, I went the route that has been working for me. I bought an Audiobahn 18001D amplifier on clearance, and two audiobahn woofers. That amp was a model several years old, and had problems, but with one call to audiobahn, they walked me through some troubleshooting tips, and determined the amp was at fault. They mailed me a form to fill out, with an Return authorization number, and i sent it to them with a nine dollar check to cover return handling. In a little over a month (this is during christmas holiday mind you) I got back a brand new audiobahn 18001DT amplifier ( I got it back last week, which is why I'm trying to figure out what this CLIPPING LED thing is trying to tell me....the older model never had one).
So teh moral of my story is, sometimes JL Audio and Eclipse break too. Unfortunately, in my case, both have broken from my presence. I replaced them with Audiobahn because of the price, because of personal references, because of the availability (JL and Eclipse can only be bought at specialized shops, as you know), and most of all, BECAUSE OF THE APPLICATION!! The audiobahn amplifiers had the specifications I needed for my system. So far, the company has done an excellent job standing by their product. Call anytime during their business hours, and you get a REAL LIVE person answering the phones, not some, "DIAL 1 FOR..." crap. They didn't hassle me about my broken amplifier, and sent me a new one under warranty.
And after busting my butt trying to buy JL audio and Eclipse, I ecpected at least for them to last. I paid a good amount of money for them, sacrificing my time, and in the end they failed me. After spending that much money I expected more, but didn't get what I thought I did. Obviously I'm quite biased here, given my situation, and many people have never had a problem with their JL or Eclipse. I give myself the right to persuade people away from buying JL and Eclipse because of my experience, but when people who have never used a product such as Audiobahn, and talk about it like it truly is crap (and I understand most of you who do downtalk it are just heckling the owners, as I heckle those with SONY products) I get a bit irritated. Afterall, my "CRAP" has outlived and outperformed that overpriced stuff out there...
~wayland