Hi,I did the following:
Question: When are smaller less known brands better in car audio?
The pictures have nothing to do with the content!!

Which small lesser known car audio brands are reliable, and which are garbage?

The answer in the following:

Answer by chance1405
never

Answer by john
If you think about it, a lot of brands out there had to start somewhere… and most did start as a small and very unknown brand. A very good example is JL Audio… when they first appeared, nobody ever heard of them and they had to start from the ground up. Today, they are one of the pioneers of car audio technology and considered one of the high end brands. And as we speak, there are even more brands popping up that are probably 100 times better than a lot of the mainstream brands out at BestBuy. Only problem is that since they’re small and new to the market, you don’t see them at BestBuy and the only ones who do know about them are the hardcore audiophiles. RE Audio is another excellent brand of subs that just entered the car audio market about 5 years ago. They are now being used in competitions more and more every day.

Best thing to do is get to know your neighborhood car audio installation shops (preferably the ones that compete regularly and knows what they’re doing) and make friends. They basically know all the underground brands that are up and coming.

ps. There are tons of well known brands that are horrible… don’t be fooled by marketing.

Answer by JMann
You’ve kind of got the right idea. Some of the lesser known brands can be better than the ones that are sold in the big box stores and even in local audio shops. But, it is very hard to differentiate the quality from the crap.

Here are some of the Smaller, lesser knowns, that are actually really good.

Cadence
RD Audio (Great prices too.)
Sundown Audio
Sound Solutions Audio
Fi Audio

There are definitely more good brands. Those are just some of my favorites.

What do you think? Answer below!