Well I've had a lot of different brands of audio equipment in my day. I make it sound like I'm old, I'm only 20 but I've been in and out of a lot of cars when it comes to audio. My suggestions: When it comes to amps, it all depends on the money you wanna spend, is this for a possible competition car? Or just a neighborhood bass boomer? The best amps are Mcintosh,Zapco,Dynaudio, and Autotek, according to all the magazines and pretty much everyone I talk to, but they are the pricey ones too. Cheaper ones are your normal brands, like RF, Pioneer, MTX, JBL, there are a bunch. First I would pick you subs. How many? and what size? I've gone from one 10'' to 2, then from one 12" to 2. I personally like 2 12"s the best. As for front and rear, go with Cerwin Vega, Kappa's or Pioneer. You'll probably get a lot more suggestions, so I would hold of and shop around a little bit. These are just my opinions. Right now I'm running 2 12" vegas, Cerwin Vega 6x9's, Cerwin Vega 5 1/4 in kickpanels, and some computer 3.5 in the front (they were the best when it can to treble that I could find laying around). The 2 12" are being pushed by an Autotek Mean Machine trick amp, it's rated at 100w but its really 800, so 400w per sub. I could of went bigger but then your talking more money. And on there way is the Pioneer DEH-P77DH, and an Autotek Super Sport 400w amp to give 100w to the 6x9's and 5 1/4. So, I would definately shop and compare, when I began buying speakers and amps, I went for the most watts and learned big time from my mistakes. Watts don't mean crap. I went from a piece of crap 1000w Legacy amp that was actually 1/3 watts of what it said to the Autotek after a lot of questions and research. I went from 10"500w Blaupunkts which are ok but not great to the Vegas, by doing the same thing. There was a lot of other amps and subs in between but I eventually learned. Don't do what I do, that is buy the same thing 2 times, 3 times, just to get it right, shop around and take a fellow TurboBuick.com members advise cause I'm sure he'll be chimming in, and he's helped me as well (That would be AudioWizard, of course). As for subs, I'd go with Vega, JL, Kicker,Pioneer, there are so many of these as well. Best bet would be to go to a local audio store and listen to them. I wanted the biggest bass so Vega's were my choice, you may want something different. So to finally answer your question, well there is no real answer, it will have to be up to you. I couldn't tell you what to buy cause it has to be up to your taste, but I can tell you to stay away from Jensen,Pyle,Audiovox,JBL(SUBS). I haven't had any good times with any of those brands. Last thing, I like to stick to one brand, I would of liked to of had all of the same brand in my car but each brand had limited equipment, cerwin vegas amps are too much money and not big enough for what I wanted, and I liked Cerwin Vegas speakers better then Autotek, but I kept all the speakers the same brand, and the Amps as well. It doesn't really matter, just something competition people do, I like it. My sister has 2 12" JL's, and Xtant 1000w amp, pioneer front and rear speakers,a kenwood H/U, all put in by her boyfriend, and it sounds great. So you can mismatch. All depends on how much money you want to spend, and what type of system it is your looking for. My hand hurts.
. As far as your friend at the audio shop with "No comment" about your equipment that you purchased, dont let that deter you from enjoying your equipment. My philosophy is " As long as it sounds good to you and you like it, thats all that matters" because it doesnt matter what "I" like or "he" likes because it is yours and you are paying for it and it is a matter of preference.
