I've had a suspicion that Pyramid had something to do with volfenhag and it looks like I might be right.

Pyramid:



Volfenhag:


Here's some others I found:





When I get time I'm going to do a little more digging. My guess is that Pyramid owns all of these companies.

 

Quote:

My guess is that Pyramid owns all of these companies.

That's a scary thought.

 

^^^yeah it is^^^

 

if you dont buy CRAP you dont have to worry about it.


adam

 

Keep Digging

Let's Find out....

 

Worse than I thought.

It appears so far that a company called American Hifi makes/owns Volfenhag. Apparently this is the same company to bring us such esteemed names sononomous with audio excellance as Rockwood, Performance Tekniques, American Pro, and everybody's favorite, Kenford.

I'm having trouble tracking down some of this stuff because it's such low-end crap that there isn't even a website for most of it.

I'll keep everybody posted. This is my new mission.

 

haha, good look out. just wanna bring something else up. even though subs may look pretty close, they dont necessarily come from the same company. only a handful of companies make actual sub parts, so most cheap ones are just thrown together from "off the shelf" parts. Jim, i've seen quite a bit of these "what companies own whom" post on www.carsound.com and i can swear i've seen you over there. do a search over there, you should be able to find quite a bit. good luck

 

Yeah I noticed that te Volfenhag's LOOKED indentical to Pyramids sub a yr or two ago when Volf started coming out...

But then again, just because a company uses OEM baskets/magnets doesn't mean a thing, Adire uses OEM stuff on their Brahma's....

 

yeah, thats why the brahma was such a feat compared to the W7. adire was able to keep costs relatively low because they used many already made parts, as opposed to the W7 that had most of the stuff custom built. not putting down the W7, adire just made a top notch sub accessible to a bigger crowd by using less expensive parts

 

yeah, the Brahma is really quite impressive.

But these other subs are a different story. These subs are made of notorously cheap materials and are designed purely around appearance. I really shouldn't be sticking my nose in this because I'm going to **** off a lot of people here, but I never let that stop me before. Lately I've seen a bunch of people raving over these subs, so it piqued my curiosity.

When I was 17 I had 4 $30 Urban Audio subs. And I'll admit that with the right box, they actually sounded really good... at first. I never saw a sub before or since that actually degraded in sound quality within a couple months. Once the suspension loosened up, the subs were horrible. Within 2 months I lost 2dB of maximum output.

 

It looks like I was right. Rockwood, American HiFi, American Pro, Performance Teknique, Koiiler and Volfenhag all have the same warranty contact:

American HiFI
4480 Pacific Blvd.
Vernon, CA 90058
(323) 588-2999


Smoking gun.

Just think... you could pop one of these puppies into your dash and maintain brand loyalty.

 

Quit complaing, I didn't expect them to be better than they cost, the are still way better than sony explodes. Not everybody has or wants to spend 1000$ for subs and an amp. Not everybody wants to enter competitions. They sound good and look good.

 

who's complaining?

If you're happy with it, then great. I started out the same way you did. I started out with the low quality stuff and thought people that bought that low powered expensive stuff was nuts. Soon enough I learned what the stuff was really made of, and what good sound really was.

There are a ton of bargains to be found, but they are most often found when somebody begins to trade quantity for quality.

 

Just because Volfenhag is owned by American Hifi, doesn't mean they are the same as pyrimid, Geo was owned by GM and you drive GM vehicles. Thats like saying our cars suck because the were made by the same parent company as geo

 

All of the American HiFi brands are very similar. They market the same stuff over different brand names with a somewhat different appearance. There is no diamond in the rough within these brands.

 

I dunno, the Volfenhags are pretty nice compared to the rest of them. More like a quarter in a pile of nickels though, I'd say. :lala:

 

what jim is saying (i think) is that there are other brands that are a few bucks more and sound a lot better. a good example of this is the adire audio shiva. can be bough for a little over $100, no pretty basket or cone, but spectacular bass. another is alpine type-r. along with other companies like element, blueprint, and a few others. many lower quality companies will try to compensate crappy sound with "bling bling" looks. and another point: everything sounds great if thats all you've heard. if you have nothing else to compare yours too, then it is the best....

 

im happy with my volfenhag's for the price

 

I wasn't even shooting as high as the Shiva. You can grab a pair of Kicker Comps for just a few bucks more than the Volfenhag. Most respected companies have an entry level brand that's around the same price. The difference is, they aren't flashy looking.

Although I knew it would happen, my intent here wasn't to **** off anybody. Because American Hifi has done a good job of keeping the Volfenhag brand a bit secluded from their other brands, people aren't as aware of what they are. By posting this, all I hope to do is get people to take a step back and think a little harder about their choices. Hopefully they can find a flea market or pawn shop that's got these hooked up so that they can be auditioned so that people will have the opportunity to compare them to other brands before buying.

 

Excellent job man, ive been following this post for a while. I agree with you completly just cause Volfs are made by American Hifi it dont mean they are crap. great analogy by the way too. anyways "if you have nothing to compare it to it sounds great to you" 100% correct. i had a MTX 12" sub for about 4 months and 2 jensen 10"s. the jensens sucked compared to the MTX and they were both blown out by infinity. as soon as i get the loot ill buy a pair of Volfs.

 

I think you totally missed my point of this post chief.

 

Heheheh.....

 

if i were you, i'd stick with the infinitys. yeah, missed the point.....

 

I think the point was to find out if the manufacturer of Pyramid made Volfs as well.. I dont plan on switching my subs permanantly i want to buy a Volfenhag amp, but this coming winter i dont want to keep my infinities in for fear of messing one up, so if Volfs are cheap and good ill buy a pair of them to use in the winter.

 

The point was, listen to stuff before you buy it. Big red cones and shiny metal baskets don't make a speaker. Listening to a bunch of different speakers is the only way to make sure you're really getting the best value. Make sure that the box and the rest of the system is appropriate for the sub you're listening to also. If you listen to a bunch of subs and the Volfenhags sound best to you... then great. Your ears just saved you a lot of money. Just don't be surprised if you hear a remarkable difference between those and more reputable brands.

I would also suggest that people audiotion their amplifiers in a similar manner.

 

Listen to stuff before you buy it.

Great advice! I listened to every woofer at an audio shop once, and out of all of them, a older model Pioneer (300 watt i think it said on it's cone, not their IMPP line) was the best sounding woofer in the place.

It also turned out to be the cheapest one they offered. I bought their demo model, because there wasn't any left. Still one of the best woofers I have ever owned. (I currently own a 10" Eclipse Titanium)

Infinity stuff, while expensive, I really don't like the way it sounds when I heard their woofers/speakers in a local shop.

Go to a store, listen to diffrent things, then go online to buy what you like. You don't have to break the bank to get a nice stereo setup.

 

The thing that sucks about listening to subs in a shop is that you can't hear them in an appropriately built, proper-volume box, and a lot of times you can't tweak the amps, etc., so it's still hard to tell.

Example: the SoundWaves here in Dayton has a kind of "wall of subs" that all have PORTED, similarly (incorrectly) sized boxes, and they put whatever subs in them when they arrive. So it's still hard to tell how good a sub is. Should still listen to them, but keep this in mind when you do....

 

The audio shop I went to here had about 40 woofers, and about 9 amps all wired up into a computer.

They could run one, two, all of the speakers with any amp, and any load they wanted through the computer. Really nice setup they had there. I'm sure there are other stores out there which have nice setups like this one here did.

Funny that you said that actually. I used to work at a cd store in Hawaii. We had a pair of rockford 8" in a bandpass box. They were NOT good in a bandpass box, they sounded horrible. The speakers weren't even supposed to be in a bandpass according to Rockford.

Still, people came in, demanded to hear them, then said how much they liked them. (I know I didn't)

Reminds me of going to a audio shop in California. Guy there played 3 JL 10" w0's in a some poorly made box, and it sounded horrible. I told him that, and he just stared at me.

Remember, these guys work for a commission 99/100. "everything" sounds "awesome" to them, to make a sale. Don't be a sheep and agree when it doesn't sound good to you. I have heard countless speakers/woofers which were in poor/incorrect boxes in audio shops. A GOOD shop won't have that problem.

 

A good shop will have an assortment of test boxes that they can throw in the back of your car at a moment's notice. You can change the volume of air by adding chunks of styrofoam and slide different sized ports in and out of the box to change tuning frequency. Find someone willing to really help, then they will help you find the best sub for your car.

The shop I worked at right after college would even run really long leads from the display board out to the installation bay so that you could hear the subs in your own car!

 

Even good shops have mismatched stuff sometimes. Such is life when you can sell prefabbed boxes faster and make more money doing it. When it's on the showroom floor, you can't get any more money for a custom built box than a prefab once they are both covered in carpet and look the same. 95% of the people can't hear the difference anyway. We used to get these big prefab bandpass boxes, throw subs in and cringe when we heard them. Talk about one-note-wonders. Some thug comes in with his rap disk, hears it boom, and buys it immediately. We sold those POS systems so fast we couldn't keep them in stock. Meanwhile the a/d/s and boston pro series subs in perfectly sized boxes sat there for MONTHS.

 

That's the problem with people who buy just from knowing a brand name.

Marketing is truly amazing sometimes.

People knew Rockford as high class stuff in Hawaii (back before their circuit city sellout, don't know how they are now). I'm positive that was why people liked this dual 8 bandpass setup. They would just stare with their eyes wide open, and say, "wow, Rockford Fosgate!" while this thing buzzed and distorted like mad.

It was all about the name, not the quality of the product/setup.

We keep making the same point here really. People just need to listen to as much as they can, judge what they like, and balance out cost/quality themselves.

I've used a cheap Kenwood '600 watt' 2 channel amp to drive a woofer and my 6x9's. Thing sounds awesome, and has never cut out once. I haven't heard anything Pyramid puts out, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be worth it's price.

 

i have owned pyramid equipment before, so i can vouch for their poor quality. pyramid was/is a bad brand. their amps overheat easily and are of poor quality. had to do some resoldering to the board because part of it blew under normal playing conditions. i no longer believe a small board is a sign of poor performance (been reading up on a few really good home audio amps that are very tiny in size), however i do believe that build quality is a big factor in how long an amp will last and some components can affect the life span. pyramid skimps on both of these. their specs are over rated and some are just flat out lies. when a company spends more money on making an amp look good then making it sturdy, one should think twice about purchasing it. this wasnt meant toward you Christos, just picking from your last post.
I also agree with name being a big factor to those who are less informed on products. however, i do not hold a name as the key factor in my purchase. (example) yes, alpine is a huge name, but from every review i found and every board i went to, the type-r's were dominating as a low cost, high performance sub. because it is hard to sometimes here products, i did as much searching and reviewing of subs in my price range and found this to be my best bet. and i have not been disappointed yet

 

I agree to listening to all the stuff before you buy it but there is **** for car stereo places around here. the most common store to buy carstereo stuff, and is usually where nearly everyone goes, is Best Buy unfortunatly. personally i buy most of my stuff on ebay or crutchfield. considering ive only listened to a few small range of subs i cant really say how well my little Refferences match up to everyone elses but within the 10 subs i have heard i prefer infinity. anyways none the less i gress this all depends on personal taste. Many people are loyal to a certain company, i know a guy that buys only sony stuff and he is completly oblivious to the fact that they are mediocre compared to what else is out.

 

where I live, we have one good audio shop. The thing that sucks though is, they have all their speakers in the right boxes and such, but its hard to tell what they would sound like because they are in a room, and its totally different then being in a car. I am interested in the Alpine Type R's as well, unfortunately I cant hear them before I buy them, I am just waiting and looking and reading to try and find whats right for me. I am on kind of a limited budget, but I know the difference between good and junk. Im not gonna go out and spend 150 on 2 8000watt pyramids, when I can spend 150 on a sub thats actually worth the money. Does anybody have any DB numbers of what they are hitting with the type r's? LOL thats the only thing I dont like about them, the name.

 

I hate to bring up an old post, but I've gotta say something.

My wife and I have a Jensen CD/MP3 player in her '93 MX6. We wanted to add a little something for bass so I hooked up an Alpine 25x4/70x2 amp I had laying around to a Roadmaster speaker box we got at Walmart for ~$45. It has two 8" woofers and 2 horn tweeters, red neons around the subs, and chrome bars across the subs. I turned on the 80 Hz LP on the amp and hooked it up.

It sounded a little better, but far from good. We didn't expect much from a name like that. The box alone, IMO was worth the $45.

A few days later we saw they had some "better" Roadmaster 8" subs on clearance for $7/ea. I told my wife for that little bit of money, IMO, it's worth a try.

They sounded better yet, but since they were dual 4 ohm VC I had them wired in series for 8 ohms. The amp was pushing less power, so they weren't getting the power they should have.

A member of the car club I'm in had bought the EXACT same speakers for $7 (not the box) and had them in an '85 Monte Carlo. His trunk is WAY TOO BIG, and you couldn't even hear them in his car. He gave them to me.

I pulled out the horn tweeters and put them in that same box with the other 2 we had. Again it sounded better, but my wife still wasn't thrilled.

So..... low and behold, that same guy that gave me the 8" subs managed to pick up a pair of 12" Kicker Comps for $30. He said I could "borrow" them for a while.

I went to the local K's Merchandise and picked up a pre-fabbed box for $50 and installed them tonight.

OH MY!!!!!

My wife's happy now. It hits MUCH harder!!!

I know that replacing four 8" subs for two 12" subs helped, but it had MUCH MORE to do with the quality of the subs.

So to sum it up...

BUY GOOD STUFF!!! *** the cheap crap. I should have known better.

Oh well..... there's another guy in the club that might buy the Roadmaster box from me for $30 to put in his '86 Merkur. Maybe it'll sound better since he has a hatchback???

Here's a pic of the old sub (left) compared to the "better" one I replaced it with. Doesn't that one on the right look VERY familiar?? :sillylol:

 

BTW, Here's a pic of the box.

Pretty huh?

Yea.. pretty R-I-CE!!!!! LOL!!!

 

yeah, since this is up again......u guys r definatley right
BUY GOOD BRANDS
i dont like the volfs at all.....so if ur lookin to buy em....dont
i think my next subs are gonna be 12 in jl audios...hows that sound?

 

That DHD brand...i have some friends who bought the sub and the amp (1000W). The sub sounded ok, till it blew. the amp was 1000W peak, 3-sumthin RMS, although I know it wasnt pushing that. It hit ok, but, sadly, my sony aluminum cone w/ the 760 watt sony amp sounded better....who'd a thunk that it was all made by the same people....I still want to hear some volfenhag stuff though...

 

While I agree with not wasting my money on the "cheap" brands I have to give some props to Pyramid. My best friend drives a 95 Grand Am and has had 12" Pyramid Super Blues for about 7 or 8 years and I have always ragged on him about it. I have two 12" Audiobahn AW1208Q's with about 3000W on them. This weekend we went to a competition together. I hit a respectable 140.6 (not great but not bad) and my friend hit 143.6 and then backed it up with 143.7 on the second pass with only one 12" Super blue in a ported box that he built to the specs for a Kicker VR Comp. Keep in mind that the Super Blues are 8 ohm single voice coil and only have about 4mm of throw to them. My friend loves to ask people how much they paid for their systems and then tell them he paid $46 for his Pyramid. You won't here me ripping on Pyramid subs.

 

Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard that in my life.

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and then backed it up with 143.7 on the second pass with only one 12" Super blue in a ported box that he built to the specs for a Kicker VR Comp. Keep in mind that the Super Blues are 8 ohm single voice coil and only have about 4mm of throw to them. My friend loves to ask people how much they paid for their systems and then tell them he paid $46 for his Pyramid. You won't here me ripping on Pyramid subs.

Yeah, but did it sound like my butt on a good day or my butt on a bad day?

 

SPL numbers are highly dependant on mic placement. Was the mic placed in accordance to IASCA rules? If not, the SPL number is hard to compare to anything else. I would venture to say that 143 (by IASCA standards) is pretty much impossible from a single 12" sub with only 4mm of excursion regardless of brand name. It simply can not move the amount of air necessary to achieve those levels.

 

jim.....seems like u know a lot bout subs......hows JL audios w0's?

 

I like JL subs. The W0s are nice subs for the money, although I'd look at an Adire, Elemental Designs or Resonant Engineering sub at around the same price. But... if you want something you can pick up locally, then JL is the way to go.

 

main reason i was thinkin jls is cuz they are 125w each and i have only a 250w mtx amp

 

I know this is from a while back, but I just have to say that I had a friend w/ a couple of volf's and a 1000 watt volf amp. They hit pretty hard, but werent the clearest sub I have hears. I woud not buy the amp at all(not that I would buy the subs) because if you had that thing cranking it would overheat pretty easy. He had to mount a fan on it to keep it from over heating and it was in the open air in the hatch.