# Rockford Fosgate and Best Buy Parting Ways.



## MaXaZoR (Apr 1, 2007)

Rockford Corporation and Best Buy End 10-Year Relationship in Car Audio -- TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --



> The decision to part ways marks a strategic shift in direction for the Rockford Fosgate brand and allows us to focus even more directly on building our lead in the premium mobile audio category. Our strategy for 2010 and beyond is to focus on growing our brands in specialty channels and regional A/V retailers. We will continue to invest in technology, developing high-end OEM solutions and expanding our reach with new product categories."



Maybe, they realized that their brand name has shifted from a premium line to Korean junk purchased at Best Buy. Let's hope the old RF products are making a comeback.


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## IBcivic (Jan 6, 2009)

good move on rockford's part.imo


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## 6spdcoupe (Jan 12, 2006)

and more ...

Mobile Electronics Magazine


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

Damn I guess I had better order my rockford stuff on accomodation sooner than I had thought


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## 12vTools (Jan 15, 2009)

MaXaZoR said:


> Rockford Corporation and Best Buy End 10-Year Relationship in Car Audio -- TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Too bad they auctioned off all their tech and manufacturing equipment last year


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## killerb87 (Oct 24, 2008)

i still remember when i got my first punch 200..........those were the days when car audio was great and the most fun for me. i still have those amps.


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## jayhawker (Jun 24, 2008)

It will never be known what happened behind closed doors but this has to hurt RF a bit financially. I wouldn't be surprised if RF comes up with an inexpensive line, rebrands it, and has BestBuy resell it. 

I remember back then the guys at Audio Express were so butt hurt about that. They actually said that everything that BestBuy was selling (that was RF) were products from Mexico. I just remember the little name plate on the "punch" series amps that were purchased from BestBuy had the gold lettering and if it were from anyone else, the lettering was in silver.


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## NEXT (Nov 3, 2007)

Can't be good..........


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## sundownz (Apr 13, 2007)

It is possible that warranty losses from Best Buy sales weren't worth the hassle. Wouldn't surprise me.


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## JayBee (Oct 6, 2006)

^^^ Now that's an interesting point. You just know that the average consumer was banging away at the gear.


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## synth808 (Feb 20, 2009)

crazy news, wonder who is next?


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## Angrywhopper (Jan 20, 2010)

Good news for specialty shops selling RF.


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## ritous1 (Apr 26, 2007)

Out with Rockford, In with Kicker....can't wait to see how this plays out.


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## roxj01 (Nov 22, 2009)

ritous1 said:


> Out with Rockford, In with Kicker....can't wait to see how this plays out.


makes sense.... kicker allready had the big box store avenue with circuit city before they went under. better product and customer service over rf in my opinion.


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## Nophix (May 25, 2010)

Man, I remember when Rockford was all I would run. A year or so before they showed up in BB, they just seemed to go to crap.


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## grantwb1 (Apr 4, 2010)

It seems to me that the car audio industry has a lot of this going on. I think getting back into this I was most shocked to see pheonix gold and sound stream go cheap... now fosgate or already. Then again jl was had only been around for a little while when I got out of this last.


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## Nophix (May 25, 2010)

Yeah, I hear ya. When I got out of it the first time, the Rockford Symmetry was considered serious technology, Phoneix Gold and Soundstream were THE brands along with RF and Image Dynamics, and in-car video was making it's mainstream debut. Then again, at that time, DVD was considered a NEW technology even at home... lol


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## Qicker306 (Oct 2, 2009)

Visions Electronics in Western Canada dropped RF a year or two ago and brought in JL as a replacement. Kicker has been Visions' exclusive in Canada for awhile. It's a bummer BB got their hands on it. They're only going to be carrying limited stock though. So we should still be the main source for all Kicker product... I haven't seen RF anywhere in awhile.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

I still think RF should bring back the pressed paper cones from the old. Weren't the best sounding subs in the world in any way but boy did they pound.


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## snaimpally (Mar 5, 2008)

I noticed that Newegg is now carryng Rockford.


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## Booger (Apr 27, 2007)

and every pawn shop.


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## stewartwms21 (May 20, 2009)

The best buy car audio by me suX! Its like a ghost town with holds in the diplay wall and empty shelves.


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## bjayjr5679 (Nov 8, 2007)

Now bestbuy carries Polk audio


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## ptannjr (Jun 18, 2008)

We have picked up Rockford in December 09 right before the announcement to part with BB came around.

Here is my take on the rockford stuff so far.

Prime
Cheap stuff but good if you are not pushing it too hard and need a good factory replacement option. You can get off brand stuff for similar money or less buy why? subs do go boom and will do ok bass when some one does not need a heavy street beater. The full range sound ok and work for oem replacments or mild upgrades. But not in all cars. Some factory sounds much better. The amps do as they claim. we use them when some one is on tight budget but still wants a name brand.

The punch
subs, P1 are a small step up from the prime and do a good job for what they are. They work great in the Rockford boxes. 
subs p2 better sound and handle more power but dont do many.
Subs p3 good sounding sub for the money and handles tons more power. Con it it is such a deep subwoofer. Not real truck friendly.
p3 Shallow, we have done enough to form a solid impression.
Coaxials sound a bit better than the prime and can be pushed harder.
Amps, I enjoy doing these and only 2 complaints i find is, 12 db crossovers rather than an 18 or 24 and the punch eq. I am not a fan of the pass boost type eqs. that is just me but others may differ. 

Power seems to real solid amplifiers. More power than punch and has 24 db crossovers. I like these amps and am putting them in my monte carlo.
Subs have not done the new redesigned ones yet but will be soon.
Speakers have done well so far. I like em. So the all the customers we have done them for so far.

Reliability has been good on all the products so far. We do set amps with an o-scope so that helps. The prime 500 seems to get too hot too fast when ran at 1 ohm but still has good power at 2 ohm so we run em there. The prime subs, we have had to replace a few to people that were undersold and pushed too hard.


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## FAUEE (Jul 22, 2010)

Rockford kicked Best Buy out because BBY is trending away from car audio. Trust me when I say if there's still car audio install bays there in 3-5 years I'll be surprised. The market for big box car audio is dying, and is trending towards integration with the occasional upgrade to sound.

The reasons for this are numerous, firstly society has just changed a lot. Back in the day, modding cars was must more commonplace. And every modded car ran some sort of aftermarket stereo system. The sudden explosion of the tuner scene played a large part in this at the end, and the constant featuring of car audio in mainstream media at the time helped a lot too. Secondly, the OEMs have learned to profit form this as opposed to letting the aftermarket pick up that money. You can get some pretty decent stereo systems from the factory nowdays with subs and everything. Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, Infinity, etc. all license out names/products/designs for cars with many of their high dollar systems putting the average enthusiast's car to shame. Add to that the level of factory stereos has just gotten better, almost every car on the market has at least an optional subwoofer, as opposed to when it used to be a rarity. And don't forget that manufacturers are shipping their cars with everything imaginable now, built in BT, nav, HDs, ipod control aux ports... anything you could really want is available from the factory, and in some cases things like SYNC blow the aftermarket stuff out of the water. Lastly, it's just getting more expensive and less pretty to replace your OEM stereo. The rise of LAN data networks in cars means the rise of expensive data integration modules, and factory radios are no longer just a normal size, they're coming with all sorts of stupid integrated faceplates, integrated HVAC controls/displays, etc.

I was originally upset at losing RF, they had gone from making some crap to making some really good products. Turns out that Kicker has been improving a lot too. Kicker has a lot of brand recognition with people who aren't into the whole "anything mass market is crap" and "any large company that sells/installs car audio is crap" ideaology. As far as product goes, Kicker offers a broader product through BBY than RF would because RF wanted to "protect" its Power line, Kicker basically offered BBY whatever and they picked to carry most of the more popular stuff with the option to add more things. Kicker's customer service and dealer support blows Rockford's out of the water. Kicker's product has some nice features over the RF stuff too. It's been a good transition overall I'd say. 

The Polk stuff BBY's been given is a mixed bag. The amps are flat out crap. They're super dirty and have absurd distortion in them. The speakers aren't too bad sounding, but not that great. Their subs are pretty decent. Disappointed there's none of their "good" stuff, or even the ability to special order it.


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

FAUEE said:


> Rockford kicked Best Buy out because BBY is trending away from car audio. Trust me when I say if there's still car audio install bays there in 3-5 years I'll be surprised. The market for big box car audio is dying, and is trending towards integration with the occasional upgrade to sound.
> 
> The reasons for this are numerous, firstly society has just changed a lot. Back in the day, modding cars was must more commonplace. And every modded car ran some sort of aftermarket stereo system. The sudden explosion of the tuner scene played a large part in this at the end, and the constant featuring of car audio in mainstream media at the time helped a lot too. Secondly, the OEMs have learned to profit form this as opposed to letting the aftermarket pick up that money. You can get some pretty decent stereo systems from the factory nowdays with subs and everything. Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, Infinity, etc. all license out names/products/designs for cars with many of their high dollar systems putting the average enthusiast's car to shame. Add to that the level of factory stereos has just gotten better, almost every car on the market has at least an optional subwoofer, as opposed to when it used to be a rarity. And don't forget that manufacturers are shipping their cars with everything imaginable now, built in BT, nav, HDs, ipod control aux ports... anything you could really want is available from the factory, and in some cases things like SYNC blow the aftermarket stuff out of the water. Lastly, it's just getting more expensive and less pretty to replace your OEM stereo. The rise of LAN data networks in cars means the rise of expensive data integration modules, and factory radios are no longer just a normal size, they're coming with all sorts of stupid integrated faceplates, integrated HVAC controls/displays, etc.
> 
> ...


I am going to have to disagree with you as far as the new polk amps were carrying as being "crap" I temporarily installed them in my car with my old setups "quart qsd 216's,ed e3.6's" for midrange/midbass/highs and they actually sounded VERY nice and mellow compared to alot of the stuff I have heard...Point is get an amp with enough headroom and you can tune the amp properly and they sounded great

I thought the 4,2 and mono amps sounded greta and had a very nice warm mellow sound to them personally, This is coming from a guy who has had just about every manufacture/brand of amp in his car at one point or another...


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## FAUEE (Jul 22, 2010)

tinctorus said:


> I am going to have to disagree with you as far as the new polk amps were carrying as being "crap" I temporarily installed them in my car with my old setups "quart qsd 216's,ed e3.6's" for midrange/midbass/highs and they actually sounded VERY nice and mellow compared to alot of the stuff I have heard...Point is get an amp with enough headroom and you can tune the amp properly and they sounded great
> 
> I thought the 4,2 and mono amps sounded greta and had a very nice warm mellow sound to them personally, This is coming from a guy who has had just about every manufacture/brand of amp in his car at one point or another...


I disagree. Their background noise is unbearably high. The specs don't lie, they all have signal to noise ratios of around 75dB. 

Headroom is great and all, but when your powering equipment is just dirty to begin with...


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