I was able to meet up with another dude who posts on CAF to listen to his system and see his Alpine 9835 in action. That meeting was really helpful and gave me the chance to listen to an Alpine in a car, not just in some room. But he and I bega talking about JL XR650-CSi's, which I recently bought a set of for my car. I read and heard great things about this comp set, but he told me he "heard" that this comp set is nothing more than Vifa products. Does anyone know if this is true, or just a rumor? He was not stating this as fact BTW, just something he heard through the rumor mill. I wanted to follow up with you guys and see what yout takes were on the issue. In either case, I am still going to install these suckers in my car and amp them with a PG ZX400ti and go from there.
In a word - no. The JL XR's are a product of the famous german engineer / OEM supply and design firm of Dr. Kurt Mueller. Dr. Mueller has done design and supply work for MB Quart for a long time, and more recently for DEI and JL Audio. JL has again chosen to use Dr. Mueller's design for their new, more elite ZR set... and doesn't hesitate to say so right on their own website. Dr. Kurt Mueller is well-regarded enough that it is a sign of prestige.
Good stuff - thanks! See, I researched quite a bit on what comps I should get for my budget and the JL XRs were the most well received and even got better feedback than some comp sets priced $100 or more above the XRs. They sounded wonderful in the shop, so that sealed the deal for me. So to hear that I might simply be purchasing re-badged Vifa products (not to diss Vifa or anything) was kind of odd to me.
In the case of the XR's, no. Manufacturers do often use other buildhouses to ensure quality. They do that because they have a design that is a winner, but possibly don't have the resources or internal expertise to build a product internally. If it is the company's desire to manufacture a product of superior quality - then they may outsource the manufacture of that product to a company that specializes in it. That's done to ensure quality. They might use a company like Vifa, or Eminence, or any of a billion that are out there to perform custom machining, winding, or assembling... But that doesn't make it a "rebadged" ______ product. It's fun to try to DIY things for yourself, at home... But as a company, it pays to employ experts to ensure both speed and quality.
