I hear you about marketing. We all know Bose. Better sound through engineering really means adequate sound with a huge profit margin through engineering ways to reduce the bottom line so they can spend more on advertising. Boy that's a mouthful. In short, a cheap speaker and a computer chip is what they consider audiophile and they sell enough to saturate the market with their mediocre equipment.
It's been a while since I've run a JL Audio sub in my car so I'm probably not the best spokes person. However, bringing up foam surrounds is a pretty low blow. The W6v1 came out in 1993 and yes EVERYONE was still using foam back then, it was a hell of a lot better than paper. If you weren't running JL Audio subs in the early 90's you didn't have a chance at winning any competitions. I had a W0v1 in my basement with the surround still in tact up until last year. A friend fried it sending too much power (around 1998) and for some reason I held on to it until our recent move. The v1 subs stayed on the market a little too long without a refresh (almost a decade). I don't know the history of the subs you mentioned but I doubt they date back as far as 1993. Anyway, in the late 90's JL was working on component speakers and amplifiers to round out their selection and I think they really neglected their subwoofer lineup. The Slash amps were cutting edge when they were released but they quickly had to refresh their subs to handle the power levels people were running. Their last major speaker achievement was probably the W7 and that's a decade old now. They've moved their focus over to other areas of the industry. Their subwoofers are still good, but other companies are chipping away at the dominance they used to have. I don't consider myself a JL fan boy, but they deserve credit where it's due. I would recommend their amps and speakers in a heartbeat.
As for these new companies. Bose might advertise too much, but TC Sounds needs to get with the program. Their website has A copyright date of 2010 with a "Coming Soon" graphic followed by missing specs on all their products. You can rave all you want about products on internet forums, but my local pizza joint has a better website than that. It doesn't look good no matter how you spin it. With SSA, my concern is power handling. Judging from the specs, they are all about high power. I run a 2.5w amp on my home system powering 10w speakers and it sounds better than any car audio install I've ever heard. I'm not a bass head, I never was and never will be. I have no interest in the technology required to build a subwoofer designed to handle 2,000 watts. If they are winning SPL competitions that's great...but I listen to music and you don't need 2,000 watts in a car to enjoy rock, jazz, and ocasional pop music. Right now I run a 170w free air sub powered by a 300w amp. It's plenty for me.
I think what the industry lacks right now is the magazine scene. Yesterday I was searching for the magazines that used to review products and they pretty much don't exist anymore (send me a link if you know of one). Side by side comparisons fueled the industry and built it up, but now it seems to be staying afloat through internet forum discussions. You can find hundreds of comparison reviews of the latest cell phone options but you can't find anything that will review the latest high end head unit lineup. It's pretty sad actually. I learned a lot and got a ton of inspiration from reading CA&E, AS&S, and CSR through the 90's and early 2000's. Now I have to browse crappy install logs for hours to find a few decent photos of a quality installation.
