Exactly! When I did car audio, I would have people come in with cheap crap, mid-range and high end equipment and my goal, which I pounded into the heads of the guys who worked for me, was to make the client say "WOW!" when they saw and heard what we had done. Even if it was something as menial as vacuuming the car when there had been a mountain of cigarette ashes and butts under the ashtray (this was a real problem for me, as a non-smoker and if I had to lay on the floor during the job, it pissed me off when I ended up stinking like the car). The way I reached the goal was to make sure the equipment operated in its happy place, meaning I didn't try to make it do things that were impossible. It might not be as loud as they wanted, but I tried to make sure it always sounded really good, or great. Loud is loud, good sound is different.

I was at the local Guitar Center years ago and as I talked with a couple of friends who worked there, a guy moved closer and at one point, asked if I had worked at a particular car audio shop and I remembered him- he had an early-'80s Camaro, no budget and cheap equipment. That was a great example of the reality check of "You don't have a lot of power- the specs are from the marketing department" and when it was done, his Majestic power amp with a 5A fuse (was rated at 200W in the mid-'90s) and cheap speakers were part of a nicely balanced system and he raved about it to my friends.

It's about the end experience, not the names on the equipment. It's not always easy to get people to give up that idea.

I was looking at Triad speakers for a project and when I saw the drivers they use, I was very interested and called their tech support department- I have been a fan of Peerless/Vifa drivers for a long time and have built several speakers with them, including the ones I use now. Unfortunately, the Triad I was considering wouldn';t fit because of the framing, but if I have any say on future projects, I want to use them.