They even extended the warranty on our fridge by six weeks when the icemaker went out right after expiration. We didn’t even ask, we just called to check the exact date and see if we were still within the warranty period, and when they saw we were only a week or so outside they offered out the blue to treat it as warranty work anyway.
When we were in the market for a new Tv a few months later, you bet your ass we bought from them.
At one point, I was hot on Sanyo, a stereo for my 1981 Pontiac. At that time they wers sellingwell made a generation back technology dirt cheap. It lacked the latest gee whiz technology, but met my needs well.
In the glory days of Wintel, I was running a Quadra with a splash screen that said ‘‘Intel outside’’.
Now I have an AMD chip and Kubuntu.
Samsung for TVs, Blue-ray, DVD players. I had the exact same experience as gaffa with my Samsung TV. The tech who came to my house took about 5 seconds to see the problem for himself and know how to fix it. Took him less than 20 minutes to perform the work. Cost me nothing (I did tip him tho).
I also buy Yamaha audio products. My home theatre system rocks and has had zero problems in 5 years of use. My Yamaha computer audio system is still rocking after 8 years of use. Good recievers, amps and speakers, IMO.
His website (near my past hometown BTW) appears to be 3 or 4 years out of date.
Contract manufacturers now make just about everything, and for the most part components are purchased from the same suppliers.
This leaves the design process as the only variable. If the design process includes the usual variables for thermal stress, tolerances, and repairability then I don’t even know what’s left.
Store brand electronics are essentially the same as name brand if you can agree on the specifications ahead of time; there will be little variability in components or manufacturers.
ETA: People who overpay for name brands they trust are suckers. YMMV.
3 of my last 4 TVs were Panasonic, including the 42" plasma I bought last year. Each time, I was shopping for price, and brand was not a consideration. The last one lasted 10 years, and the oldest one has been around twice as long and is still in use by someone else. The one other was a Magnavox, which was a piece of crap.
My cordless phone is also a Panasonic, which I’ve been happy with. The one before that was made by Vtech, and it was a piece of crap.
The best earphones I’ve had were Sony, and I went to the Sony store when the time came to replace them. Another time, I bought similar earphones from Radio Shack (I forget the brand) for about $20, and they were remarkably bad. The $30 Sony earbuds were far better.
My VCR/DVD player is Sony, as is my boom box, and both have been satisfactory and have lasted 8 years so far. The ATRAC CD-burning software that came with the boom box was remarkably bad, but it also plays MP3s so that didn’t matter.
So I guess you could say Sony and Panasonic would be my go-to manufacturers, though I rarely would actually seek out a specific brand. They have just happened to have either the best price point at the time I was shopping for the particular item, or were the only brand available at that store at the time, and most of the time I haven’t been disappointed.
My last 3 PCs and last printer were from HP, but sadly they are leaving the PC business or so I heard. A shame too because they were some of the best value for the money available, when you didn’t want a low end clunker or a maxed-out monster. (For instance, a little over a year ago I got a quad-core with 12 gigs of ram from them for around $600.)
Sony, only a small part because they sign my paycheck…
this is only true for second-tier and lower brands. E.g. Vizio, Sceptre, and the other “who the hell are they” brands. The bigger names (Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG) I can assure you manufacture the bulk of their own stuff.
IME the lower tier brands just buy whatever they can get at their price from Chinese companies and slap their brand on it. So, you’ve no reason to believe the cheap stuff actually does account for those “usual variables.”
evidence please.
Current Sony cordless phones are made by Vtech. I know because I have taken them apart and seen the Vtech logo printed on the circuit boards. I hate paying Sony prices from crap.
So when I went and shopped for my flat screen TV a few years back I looked at picture quality not brand or price.
So did I wind up with a store brand? Nope the Sony had a noticeably better picture.
At the time all the TV departments had the same blu-ray demo disk, so we were observing the same source on dozens of different sets. Sony hands down.
I have often bought Sony, because of the good luck I have with them - except for a little notebook Sony computer I bought for my wife. It is unadulterated shit.
For my own computer, I stick with Lenovo. It’s the only computer I’ve had that I simply don’t have to worry about, ever. Great computers.
Interesting.
So can you help me out, then? Apart from the “Samsung” label, what other TV can I find that has a fluidly compatible DLNA client, a collection of apps that include Hulu+, Netflix, and YouTube, and wired and wireless capability?
Thanks!
No, that’s the stuff that sets them apart all right. And of course picture quality too.
My point was, if you are comparing two TVs with the same specifications, and you can’t see a discernible difference in picture or sound quality, then you may as well go with the cheaper off-brand.
As a long time video engineer, I have to say, most people lack the ability to evaluate a tv properly. Sorry if that sounds snobbish, but they always go for the brighter picture, leading manufacturers to try to beat each other to produce a picture that is bright in the completely artificial world of the retail showroom. It is difficult to look at two sets in that world and have any idea which will look better in a home.
Well …no.
This discussion is about who is your go-to company for electronics not how to shop for cheap electronics. In other words, “what is your brand loyalty?”, either for their quality, customer service, features, style, etc..
I have been pretty loyal to Sony over the years. I have 2 TV’s, a Sony surround system and a Sony DVD burner right now.
Sony’s customer service was great to me, I have a 42" Grand Wega (LCD rear projection) which a couple of years ago had problems with its optical block, there was a recall but since it was essentially obsolete they sent me a 46" Bravia LCD Flat screen free!
As far a computer components go, I have ASUS motherboards and AMD processors in my machines.
I’ve had bad luck with cordless phones though, I’ve been through a set of GEs(shit), Panasonics(great but buttons too small and keypad acted up), V-techs (shit, returned for refund), and now I’m using LGs (OK but keep telling me I have voice mail when I don’t!)
This thread is interesting, because it illustrates the psychological basis for decision making. Take these electronic brands-many are the same product, with a different name on the case.
I used to work for Philips-and (indeed) there was a time when Philips was top-rated (when they made their own stuff, in Philips factories. Now, most of what they stuff is made in China, by third party assembly factories.
But going back a few years, when Philips (Magnavox) made TV sets in Tennessee, they made six labels in the same plant (Magnavox, Philips, Philco, Crosley, and Cutis-Mathes, and Sylvania). All were IDENTICAL inside-yet they sold for different prices (Philips was the “premim” brand, Sylvania was the cheap brand.
Even Consumer Reports rated them differently-but they were all the same (inside).
I used to buy Sharp products almost exclusively, but as with most other brands, quality has become job 2. So now I shop around for reviews and buy the best-rated stuff I can afford. Brand loyalty no longer plays a part for anything, whether it’s appliances or electronics. Companies have forfeited that privilege.
Don’t even talk to me about Consumer Reports. They are notorious for giving great ratings to crap TVs, disdaining important features as “bells and whistles” and, as ralph124c correctly pointed out, giving different ratings to the same damn TV.
RCA for me.
20 yrs ago, i was checking around for a 26-7 inch tv. At Walmart. I can’t remember if Sony was in the store at the time, but, the picture on the RCA demo was hands down better than the rest. Sony, if it was there, or wherever it was, was at least 200 dollars more expensive. So, I sort of used RCA as my standard.
Bought an mp3 player a year ago. RCA was the only one with the usb connector built in to it, quite unobtrusively. Actually, tho, I started out with a mini Ipod. Not only did it have a connector that I would have to lug around, but I had to download software. IIRC, the download didn’t take, or something similar. Took it back, and got my RCA. No complaints!
RCA for the win!
Toshiba for laptops, LG for televisions.