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VJ · 27 November 2001, 09:07

Well, the only sony devices I have are a universal remote (RM950) and an older pair of walkman-headphones. So I can't really comment on Sony (for TV, I prefer the Philips images yet there is no telling which is better - they are just different).

I had very bad experiences with a Pioneer midi set (a couple of years ago). Cassettes kept getting stuck in there, and after several fixes to the cassette-deck, I had the entire set replaced (it was one block, containing amp/equalizer and tape, seperate tuner, no cd). The seperate tuner was replaced shortly after the amp-section came back from the store (constant noise in FM-signal).
The new amp-section gave a lot of noise on every signal, and the store also replaced it (still covered under warranty).

A couple of years later, when I bought a cd-player, it turned out it was no longer compatible with my existing system, so I returned the entire system, and with a fair discount I bought a new system (seperate tuner + amp/equalizer/tape/cd). I didn't really want Pioneer, but otherwise I'd have no discount (and it was a very good offer).
So there I was, with an entirely new system. But then the tape deck started giving problems (similar to my prior problems), after this was fixed, the cd starting to give problems...

I just went out and bought a new real hifi system (Onkyo Integra: 9711, 7711 and 4711). The only usable thing about the Pioneer is the tuner, but this can only work when connected to the amp-section. I still use it in a hobby room, but that's all I can use it for...

I doubt the problem is Sony (or Pioneer in my case), just the fact that the manufacturers are more keen on competition ("we have lower prices", "we have more functions") than on delivering quality hardware.
Malfunctioning hardware is not repaired, it is just replaced. Apparently, it is cheaper to just build a set, than to have somebody work on one for a while...

It is sad...

Where are the days that deciding to buy a new device was entirely your decision, and was not driven by the fact that your current device had broken down...

Jörg

PS: In the archives there is a thread called "my first car", check my posting there to see what problems I had with a new VW.

**Dr Mordrid** · 27 November 2001, 11:59

I only have a few problems with Sonys video gear;

1. their VAIO computers use a non-standard device control, which can complicate things with some software.

2. their DV devices, notably their older DV decks and early DV/D8 cams, have sometimes played fast & loose with the IEEE-1394 standard.

3. my Sony Hi8 has never put out a full 1 volt p-p signal on its outputs, even after Sony worked on it. Replacing the cam just changed the degree to which the signal was undervoltaged

This caused all manner of problems with analog captures and was the driving reason why I bought my BVP-4+ video processor.

Other than that I have other Sony gear in the form of a 32" VEGA TV set, which is very nice, and have two 19" Sony computer monitors;

The older one is a KDS 195-T, which is just a re-boxed and re-branded Sony Trinitron monitor. Good image quality, if a bit spartan on the controls, and has served me well.

The new one is a Sony HMD-A400. This one has a 4 port USB hub built in (2 ports on each side) and delivers a gorgeous picture with very bright and well saturated colors.

It also has a DYNAMIC display mode for viewing color limited NTSC and PAL video signals without them looking muddy, as they do on many other RGB monitors.

Dr. Mordrid

**Tempest** · 27 November 2001, 12:54

My experiences:

SONY MDR-CD480 headphones: Nice for their price. A bit on the heavy side and quite silly looking "studio" style digital headphones, but good sound quality. Have actually tolerated the abuse quite well.

SONY STR-DE445 Digital Audio/Video Control Center Digital Cinema Sound Processing-24bit Multi Channel Decoding FM Stereo/FM-AM Receiver with Dolby Digital and Digital DTS Surround™: Ok, so it's a digital amplifier/receiver. I'm no Hi-Fi guy, so the features are quite sufficient for me. What disturbs me is that when listening with headphones, there is a very noticeable background hiss when upping from zero sound level to one, independent of the sound source selected. I understand that an analogue amplifier/sound source might have this kind of audible hiss, but digital? I have heard that some of the receivers of this series have a hissing problem, but as far as I understand that should be much more noticeable (especially in multi-channel mode) than this slightly annoying "feature" I am experiencing.

**Wombat** · 27 November 2001, 13:06

Overall, I think Sony has a much better reputation than they deserve.

Headphones: They make flashy, bass-heavy headphones, that are overpriced. Better performers can be had for less.

Stereo components: Pretty much crap. Their professional line gets some respect, but all of their low- and mid-range stuff is crap.

Monitors: When the monitor is not one of their all-too-common quality control escapes, it's a great monitor.

TV: No personal experience, but people seem to like them.

Portables: They break at least as fast as the "cheaper" brands.

Sony seems to have a QC problem over all.

**Goc** · 27 November 2001, 15:32

Well I had quite a few Sony components, and so far I had no problems whatsoever with them.
I still have a VCR SLV-SE80 that works like a charm and has excellent picture quality. My opinion is that Sony makes best VCRs, although I've heard that higher priced Panasonic VCR's are in that rank, if not better.
My TV is Sony KV29C3D 29" HiBlack Trinitron @100Hz. Works excellent, has excellent picture quality, although I crapped up the geometry a bit with a pair of unshielded speakers about 2 years ago, but it's no biggie.
I also have a Sony CDP-XE530 CD player. It was their cheapest player with CD-text when I bought it, and it has pretty nice sound quality for that amount of cash. I also think it gives the best value for money from all the crappy models from companies like Yamaha, Pioneer, Kenwood and stuff like that. Although I must admit that it's remote controller behaves pretty strange lately...
Had a STR-DE635 AV reciever with AC3 decoder, but I dumped it because it was underpowered for my speakers, and it had crappy sound quality in stereo mode, what is for me the biggest factor. Now I switched to a Sherwood Newcastle R-756R (would buy me a AVP/AM9080 combo but I didn't have enough money, doh), and it really rocks. Goes along with my speakers like they were made with each other in mind. I highly recommend it to everyone willing to give a few bucks more. Here's a link. Definitely best value in sub-1000$ range.

Sorry for the long post. I got carried away.

Edit: Link to Sherwood Newcastle 756 at Audioreview.

**KvHagedorn** · 27 November 2001, 21:28

At the risk of creating a rip in the time-space continuum, I find myself pretty much in agreement with Wombat here.

No company can do everything with aplomb. Sony does great video and pretty mediocre audio. JVC is the same way at lower price points. JVC makes some of the best VCRs available, though. Sony makes some of the best tube type TVs and computer monitors. Pioneer makes some of the best rear projection screen TVs, but their lower end audio products are absolute junk. Go figure.

**Bohrn** · 28 November 2001, 11:52

With KvH and wombat here. Overpriced name. Kinda like Nike. Same as everything else but if your "cool" you gotta have it. Not for me. I do have some Nike shoes, but they were the only football cleats to be had at the time and I needed them for a game.

**Helevitia** · 28 November 2001, 12:17

Almost everything I've ever purchased with a Sony label on it has had a problem. I refuse to buy anymore sony products. I've had problems with TV's, digital cameras, VCR's, Phones(line based), tape recorders, and probably more I can't think of. My current problem is with my digital camera. The flash suddenly quit working. This is highly annoying since the camera retailed at $999 whenit came out and it will probalby cost $200~ to get fixed. They have nice features, concepts and they all appear to be well thoiught out but they jsut break to often. I would not recommend a Sony product to someone. The only thing I current own of sony that didn't brek is an analog video camera. It has worked flawlessly. I will not buy anymore sony products. btw, RCA has the biggest return rate of all companies.

Dave

**Pace** · 28 November 2001, 17:39

It's funny, I've always been one for brand names. I've stuck to 3Com NICs, Intel CPUs (though this may change with next CPU due to their chipsets all being kinda sucky for me), Nike gear (funny that someone mentioned that too, I've been wearning Nike trainers for years and years), Microsoft mice, HP printers, IBM drives...

Everytime I buy something, I always buy from a manufacturer that I've had a good record with, or who have a good name. Sony are one I've never used (but fancy/fancied their monitors), but always held in high regard.

Nothing worth sharing I guess, but just thought I'd share it.

Well, in an attempt to make my post somewhat interesting, I'll ask a thought provoking question:

What brands do you trust most, and do you use the brand as important criteria in purchasing equipment?

I believe I failed to make interest

P.

**cbman** · 28 November 2001, 17:46

I have no criteria...

I just pick what I feel like picking... impulse buying.

Its how I ended up with my first Matrox Card

**Jorden** · 28 November 2001, 18:26

Originally posted by Wombat : Headphones: They make flashy, bass-heavy headphones, that are overpriced. Better performers can be had for less.

I disagree. For long lasting headphones, the cheaper ones are less reliable. I bought my Sony MDR-V1 headphones about 8 years ago, and they are still going strong. 3 times I thought I had blown them up, when I plugged them in at full amp, but every time they just blacked out for 1 minute and then started working again. Try that with the cheaper ones. I did, and it was blow out after blow out. These headphones were about 35 guilders when I bought them. Not too expensive compared to Bose headphones or speakers at the time

Stereo components: Pretty much crap. Their professional line gets some respect, but all of their low- and mid-range stuff is crap.

Around the same time I bought my headphones, I started assembling my stereo-tower. It's all full size, so not the mini and midi stuff they brought out since. Bought my 5 CD player first, hooked it up to my even older portable Sharp radio and was hooked. It doesn't even do 1Mbit oversampling and whatever you have these days. I think the CD-player doesn't even do standard 8bit oversampling, but just like 2bit or 4bit.
I then bought my tuner and amplifier and the cheaper, but very good Bose speakers (40 Watt). Quickly thereafter followed by a graphics equalizer. Topped it off with a double cassette deck, on both decks recording, with 1 millisecond changing of the tape to the other side, for 180 minute recording possibilities. Made some mixes with it (well, some, about a lot of them

) and sold them to local cafe's and bars. Got even with what I paid for the thing

and it's still in good working order. The whole stereo tower cost me about 5000 guilders, with the cassette deck being the most expensive.

I even got hold of a record player in the later stages. It's still sitting on top of my tower, and we play records - LP's you know, the ones made from black vinyl - about weekly.

Monitors: When the monitor is not one of their all-too-common quality control escapes, it's a great monitor.

But for if you get the flatscreen ones... they tend to vibrate off your desk, due to the wrong currency usage of the transformator inside the monitor stand

I saw a couple of them when I worked at SONY Logistics Europe and we replaced them ASAP

TV: No personal experience, but people seem to like them.

No personal experience either. Carried a lot of very heavy boxes though... ouch

Sony seems to have a QC problem over all.

Now how do you know for sure? Just by trying one or two Sony's in your lifetime?

That you didn't even rant over a Playstation or Playstation 2 is missing out a bit

Don't slag off Sony products too easily without trying them to the max

Jord.

**Wombat** · 28 November 2001, 18:51

How do you know for sure?

One or two units, I suppose. How's this for you Jorden:

The 420GS in my sig is the 5th 420GS I have owned. I ordered from a place with very good return policies for a reason. I shipped 4 420GS monitors back for image quality problems that were present from the moment I turned the monitors on. 3 were geometric or color distortion, and one had a nasty habit of fickering while it made cap discharging sounds.

I've had two Sony Discman players. One was a $150 unit at the time, and fell apart within a year of average use. The other was a $230 Car Discman, which I stopped using now that it refuses to play most CDs. My Rio Volt is a much better CD player than either of them.

I've owned a lot of Sony's $20-$50 headphones, and they sure don't take any punishment. The speaker diaphrams also degrade on their own rather quickly. I have a $20 pair of their fold up Sport in-ears right now. Sound is okay, I bought them for portability.

Let's not even delve into the wonderful world of Vaio laptop problems.

I also worked in a lab where we had a few hunded Sony monitors installed. When the F and FD monitors came out, we got a number of them, and 10% or more had to go back, I believe.

I've only played on a PS once or twice, and none of my family or friends have one. I've never seen a PS2 being played.

A friend of mine bought a $130-$150 pair of Sony's "DJ" headphones a few months ago. I would never choose them over my $90 Beyerdynamics.

If you want headphone reliability stories, 8 years is nothing. Let the Sennheiser owners speak up now.

Isn't "very good Bose" an oxymoron?

**Jorden** · 28 November 2001, 19:14

Isn't "very good Bose" an oxymoron?

Yes

But other than your experience with the headphones, you didn't say too much

Btw, I played on both a PS and a PS2. The PS was errm, well, crap (My C64 might have had better graphics

), the PS2 was very good to play on. I wish I had one, but it's price is too steep for me at the moment

(Nothing said about the games for the PS2, which are just outrages, even more expensive than your jack-in-the-box-PC-game-price !!

)

I don't have much experience on the portable stuff, since I never owned any. And the monitors I worked with at Sony Logistics all had names like G200 and G400, so where can those go wrong

But for the flatscreens (1.5 inch thick, but I mentioned them above)

Jord.

**XHotKolaX** · 28 November 2001, 23:37

I bought a Sony Vaio 166mmx when it 1st came out that lasted up until recently. Actually, only the ram started pooping out. Everything else still works.

All their portables suck. Flashy yes, any better than other brands, no.

Their TV flat screen lines seem to have better picture than all others in the price range.

PlayStations broke real fast. Especially the early ones.

That's my experience.

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