Hi Alan
Thanks for your explanation of Grundig I did know most of this, As a regular visitor to Germany, and Nürnberg, I was fully aware that Grundig were owned by Beko
I was only pointing out that high end Grundig named products were still designed in Nürnberg, and only used on the products advertised on www.grundig.de Most of the recent products that I have purchased are made in China
Do you know who the subcontractor is? The products are made to a very high quality, to be honest they are as good as the European made Grundig from the good old days.
As regular visitor to Grundig in Rugby around the early 1990s I was informed that Grundig were actualy involved in the developement of the DAB radio system, along with Blaupunkt The people at the Grundig stand at IFA Berlin in September did tell me that they have their own production, and quality control at Beko. So that detail must be correct.
I look forward to your reply.
Hi NIgel.
My info regarding sony and Grundig, comes from the Reuters website. and from www. sonyinsider.com
(Grundig Elektronic to make Sony Bravia Televisions)
I would have thought that reuters info was correct as they are no1 in the world for news, also Sony insider should know what is happening. in the world of Sony.
Do you know for shure that the above is not true?
It 'might' be true for Sony USA?, as you quote USA websites, it's not true for Sony Europe - and last time I looked both we, and this website, are in Europe
Hi Alan
Thanks for your explanation of Grundig I did know most of this, As a regular visitor to Germany, and Nürnberg, I was fully aware that Grundig were owned by Beko
I was only pointing out that high end Grundig named products were still designed in Nürnberg, and only used on the products advertised on www.grundig.de Most of the recent products that I have purchased are made in China
Do you know who the subcontractor is? The products are made to a very high quality, to be honest they are as good as the European made Grundig from the good old days.
As regular visitor to Grundig in Rugby around the early 1990s I was informed that Grundig were actualy involved in the developement of the DAB radio system, along with Blaupunkt The people at the Grundig stand at IFA Berlin in September did tell me that they have their own production, and quality control at Beko. So that detail must be correct.
I suspect they were telling you complete rubbish - but they were hardly going to tell you that Grundig is just a badge on cheap Beko tat.
If you're happy, that's all that matters, but Grundig doesn't exist any more - sad as that is (we were one of the largest Grundig dealers in the UK).
Hi Nigel
Thanks for the reply, I have just looked in Google and there are a number uk sites, that state Sony uk are having their Bravia televisions made in Turkey, Maybe someone from Sony or Beko can confirm this, or correct this info. Yes I am very happy with my Grundig Fine Arts TV
even if its Made in Turkey (I also have a nice car made in Mexico 100% reliable) My brother is a total Panasonic fan, and has just purchased a new tv with a built in HD Sat tuner
He came round to my house to look at the picture on my Grundig, and admitted that the picture on the HD channels was just as good as his. He did say that it wasnt any better
My picture was from Technisat HD S2 sat receiver.
Channels tested BBC HD, LUX HD, ARTE HD, ASTRAHD and ZDF HD connection was with a £5.00 HDMI lead from Lidl
The picture on the new Grundig Fine Arts tv with led backlight is one of the best pictures I have seen on a lcd
I would say its as good as a plasma. The TV can also record to a memory stick or hard drive including HD I will be able to fit this tv to my wall without bothering with external pvr boxes and cables. It will look neat and tidy, best of all it will keep my wife happy. Sorry the tv I am talking about is the new one from the IFA in Berlin, its still not available, the price will be around 1600.00 Euro The one that my brother looked at is my existing tv which is around 2 years old. To be honest its been 100% reliable, a couple of visitors to my house were so impressed with the picture quality they decided to go and buy their own Grundig tv Yes I am happy with my television and audio products
I also subscribe to German audio visual magazines, and some of the Grundig TVs are award winning and get a higher score that the big brand names. having said that some of the cheaper ones are only average.
Look forward to you reply, I would be most interested to hear about your dealership and the products that you sold.
I see that the Satellit 700 sells for more money now on ebay than it cost when it was new 15 years ago.
I have 2 Satellit 500 radios, and one satellit 3600 professional
All radios are as new. I still have the boxes
Did you sell any Grundig 250 Arcive vhs video recorders?
My one is still working, this is the last Made in Germany Grundig in my collection. I do have a selection of Made in Portugal products after this date
Hi Nigel
Thanks for the reply, I have just looked in Google and there are a number uk sites, that state Sony uk are having their Bravia televisions made in Turkey, Maybe someone from Sony or Beko can confirm this, or correct this info. Yes I am very happy with my Grundig Fine Arts TV
even if its Made in Turkey (I also have a nice car made in Mexico 100% reliable) My brother is a total Panasonic fan, and has just purchased a new tv with a built in HD Sat tuner
He came round to my house to look at the picture on my Grundig, and admitted that the picture on the HD channels was just as good as his. He did say that it wasnt any better
My picture was from Technisat HD S2 sat receiver.
Channels tested BBC HD, LUX HD, ARTE HD, ASTRAHD and ZDF HD connection was with a £5.00 HDMI lead from Lidl
The picture on the new Grundig Fine Arts tv with led backlight is one of the best pictures I have seen on a lcd
I would say its as good as a plasma. The TV can also record to a memory stick or hard drive including HD I will be able to fit this tv to my wall without bothering with external pvr boxes and cables. It will look neat and tidy, best of all it will keep my wife happy. Sorry the tv I am talking about is the new one from the IFA in Berlin, its still not available, the price will be around 1600.00 Euro The one that my brother looked at is my existing tv which is around 2 years old. To be honest its been 100% reliable, a couple of visitors to my house were so impressed with the picture quality they decided to go and buy their own Grundig tv Yes I am happy with my television and audio products
I also subscribe to German audio visual magazines, and some of the Grundig TVs are award winning and get a higher score that the big brand names. having said that some of the cheaper ones are only average.
Look forward to you reply, I would be most interested to hear about your dealership and the products that you sold.
I see that the Satellit 700 sells for more money now on ebay than it cost when it was new 15 years ago.
I have 2 Satellit 500 radios, and one satellit 3600 professional
All radios are as new. I still have the boxes
Did you sell any Grundig 250 Arcive vhs video recorders?
My one is still working, this is the last Made in Germany Grundig in my collection. I do have a selection of Made in Portugal products after this date
Hi Mike.
Yes I agree with you 100% on that. Its a throw away world we live in. I tend to buy more expesive products and just keep them. I have some Grundig and ITT Schaub Lorenz products from the 1970s that still work today
(I still have the original boxes, invoices, and sales brochures.)
They did cost a lot of money back then. I have a Grundig Video that cost around £600.00 in the early 1980s. Considering that house prices are up about 8 to 10 times since then. Thats the same as £5000.00 in todays money
Even the £1000.00 Dreambox is cheap in comparison
What do you think?
With electronics it`s not always that simple though , is it ?
I`ve got a B&O MX5000 TV (1988 ? ) which still works fine, though I`ve had to mend it twice, but it`s really just a Ferguson/Thomson ICC5 !
I still have a small Grundig colour portable TV P37-342/900. I bought it from someone years ago and it receives several different TV systems. That will of course be history soon.
It works well and gives a good picture although it has had very little use over the years.
I still have a small Grundig colour portable TV P37-342/900.
That's a real Grundig, if you look near the model number it will have a chassis number - CUCxxxx. This stands for Compact Universal Chassis - nice TV's, sad to see the end of Grundig
For those who can remember that far back?, the IRA murdered the German guy who ran Grundig Ireland, Grundig closed up their Irish division because of this, and loaded all the stock in containers for shipping back to Germany.
Instead of the containers going to Germany we bought the entire lot - at VERY, VERY good prices We didn't half shift some Grundig product for a few months. There was some total rubbish, and that got skipped, but most was brand new boxed stock fresh from the factory.
Aiwa were mostly owned by Sony for many years (something like 75%), eventually with Aiwa struggling more and more, Sony took 100% control - and it's now a division of Sony.
If you ring Sony, the announcement says "welcome to the Sony and Aiwa helpline".
I've not seen any badged Aiwa products around though, so I don't know what they are doing with it?.
yea mostly aiwa is redundant now. there was a time when sony was so dominant they could reserve themselves to being the premium segment and keep aiwa as value goods. but apple kicked them in the face pretty hard ..and it was deserved. sony pissed away a decades head start on digital portable audio. they had all the bits for the ipod, but they gimped the goodness out of it and got slaughtered. idiots. and yes, aiwa is pretty much disappeared here in the us as well.
always just wiki a corporation if you think they are nothing more than a name. i've noticed dead companies like polaroid licensing their name for use on generic camera products and stuff like that as well. its pretty common. just slap that old name on some pos and it increases its value above no name brand a smidgen.
I still rely on my trusty good old Grundig CUC95 from the early 80s (I believe 1982/83). Cracking picture although the convergence for the blue electron gun in the tube is way off in the bottom right corner.
What happened to DeccaColour?
Reading this thread makes me say "Oh, how the mighty have fallen".
Decca were bought out (rescued!) by Tatung, who continued to design and manufacture TV's in the UK in a new factory they built at Telford. They were mostly really good sets, and far better designed than anything from Japan - I've shown Tatung/Decca chassis's to various Japanese 'high ups' over the years, as an example of how good design should be (and MUCH cheaper to manufacture as well).
Unfortunately the excessive taxes on manufacturing in the UK introduced by Labour forced them to move manufacturing (and eventually design) outside the UK. As Tatung's strengths were design and manufacture this was disasterous, and Tatung folded completely a few years back.
Wow, that takes me back Nigel. Tatung in Telford were a very good customer once, sold them many thousands of LCD panels over several years (they made monitors there as well as TVs). As you said, it was not viable to continue to manufacture in the UK. It was not only sad when they shut, but sorry to say a lot of folks lost their jobs too.
Wow, that takes me back Nigel. Tatung in Telford were a very good customer once, sold them many thousands of LCD panels over several years (they made monitors there as well as TVs). As you said, it was not viable to continue to manufacture in the UK. It was not only sad when they shut, but sorry to say a lot of folks lost their jobs too.
Yes, we had very close ties with Tatung, nice people and great products - a sad day when they folded
As I understand it Dr. Lin (who ran Tatung UK) moved back to Korea, leaving his wife (or ex wife?) in charge a few years before they ended.
Decca were bought out (rescued!) by Tatung, who continued to design and manufacture TV's in the UK in a new factory they built at Telford. They were mostly really good sets
Yeah, my parents had a Tatung DeccaColour bought in the early 1980s for over 20 years with only the high voltage converter (?) needing replaced a couple of times and the power button fixed.
I absolutely guarantee that the Lidl special they replaced it with won't last that long.
Whatever...remember a once high quality producer with years of heritage is now just a name to stick a badge on Chinese/Turkish made very average products .
If you don't know- or care- about ownership minutae, that comment (*) is pretty much all you *really* need to know about many "heritage" brands.
People will place more value on a name they "know" or are familiar with, not realising that the original company went bankrupt or sold the rights years before and it is now (at best) a marketing division of another company or (at worst) owned by a holding company who'll license the rights to any random manufacturer looking to add (perceived) "value" to their otherwise generic offerings.
Or there are companies like Wharfedale who still make their core product (speakers), but almost everything else under the name is produced under license.
Or a confusing mixture of them all- the bottom line is that the brand is reduced to meaninglessness.
I mean, did you know that TDK sold their recording business to Imation along with the rights to use the name. In other words, if you're buying "TDK" media, it's not really made by TDK (who still exist though), it's made by Imation. The "HP" branded media you see is also sold by them.
Though like most "name" DVD-R makers and the like, they probably just rebrand discs from one of the very few *actual* disc makers in the world. (I think TDK did this even before they sold it off).
Confusing? Well, it just emphasises that such brands are more and more meaningless anyway.
(*) Admittedly pretty old, from the first part of this thread last year.
I repair whitegoods.
In an ironic twist Argos are putting "Bush" on some Vestel washing machines and many people say they bought it because they knew the name from old radios and tvs:mad:
Talk about pulling the wool over their eyes until I put them wise:D
Or there are companies like Wharfedale who still make their core product (speakers), but almost everything else under the name is produced under license.
Wharfedale were bought out years ago (it's been mentioned here previous who it was by), it has no relation to the previous UK speaker manufacturer.
Years ago Grundig manufactured were known for quality. Some of these products today that are using the names of former manufacturers cannot be compared in quality to what they were. My son bought a Bush TV, just cheap and nasty, in the 1960 it would have been a far better quality product.
My first TV was a B & W Kolster Brandes/ITT in 1969 and my first video recorder I rented around 1981/82 and was a Ferguson (3V29) we then upped it to a 30 (or was it a 30 and 31) this had a wired remote controller that trailed across the carpet and was vulnerable to damage as it was a real trip hazard
Some of the old manufacturers of TVs from the 1960s I can remember — Sobell, Pye, Ekco, Alba, Stella, Invicta, McMichael, Marconiphone, HMV, Ferguson, Decca, Baird, Murphy, Sanyo, GEC.
Decca were bought out (rescued!) by Tatung, who continued to design and manufacture TV's in the UK in a new factory they built at Telford. They were mostly really good sets, and far better designed than anything from Japan - I've shown Tatung/Decca chassis's to various Japanese 'high ups' over the years, as an example of how good design should be (and MUCH cheaper to manufacture as well).
Unfortunately the excessive taxes on manufacturing in the UK introduced by Labour forced them to move manufacturing (and eventually design) outside the UK. As Tatung's strengths were design and manufacture this was disasterous, and Tatung folded completely a few years back.
We tried selling new TVs years back in the late 1990s, but we never made any money at it with all the competition we`ve got round here. I chose Tatung because their TVs were simple / easy to work on and they had a reasonable technical help line. However I seem to remember they started going downhill, complexity wise, it could have been the F series (an integrated PSU and line stage ? ). No thanks, absolute crap.
People will place more value on a name they "know" or are familiar with, not realising that the original company went bankrupt or sold the rights years before and it is now (at best) a marketing division of another company or (at worst) owned by a holding company who'll license the rights to any random manufacturer looking to add (perceived) "value" to their otherwise generic offerings.
Or a confusing mixture of them all- the bottom line is that the brand is reduced to meaninglessness.
.
Also see Caterpillar (clothes !) and JCB (gardening tools ! ? ! ).
I repair whitegoods.
In an ironic twist Argos are putting "Bush" on some Vestel washing machines and many people say they bought it because they knew the name from old radios and tvs:mad:
Talk about pulling the wool over their eyes until I put them wise:D
Which are worse, Hotpoint (Merloni) or Bush (Vestel) ?
Post Merloni Hotpoint products (2001 on) are absolute crap, several white goods engineers have told me this, and furthermore every single Hotpoint product we bought went wrong, or started going wrong, between 6 months and 3 years old.
I`d never buy another Hotpoint product, ever.
my first video recorder I rented around 1981/82 and was a Ferguson (3V29)
3V29s were built like tanks, extremely well made. As far as I can remember the only weakness in them were the drive belts, and especially the loading belt.
Wharfedale were bought out years ago (it's been mentioned here previous who it was by), it has no relation to the previous UK speaker manufacturer.
The Wikipedia article states that "all Wharfedale-branded speakers are still made by the original firm".
I don't know if that's downright wrong, or dependent on interpretation of what constitutes- and was meant by- the "original firm" (e.g. "core firm" as opposed to licensees?)
Although I know they're Chinese-owned now, I assumed that this meant there was still a core Wharfedale company that made the speakers and everything else with their name on it was the result of the name being pimped out.
The Wikipedia article states that "all Wharfedale-branded speakers are still made by the original firm"
All down to interpretation. The "original" Company was sold to the Rank Organisation in 1962, then in the early 90's was sold off to The Verity Group (owners of other hi-fi brands, Quad and Leak). After they developed NXT transducer technology, Verity decided to focus on this and Wharfedale, Quad and Leak underwent a management buyout to form the International Audio Group (IAG), still the current "owners".
Comments
Thanks for your explanation of Grundig I did know most of this, As a regular visitor to Germany, and Nürnberg, I was fully aware that Grundig were owned by Beko
I was only pointing out that high end Grundig named products were still designed in Nürnberg, and only used on the products advertised on www.grundig.de Most of the recent products that I have purchased are made in China
Do you know who the subcontractor is? The products are made to a very high quality, to be honest they are as good as the European made Grundig from the good old days.
As regular visitor to Grundig in Rugby around the early 1990s I was informed that Grundig were actualy involved in the developement of the DAB radio system, along with Blaupunkt The people at the Grundig stand at IFA Berlin in September did tell me that they have their own production, and quality control at Beko. So that detail must be correct.
I look forward to your reply.
It 'might' be true for Sony USA?, as you quote USA websites, it's not true for Sony Europe - and last time I looked both we, and this website, are in Europe
I suspect they were telling you complete rubbish - but they were hardly going to tell you that Grundig is just a badge on cheap Beko tat.
If you're happy, that's all that matters, but Grundig doesn't exist any more - sad as that is (we were one of the largest Grundig dealers in the UK).
Thanks for the reply, I have just looked in Google and there are a number uk sites, that state Sony uk are having their Bravia televisions made in Turkey, Maybe someone from Sony or Beko can confirm this, or correct this info. Yes I am very happy with my Grundig Fine Arts TV
even if its Made in Turkey (I also have a nice car made in Mexico 100% reliable) My brother is a total Panasonic fan, and has just purchased a new tv with a built in HD Sat tuner
He came round to my house to look at the picture on my Grundig, and admitted that the picture on the HD channels was just as good as his. He did say that it wasnt any better
My picture was from Technisat HD S2 sat receiver.
Channels tested BBC HD, LUX HD, ARTE HD, ASTRAHD and ZDF HD connection was with a £5.00 HDMI lead from Lidl
The picture on the new Grundig Fine Arts tv with led backlight is one of the best pictures I have seen on a lcd
I would say its as good as a plasma. The TV can also record to a memory stick or hard drive including HD I will be able to fit this tv to my wall without bothering with external pvr boxes and cables. It will look neat and tidy, best of all it will keep my wife happy. Sorry the tv I am talking about is the new one from the IFA in Berlin, its still not available, the price will be around 1600.00 Euro The one that my brother looked at is my existing tv which is around 2 years old. To be honest its been 100% reliable, a couple of visitors to my house were so impressed with the picture quality they decided to go and buy their own Grundig tv Yes I am happy with my television and audio products
I also subscribe to German audio visual magazines, and some of the Grundig TVs are award winning and get a higher score that the big brand names. having said that some of the cheaper ones are only average.
Look forward to you reply, I would be most interested to hear about your dealership and the products that you sold.
I see that the Satellit 700 sells for more money now on ebay than it cost when it was new 15 years ago.
I have 2 Satellit 500 radios, and one satellit 3600 professional
All radios are as new. I still have the boxes
Did you sell any Grundig 250 Arcive vhs video recorders?
My one is still working, this is the last Made in Germany Grundig in my collection. I do have a selection of Made in Portugal products after this date
With electronics it`s not always that simple though , is it ?
I`ve got a B&O MX5000 TV (1988 ? ) which still works fine, though I`ve had to mend it twice, but it`s really just a Ferguson/Thomson ICC5 !
It works well and gives a good picture although it has had very little use over the years.
That's a real Grundig, if you look near the model number it will have a chassis number - CUCxxxx. This stands for Compact Universal Chassis - nice TV's, sad to see the end of Grundig
For those who can remember that far back?, the IRA murdered the German guy who ran Grundig Ireland, Grundig closed up their Irish division because of this, and loaded all the stock in containers for shipping back to Germany.
Instead of the containers going to Germany we bought the entire lot - at VERY, VERY good prices
yea mostly aiwa is redundant now. there was a time when sony was so dominant they could reserve themselves to being the premium segment and keep aiwa as value goods. but apple kicked them in the face pretty hard ..and it was deserved. sony pissed away a decades head start on digital portable audio. they had all the bits for the ipod, but they gimped the goodness out of it and got slaughtered. idiots. and yes, aiwa is pretty much disappeared here in the us as well.
always just wiki a corporation if you think they are nothing more than a name. i've noticed dead companies like polaroid licensing their name for use on generic camera products and stuff like that as well. its pretty common. just slap that old name on some pos and it increases its value above no name brand a smidgen.
What happened to DeccaColour?
Reading this thread makes me say "Oh, how the mighty have fallen".
Decca were bought out (rescued!) by Tatung, who continued to design and manufacture TV's in the UK in a new factory they built at Telford. They were mostly really good sets, and far better designed than anything from Japan - I've shown Tatung/Decca chassis's to various Japanese 'high ups' over the years, as an example of how good design should be (and MUCH cheaper to manufacture as well).
Unfortunately the excessive taxes on manufacturing in the UK introduced by Labour forced them to move manufacturing (and eventually design) outside the UK. As Tatung's strengths were design and manufacture this was disasterous, and Tatung folded completely a few years back.
Yes, we had very close ties with Tatung, nice people and great products - a sad day when they folded
As I understand it Dr. Lin (who ran Tatung UK) moved back to Korea, leaving his wife (or ex wife?) in charge a few years before they ended.
Yeah, my parents had a Tatung DeccaColour bought in the early 1980s for over 20 years with only the high voltage converter (?) needing replaced a couple of times and the power button fixed.
I absolutely guarantee that the Lidl special they replaced it with won't last that long.
If you don't know- or care- about ownership minutae, that comment (*) is pretty much all you *really* need to know about many "heritage" brands.
People will place more value on a name they "know" or are familiar with, not realising that the original company went bankrupt or sold the rights years before and it is now (at best) a marketing division of another company or (at worst) owned by a holding company who'll license the rights to any random manufacturer looking to add (perceived) "value" to their otherwise generic offerings.
Or there are companies like Wharfedale who still make their core product (speakers), but almost everything else under the name is produced under license.
Or a confusing mixture of them all- the bottom line is that the brand is reduced to meaninglessness.
I mean, did you know that TDK sold their recording business to Imation along with the rights to use the name. In other words, if you're buying "TDK" media, it's not really made by TDK (who still exist though), it's made by Imation. The "HP" branded media you see is also sold by them.
Though like most "name" DVD-R makers and the like, they probably just rebrand discs from one of the very few *actual* disc makers in the world. (I think TDK did this even before they sold it off).
Confusing? Well, it just emphasises that such brands are more and more meaningless anyway.
(*) Admittedly pretty old, from the first part of this thread last year.
In an ironic twist Argos are putting "Bush" on some Vestel washing machines and many people say they bought it because they knew the name from old radios and tvs:mad:
Talk about pulling the wool over their eyes until I put them wise:D
Wharfedale were bought out years ago (it's been mentioned here previous who it was by), it has no relation to the previous UK speaker manufacturer.
My first TV was a B & W Kolster Brandes/ITT in 1969 and my first video recorder I rented around 1981/82 and was a Ferguson (3V29) we then upped it to a 30 (or was it a 30 and 31) this had a wired remote controller that trailed across the carpet and was vulnerable to damage as it was a real trip hazard
Some of the old manufacturers of TVs from the 1960s I can remember — Sobell, Pye, Ekco, Alba, Stella, Invicta, McMichael, Marconiphone, HMV, Ferguson, Decca, Baird, Murphy, Sanyo, GEC.
Again, years ago, Wharfedale speakers were second to none
Don't know about 'second to none'
B&W, Celestion, Goodmans - loads of similar quality UK speaker manufacturers.
We tried selling new TVs years back in the late 1990s, but we never made any money at it with all the competition we`ve got round here. I chose Tatung because their TVs were simple / easy to work on and they had a reasonable technical help line. However I seem to remember they started going downhill, complexity wise, it could have been the F series (an integrated PSU and line stage ? ). No thanks, absolute crap.
Also see Caterpillar (clothes !) and JCB (gardening tools ! ? ! ).
Which are worse, Hotpoint (Merloni) or Bush (Vestel) ?
Post Merloni Hotpoint products (2001 on) are absolute crap, several white goods engineers have told me this, and furthermore every single Hotpoint product we bought went wrong, or started going wrong, between 6 months and 3 years old.
I`d never buy another Hotpoint product, ever.
3V29s were built like tanks, extremely well made. As far as I can remember the only weakness in them were the drive belts, and especially the loading belt.
The Wikipedia article states that "all Wharfedale-branded speakers are still made by the original firm".
I don't know if that's downright wrong, or dependent on interpretation of what constitutes- and was meant by- the "original firm" (e.g. "core firm" as opposed to licensees?)
Although I know they're Chinese-owned now, I assumed that this meant there was still a core Wharfedale company that made the speakers and everything else with their name on it was the result of the name being pimped out.
All down to interpretation. The "original" Company was sold to the Rank Organisation in 1962, then in the early 90's was sold off to The Verity Group (owners of other hi-fi brands, Quad and Leak). After they developed NXT transducer technology, Verity decided to focus on this and Wharfedale, Quad and Leak underwent a management buyout to form the International Audio Group (IAG), still the current "owners".