And countless other names... Never went near them with a bargepole. I think my Nakamichi would have done a runner if I'd tried to use one in it. Always had a fondess for the TDK SA90's though.
Ahh yes the SA90's... or my favourite the MA-X90's which were the metal tape with a metal case! (a see thru side with a metal alloy inner casing, the extra weight made the tape 'stable' and not move about, according to TDK! - superb sound and only about £6.95 each I think.....
Ahh yes the SA90's... or my favourite the MA-X90's which were the metal tape with a metal case! (a see thru side with a metal alloy inner casing, the extra weight made the tape 'stable' and not move about, according to TDK! - superb sound and only about £6.95 each I think.....
Mitsubishi Black Diamonds were extensively promoted by the dreaded Power House before they went into retrenchment...
What they failed to mention was that the same sets were on sale at a third of the price with a Beko brand badge in many other shops.
Not a good deal!
yup we still got a 28" black diamond widescreen that my dad bought a few years back and it makes this stupid whining sound and its really unbearably loud...
also you cant turn widescreen switching off
then we got a panasonic 21" running great for about 9 or 10 years, and the tv looks just as good and modern as any 21" (non flatscreen) available now. panasonic cd player also running fine...
In my room i have a 14" JMB tv running fine paired with a stand up sony freeview box and the sony dvp-f250s dvd player to match + some creative 3300 2.1 speakers...
everything works fine even my JMB except my SONY freeview box where the sound constantly goes off everytime i change channel and it needs reset...
There are a few seperate things I consider consider when choosing brands. e.g. Price and functionality. For instance if I were looking for a new TV and I wanted a basic widescreen set, I would buy an LG or SAMSUNG as many have mentioned here, they generally are good value for money and very goog quality.
However if I wanted the absolute best picture quality with the latest technology I would opt for a Phillips/Panasonic/Sony set with all the extras including Pixel plus in case of the Phillips, DRT for Sony and I can't recall Panasonics picture enhancing technology. Their pictures are usually outstanding and also include several other picture enhancing technologies. The sets are more expensive, but it these firms that drive forward the technology and then the others pick it up.
However the down side is this technology is expensive and because you pay so much you also rightly expect reliability which is often lacking. If I pay a lot of money for top end gear and it isn't perfect I keep rejecting them, until I get one thats right.
I buy an item and choose brand depending on its use and what I want. My main gear all tends to be the major brands (not always), Philips/Sony etc. My secondary gear is much cheaper, but its all I need for where it is situated/used. When the technology levels out as it often does, such as occured with VCR's and now basic DVD players, I purchase the cheapest unit (that looks good) and someone else has recommended.
It's tempting fate to tell the world how reliable your kit is, but as it's not reliable these days, here goes.
Sony were the market leaders. As long as they were manufacturing themselves in Japan (or Bridgend in Wales, hopefully) their TV's were the best because they had the Trinitron tube, but then along came Mitsubishi with Diamandtron, and suddenly Sony were no longer the tube manufacturer with unique technology. Now they are no better or worse than any other manufacturer for reliablity. We still have Sony separates: Dolby Surround AV receiver anyone? :eek: No, can't set up even four speakers for a decent sound field in a real living room, so no point in upgrading to DTS. The Sony replaced a Sansui amp and tuner, which replaced a funny little Sony vertical styled amplifier and tuner even I bought second hand.
I had a 17 inch Panasonic TV from about 1985 to 1995ish. No SCART, just a composite in. I wish I'd not sold it on, it was a wonderful set. It was replaced with a 25 inch JVC that lasted about 7 years. Now we have a 24 nich widescreen Panasonic. Great picture. I actually prefer the non-Trinitron picture tube.
I've never bought anything but JVC video recorders. We're on our second now, with a new SVHS tucked away for when the second conks out. Why JVC? 16:9 recording. I dare say other brands do it but only JVC publicise it.
As for "cheap" brands, we're now using a Tevion freeview box, replacing a Pace DTVA that lasted 3 and a half years. Still works, just won't hold the "tuning" data" for any length of time. Tevion personal CD/MP3 players? Pah, lasted 8 months then went cack. They're actually Lenoxx. So that's one special I won't be buying tomorrow in Aldi...
Pacific DVD player is the second sample, the first went back because it glitched all the time. Second sample is fine. Just gotta reject the goods if they're not of merchantable quality.
LiteOn DVD recorder is too new to judge, but my experience with their PC CDRW drives is all positive.
I'm afraid if it says "Made in China" now I try to avoid it, in favour of "Made in Taiwan", or "Made in Japan". I suspect there's a lot of 2000 hour components going into kit now instead of the 10000 hour parts that are on the specification.
I'm afraid if it says "Made in China" now I try to avoid it, in favour of "Made in Taiwan", or "Made in Japan". I suspect there's a lot of 2000 hour components going into kit now instead of the 10000 hour parts that are on the specification.
Good call. Or indeed "Made in Korea", which is the new "Made in Japan" as far as I'm concerned.
The problem with some Chinese stuff is that I don't even think a lot of it even makes the "2000 hour" level of development. The manufacturers are not making stuff to last a certain period of time, they're just making it as cheaply as they can get away with.
I realise this is an old thread, but I thought I'd rekindle it...
I'm thinking about buying a Wharfedale LCD Tv, but can't find out anything about them....
We all remember the Wharfedale brand of a few years ago for award winning high end HiFi speakers.... apparently they, and indeed Mission, are now owned by the "International Audio group"... but what about the Wharfedale TV's?? who makes them... are they another Turkish Vestel brand??
As far as I can tell, they don't come from the Alba group of companies...
From reading this whole thread, I'm hoping they're made somewhere in Korea ..
Yo!
What A/V equipment manafacturers do you think are a complete joke?
I'd vote for Alba - cheap, poor crappy parts and just generally dreadful.
Alex
At all costs avoid Mitsami or some cheap model which sells this cassette walkman for 4.99 in Argos. I bought one and it was worse than Alba. The tape went at different speed and I ended up screaming and smashing the cassette walkman on the floor before collapsing on the floor with tears for fears. I was crying out loud before I realised that MP3 player will do just fine.
Ive had 2 dab radios fvb1 and fvb2 both locked in tuning, now have a bug I love it
Have a sharp vhs player mcc-v705 (I think it is ?) 4 years old it starts to go grainy all the time so i hsve to take it apart and clean it by hand. and it has a problem with the scarts.
Panasonic havent been too good in the past, had 3 personal walkmans that ate tapes within a week, got my money back have a panasonic hifi sch-32 that i have to place a cd case under it and have it on an incline so the cd player doest skip (no dea why).
Also 2 aiwa cd palyer cassette things lasted about a year
I had a goldstar mini hifi the cd player gave up it went back 4 times to the repairers, (mastercare , crap) they replaced the cd lens etc, it turned out to be the hinge on the cd player lid,(top loader) but it would have to go and be repaired again, so i said no I'll have my money back instead, mainly because the garuntee was running out and ild ony had it about months in my house.
I do use my things a lot but I dont abuse the systems.
but my fave thing is this which cost me £10 from
a 2nd hand shop and the quality is really good compared to a lot of reciever i have heard, plus it has a gyroscope tuner thing a Marantz ST 450L
Anyone remember the name Welltech ? I bought a cd recorder about 5 years ago from Aldi or Lidl and it's never let me down and it's a nice looking piece of kit
I have a 20 inch LG LCD TV and a 19 inch Samsung TFT computer monitor. Both are absolutely excellent. In contast, I have had problems with Philips and Sharp in the past.
The worst telly we ever had, by the way, was a Sanyo CRT widescreen. The picture kept getting bigger and bigger and became distorted. It developed coloured blobs on parts of the picture, and eventually the picture went the other way and shrunk to about the size of a matchbox! We replaced it with a Sony widescreen CRT about 4 years ago.
I've come very late to this thread, but here's my two pennorth. I worked in a hifi/tv shop as an 18yo, and now I work in tv & film post-production so i've seen a lot of stuff over a lot of years. Hands down, Panasonic are the most reliable brand i've ever witnessed. I must have sold a thousand Technics CD players, some to friends who I still see all the time some 15 years later and they're still going strong. Same goes for Pioneer CD players and Kenwood amps...still running a KAV 6500 as my studio monitor amp since 1993. I had, until I recently donated it to my nephew, an amazing Panny 29" TV, a GAOO for those with long memories...beautiful analogue picture, no cheapo digital FX mucking up the image (a practice still done today in LCDs and plasmas!) and it's still gorgeous looking. We always had Sony TVs for years since I was a kid and they were always bulletproof...until they started making the portables in Wales and they were a load of rubbish. My dad must have three dead 14" 1990---> Sonys in the garage, whereas the 80s ones with the touch sensitive silver buttons on top...still going. Their large-screen went the same way. The C40 beta VCR I had for years was brilliant. Their later VHSes were awful. Panasonic VHSes, I had one which went for 10 years, lost it to an ex-missus but the same model I got again, from the tape dupe area where I worked, where they recorded 24x7 for years, is still going.
Philips. Worst rubbish I ever saw, for a premium product price. Rather a Goldstar any day.
Bang & Olufsen - rebadged, expensive Philips rubbish. For Poseurs.
Things like Matsui tellies did and continue to do good jobs because they're old, reliable chassis that just work. Not pretty, but they go on. Some of them.
Oh, my mate's got a Panasonic VHS still going that I remember watching Karate kid on 20 years ago.
My first video recorder from them buzzed so badly I couldn't leave it plugged in at night because it kept me awake.
I also had one of their early dvd player. dvd 510 or something like that. It was complete cr*p. In the end I took my hatred of it out on it by smashing it to pieces.
I wouldn't buy Samsung for any money in the world. omplete rubbish.
Just doesn't seem to be a brand I have any luck with.
I suppose everything goes by price. If you buy a no name budget piece of junk from Alba or bush with the spare change you found down the back of the sofa. You can't really complain when it dyes after 3 years.
However when you spend a fortune on a so called premium brand and it gives you nothing but hassle from day one.
I brought a dvd player for £250, it was total junk. I buy another one for £40 and it still works.
I've come very late to this thread, but here's my two pennorth. I worked in a hifi/tv shop as an 18yo, and now I work in tv & film post-production so i've seen a lot of stuff over a lot of years. Hands down, Panasonic are the most reliable brand i've ever witnessed. I must have sold a thousand Technics CD players, some to friends who I still see all the time some 15 years later and they're still going strong. Same goes for Pioneer CD players and Kenwood amps...still running a KAV 6500 as my studio monitor amp since 1993. I had, until I recently donated it to my nephew, an amazing Panny 29" TV, a GAOO for those with long memories...beautiful analogue picture, no cheapo digital FX mucking up the image (a practice still done today in LCDs and plasmas!) and it's still gorgeous looking. We always had Sony TVs for years since I was a kid and they were always bulletproof...until they started making the portables in Wales and they were a load of rubbish. My dad must have three dead 14" 1990---> Sonys in the garage, whereas the 80s ones with the touch sensitive silver buttons on top...still going. Their large-screen went the same way. The C40 beta VCR I had for years was brilliant. Their later VHSes were awful. Panasonic VHSes, I had one which went for 10 years, lost it to an ex-missus but the same model I got again, from the tape dupe area where I worked, where they recorded 24x7 for years, is still going.
Philips. Worst rubbish I ever saw, for a premium product price. Rather a Goldstar any day.
Bang & Olufsen - rebadged, expensive Philips rubbish. For Poseurs.
Things like Matsui tellies did and continue to do good jobs because they're old, reliable chassis that just work. Not pretty, but they go on. Some of them.
Oh, my mate's got a Panasonic VHS still going that I remember watching Karate kid on 20 years ago.
you sound like you know your stuff!! I agree with you on everything here!!
Didnt the gadget show do a bit on them, they showed all the extream testing thay do while the products are being designed, plus i cant say any of their kit resembles philips.
Didnt the gadget show do a bit on them, they showed all the extream testing thay do while the products are being designed, plus i cant say any of their kit resembles philips.
I think a couple of the base B&O things used to be partly manufactured by Philips, but to a much higher standard, that has changed now though.
Matsui have produced some OK stuff over the years. My mum has still got a working Matsui video from 1987. I intend to nab that soon as it has certain advantages over more modern VCRs, especially when connected to other recording equipment.
Of the modern stuff I quite like Liteon.
My mum has also got an aiwa VCR - piece of junk.
It saddens me when I see people knock Goodmans, they are pretty bad now, but they used to make some good stuff. My twin tape deck (yeah I've still got one) in my Hi Fi stack is a goodmans, and so are my speakers. I bought these in 1989 when Goodmans were still quite good, still going strong now. I also used to have a CD Player and amplifier but the CD died years ago and I toasted the amp afew years back. Ferguson and Baird also used to be very good stuff. I had an ex rental Ferguson Television and ex rental Baird VCR from about 1987. I only got rid of them a few years ago, and they were still working well.
My Goodmans Turntable from 1989 actually sounded better than my brand new Technics turntable until I bought a new stylus for the Technics deck.
My Bush 25" TV is stunning! i bought it in Asda/Walmart about 6 years ago for £189.99. Even though it isn't a flat-screen - it is nigh-on flat (about 4mm difference over the tube front) The picture quality on it, RGB scart from sky box, is so crisp and clear, i've only ever seen 2 CRTs that can match the quality. It's NTSC too, so games are great - it has all the UHF/cable/hyperband tuners so i can pick up my neighbours camcorder/karaoke sessions with an indoor aerial! Take my work for it, it is the best value-for-money TV i've ever seen.
I also got a Funai DVD recorder for £69 - i'll admit, there are a few "niggles" i have with it - the quality shift from various quality settings is simply sh1t - and the worst bit is that whilst recording on the 1 hour quality setting is 1:1 quality, the 2 hour is almost broadcast quality, there isnt a 3 hour setting!!! so for nearly all movies i have to choose 4 hour - which is the same quality of an LP VHS tape! talk about a goddamn oversight! Its seriously cheap, and for the price i am happy with it.
In my opinion, the best budget-brand or OEM has to be Novatech.
The old ferguson top loading vcr,very good machines also the old philips ones(the ones with the single pin mech that looped the tape around the heads)alba,bush are good but goodmans for some reason(I know there all owen by alba)seem to be junk,just bought a £30 bush divx player from argos and it works better than my samsung divx player,liteon are good and cheap,so are the funai vcr argos sell the £34(£40 in comet)I've got 5 of them(cctv)and a nicam version,I only seem to buy the cheaper brands,dont see the point of paying £200 for a dvd recorder that in 12mths 1 day could fall flat on its face just out of guarantee,I admit that could happen with the cheeper brand,but at least you only paid £70 for it.
Bush/Alba/Goodmans/Matsui/Proline/Ministry Of Sound/Mikomi/Schneider/Pacific/Durabrand/Wharfedale (Argos stuff, not speakers)......
None of the above actually make anything, they get other companies, generally Taiwanese, or Chinese, to make their products and simply brand them and sell them.
Vestel tend to make a lot of the products, as do Beko.
I think a couple of the base B&O things used to be partly manufactured by Philips, but to a much higher standard, that has changed now though.
B&O stuff is literally, B&O.
B&0 were heavily bailed out financially about 15-20 years ago but were never just posh philips kit. They have over the years used the highest quality components form all over the world including Hitachi vcr mechs, Panasonic plasma panels, Philips tubes and Sony cd drives to name a few.
The testing that they go through is very extensive such as being frozen then turned on and then being put in very high temps straight away.
The best test was the sweat test. They used synthetic sweat on a fake finger and pressed the remote buttons over a million times to check the reliability of the button itself and the durability of the ink on the button!!
Gotta say though although they were reliable and looked good, I wouldn't Buy one even though I used to sell them!!!!
Philips hi-fi - great
Philips 32in flatscreen - fantastic
Sony mini disc - pretty bad
Sony DVD player (£200) - brilliant JVC 32in lcd flatscreen - unbelievably good
Proline 20in CRT TV - ok
JVC hifi - brill
Motorola V70 - crap
AIWA discman - crap
Panasonic 6hd VCR - very good
Philips portable cassette player/radio - ok
Pure DAB radio - very good quality build, crap sound!
Comments
Ahh yes the SA90's... or my favourite the MA-X90's which were the metal tape with a metal case! (a see thru side with a metal alloy inner casing, the extra weight made the tape 'stable' and not move about, according to TDK! - superb sound and only about £6.95 each I think.....
yup we still got a 28" black diamond widescreen that my dad bought a few years back and it makes this stupid whining sound
also you cant turn widescreen switching off
then we got a panasonic 21" running great for about 9 or 10 years, and the tv looks just as good and modern as any 21" (non flatscreen) available now. panasonic cd player also running fine...
In my room i have a 14" JMB tv running fine paired with a stand up sony freeview box and the sony dvp-f250s dvd player to match + some creative 3300 2.1 speakers...
everything works fine even my JMB
However if I wanted the absolute best picture quality with the latest technology I would opt for a Phillips/Panasonic/Sony set with all the extras including Pixel plus in case of the Phillips, DRT for Sony and I can't recall Panasonics picture enhancing technology. Their pictures are usually outstanding and also include several other picture enhancing technologies. The sets are more expensive, but it these firms that drive forward the technology and then the others pick it up.
However the down side is this technology is expensive and because you pay so much you also rightly expect reliability which is often lacking. If I pay a lot of money for top end gear and it isn't perfect I keep rejecting them, until I get one thats right.
I buy an item and choose brand depending on its use and what I want. My main gear all tends to be the major brands (not always), Philips/Sony etc. My secondary gear is much cheaper, but its all I need for where it is situated/used. When the technology levels out as it often does, such as occured with VCR's and now basic DVD players, I purchase the cheapest unit (that looks good) and someone else has recommended.
Sony were the market leaders. As long as they were manufacturing themselves in Japan (or Bridgend in Wales, hopefully) their TV's were the best because they had the Trinitron tube, but then along came Mitsubishi with Diamandtron, and suddenly Sony were no longer the tube manufacturer with unique technology. Now they are no better or worse than any other manufacturer for reliablity. We still have Sony separates: Dolby Surround AV receiver anyone? :eek: No, can't set up even four speakers for a decent sound field in a real living room, so no point in upgrading to DTS. The Sony replaced a Sansui amp and tuner, which replaced a funny little Sony vertical styled amplifier and tuner even I bought second hand.
I had a 17 inch Panasonic TV from about 1985 to 1995ish. No SCART, just a composite in. I wish I'd not sold it on, it was a wonderful set. It was replaced with a 25 inch JVC that lasted about 7 years. Now we have a 24 nich widescreen Panasonic. Great picture. I actually prefer the non-Trinitron picture tube.
I've never bought anything but JVC video recorders. We're on our second now, with a new SVHS tucked away for when the second conks out. Why JVC? 16:9 recording. I dare say other brands do it but only JVC publicise it.
As for "cheap" brands, we're now using a Tevion freeview box, replacing a Pace DTVA that lasted 3 and a half years. Still works, just won't hold the "tuning" data" for any length of time. Tevion personal CD/MP3 players? Pah, lasted 8 months then went cack. They're actually Lenoxx. So that's one special I won't be buying tomorrow in Aldi...
Pacific DVD player is the second sample, the first went back because it glitched all the time. Second sample is fine. Just gotta reject the goods if they're not of merchantable quality.
LiteOn DVD recorder is too new to judge, but my experience with their PC CDRW drives is all positive.
I'm afraid if it says "Made in China" now I try to avoid it, in favour of "Made in Taiwan", or "Made in Japan". I suspect there's a lot of 2000 hour components going into kit now instead of the 10000 hour parts that are on the specification.
Good call. Or indeed "Made in Korea", which is the new "Made in Japan" as far as I'm concerned.
The problem with some Chinese stuff is that I don't even think a lot of it even makes the "2000 hour" level of development. The manufacturers are not making stuff to last a certain period of time, they're just making it as cheaply as they can get away with.
I'm thinking about buying a Wharfedale LCD Tv, but can't find out anything about them....
We all remember the Wharfedale brand of a few years ago for award winning high end HiFi speakers.... apparently they, and indeed Mission, are now owned by the "International Audio group"... but what about the Wharfedale TV's?? who makes them... are they another Turkish Vestel brand??
As far as I can tell, they don't come from the Alba group of companies...
From reading this whole thread, I'm hoping they're made somewhere in Korea ..
At all costs avoid Mitsami or some cheap model which sells this cassette walkman for 4.99 in Argos. I bought one and it was worse than Alba. The tape went at different speed and I ended up screaming and smashing the cassette walkman on the floor before collapsing on the floor with tears for fears. I was crying out loud before I realised that MP3 player will do just fine.
Ive had 2 dab radios fvb1 and fvb2 both locked in tuning, now have a bug I love it
Have a sharp vhs player mcc-v705 (I think it is ?) 4 years old it starts to go grainy all the time so i hsve to take it apart and clean it by hand. and it has a problem with the scarts.
Panasonic havent been too good in the past, had 3 personal walkmans that ate tapes within a week, got my money back have a panasonic hifi sch-32 that i have to place a cd case under it and have it on an incline so the cd player doest skip (no dea why).
Also 2 aiwa cd palyer cassette things lasted about a year
I had a goldstar mini hifi the cd player gave up it went back 4 times to the repairers, (mastercare , crap) they replaced the cd lens etc, it turned out to be the hinge on the cd player lid,(top loader) but it would have to go and be repaired again, so i said no I'll have my money back instead, mainly because the garuntee was running out and ild ony had it about months in my house.
I do use my things a lot but I dont abuse the systems.
but my fave thing is this which cost me £10 from
a 2nd hand shop and the quality is really good compared to a lot of reciever i have heard, plus it has a gyroscope tuner thing a Marantz ST 450L
http://cgi.ebay.ch/Marantz-ST450L-ST-450-L-Stereo-Tuner-Silber-Gyro-Touch_W0QQitemZ7631112749QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64806QQcmdZViewItem
I occasionally go back into the dark ages with my Pioneer tape units!
I used to have sepaprates [Denon tape unit], but sold them as a friend gave me an excellent Pioneer separates system from around 1993.
Was always impressed with Yamaha - especially their audio processors.
Alex -
The worst telly we ever had, by the way, was a Sanyo CRT widescreen. The picture kept getting bigger and bigger and became distorted. It developed coloured blobs on parts of the picture, and eventually the picture went the other way and shrunk to about the size of a matchbox! We replaced it with a Sony widescreen CRT about 4 years ago.
Philips. Worst rubbish I ever saw, for a premium product price. Rather a Goldstar any day.
Bang & Olufsen - rebadged, expensive Philips rubbish. For Poseurs.
Things like Matsui tellies did and continue to do good jobs because they're old, reliable chassis that just work. Not pretty, but they go on. Some of them.
Oh, my mate's got a Panasonic VHS still going that I remember watching Karate kid on 20 years ago.
My first video recorder from them buzzed so badly I couldn't leave it plugged in at night because it kept me awake.
I also had one of their early dvd player. dvd 510 or something like that. It was complete cr*p. In the end I took my hatred of it out on it by smashing it to pieces.
I wouldn't buy Samsung for any money in the world. omplete rubbish.
Just doesn't seem to be a brand I have any luck with.
However when you spend a fortune on a so called premium brand and it gives you nothing but hassle from day one.
I brought a dvd player for £250, it was total junk. I buy another one for £40 and it still works.
you sound like you know your stuff!! I agree with you on everything here!!
Didnt the gadget show do a bit on them, they showed all the extream testing thay do while the products are being designed, plus i cant say any of their kit resembles philips.
I think a couple of the base B&O things used to be partly manufactured by Philips, but to a much higher standard, that has changed now though.
B&O stuff is literally, B&O.
Of the modern stuff I quite like Liteon.
My mum has also got an aiwa VCR - piece of junk.
It saddens me when I see people knock Goodmans, they are pretty bad now, but they used to make some good stuff. My twin tape deck (yeah I've still got one) in my Hi Fi stack is a goodmans, and so are my speakers. I bought these in 1989 when Goodmans were still quite good, still going strong now. I also used to have a CD Player and amplifier but the CD died years ago and I toasted the amp afew years back. Ferguson and Baird also used to be very good stuff. I had an ex rental Ferguson Television and ex rental Baird VCR from about 1987. I only got rid of them a few years ago, and they were still working well.
My Goodmans Turntable from 1989 actually sounded better than my brand new Technics turntable until I bought a new stylus for the Technics deck.
I also got a Funai DVD recorder for £69 - i'll admit, there are a few "niggles" i have with it - the quality shift from various quality settings is simply sh1t - and the worst bit is that whilst recording on the 1 hour quality setting is 1:1 quality, the 2 hour is almost broadcast quality, there isnt a 3 hour setting!!! so for nearly all movies i have to choose 4 hour - which is the same quality of an LP VHS tape! talk about a goddamn oversight! Its seriously cheap, and for the price i am happy with it.
In my opinion, the best budget-brand or OEM has to be Novatech.
None of the above actually make anything, they get other companies, generally Taiwanese, or Chinese, to make their products and simply brand them and sell them.
Vestel tend to make a lot of the products, as do Beko.
B&0 were heavily bailed out financially about 15-20 years ago but were never just posh philips kit. They have over the years used the highest quality components form all over the world including Hitachi vcr mechs, Panasonic plasma panels, Philips tubes and Sony cd drives to name a few.
The testing that they go through is very extensive such as being frozen then turned on and then being put in very high temps straight away.
The best test was the sweat test. They used synthetic sweat on a fake finger and pressed the remote buttons over a million times to check the reliability of the button itself and the durability of the ink on the button!!
Gotta say though although they were reliable and looked good, I wouldn't Buy one even though I used to sell them!!!!
Philips hi-fi - great
Philips 32in flatscreen - fantastic
Sony mini disc - pretty bad
Sony DVD player (£200) - brilliant
JVC 32in lcd flatscreen - unbelievably good
Proline 20in CRT TV - ok
JVC hifi - brill
Motorola V70 - crap
AIWA discman - crap
Panasonic 6hd VCR - very good
Philips portable cassette player/radio - ok
Pure DAB radio - very good quality build, crap sound!
:cool: