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  • What do you think of Sony???

    Well I'm taking a poll for the hell of it to see if everyone elses experances are the same as mine. This is my personal experance:

    Sony audio equipment:
    I got a Sony AV recevier about 5 years ago. It did everything on screen, with no controls on the unit itself execpt change what you wanted outputted to like your CD play etc. Well I had the thing 3 weeks and the remote crapped out..it was this stupid egg shaped thing..and I got it "fixed" but it never worked again and the reciever spent the rest of its days powering my Bose 301 speakers on My PC before being shitcanned in favor of my Kplischs and a new JVC Recever for my home enteranment system. Very Dissapointed

    I have an Sony Xplode head unit in my car that replaced the CD and tape player that was part of my MACH 460 system in my Mustang. Sounds a little clearer then the Ford Radio, but in the past couple months when I first go to use it I get a garrbled LCD display..might be short or the unit crapping out...so I'm netural on this product.

    Sony Home entertament products:

    My Sony 27in TV...no problems what so ever...great TV

    My Sony DVD player...like the TV Flawless..

    I dont personally own a Sony VCR, but my parents do and yet again its flawless! has nice highspeed rewind and fastforwards through Commerials quick. I might get a low end Sony VCR if I can get it for less then $100.

    Sony Digital Cameras:
    At first I wasn't all that impressed by Sony's products. I had a friend who had a Floppy Macvia and it took ok pictures. I used to borrow my Old mans Olypmus camera that uses flash memory if I needed to take digital photos. I took it on a trip back in April and quickly found it its worst flaw...the limited memory of the memory cards and the largest one could only hold about 12 1024x768 photos. I did some research and I winded up getting a Sony MVC-CD300 Ditigal camera that uses Mini-CD-R/RW discs as media. I love this camera, except for its price! I can fit about 100 high qual. jpg files @ 1200x1024 on a single CD. only bad thing is that one of the two batteries I had for it crapped out and I need to get it replaced.

    I dont have any experance with other Sony products like their Laptops or PCs so I can't add anything to that. Anyone else want to share?

    Scott
    Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

  • #2
    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.
    pixar
    Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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    • #3
      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
      Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 27 November 2001, 12:09.
      Dr. Mordrid
      ----------------------------
      An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

      I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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      • #4
        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.
        Last edited by Tempest; 27 November 2001, 13:00.

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        • #5
          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.
          Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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          • #6
            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.
            Last edited by Goc; 27 November 2001, 15:42.
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            • #7
              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.

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              • #8
                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.
                AMD XP2100+, 512megs DDR333, ATI Radeon 8500, some other stuff.

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                • #9
                  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
                  Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

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                  • #10
                    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.
                    Meet Jasmine.
                    flickr.com/photos/pace3000

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                    • #11
                      I have no criteria...

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

                      Its how I ended up with my first Matrox Card
                      AMD Phenom 9650, 8GB, 4x1TB, 2x22 DVD-RW, 2x9600GT, 23.6' ASUS, Vista Ultimate
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                      Acer 6930G, T6400, 4GB, 500GB, 16", Vista Premium
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                      • #12
                        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.
                        Last edited by Jorden; 28 November 2001, 18:29.
                        Jordâ„¢

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                        • #13
                          How do <I>you</I> know for sure?
                          One or two units, I suppose. How's this for you Jorden:

                          The 420GS in my sig is the <B>5th</B> 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 <I>never</I> 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?
                          Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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                          • #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.
                            Last edited by Jorden; 28 November 2001, 19:18.
                            Jordâ„¢

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                            • #15
                              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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