brand names I'll never buy

[The Chase]

Sony?

I'm with ya on metallica

Sony made the first car stereo I ever owned. It was over-priced and not very good. I bought the second most expensive model they made, and it wasn't as good as other car stereos from other companies, which sold for half the price.

Later, I had a CD burner die in my computer. The only thing handy at the local store that day was a Sony. While all the other brands, even some of the cheapest ones, came with some usable software, the Sony came with crap for software. It wasn't even usable. I continued to use the full copy of Nero that I had received with my first CD burner, and ditched the crap that Sony provided.

My father has a boom box made by Sony. Once again, paid full price and got sub-standard performance and features. It skips horribly on several CDs that play in other people's cheaper players, of the same vintage. The radio reception is also poor compared to many other cheaper radios I've seen.

My father had a Sony CD burner or DVD-ROM (can't remember which). Once again, the software was crap, the performance was average, and the price wasn't too cheap.

My father then purchased a Sony digital camcorder. It records with decent quality, but the accessory software Sony provided to transfer the video into dad's computer was UtterCrap(tm). It times out after something like 5 or 15 minutes. You get an error message on your monitor that says you have insufficient hard drive space. What did we do? We shoved a new 200 GB hard drive into the computer as a second drive. We still get the short recording length and the same damn message about not enough hard drive space! I later found out, that the software was only designed to transfer a few minutes of video at a time! Instead of printing this in any of the literature that comes with the camera or in a PDF file on the software disc, I had to trawl the internet to find this little piece of information! It actually said that the "low hard drive space" message was the normal message at the end of the pre-determined transfer time! What a total f**king waste of time and money that little piece of shit software was!

I've never owned one of their portable "Walkman" products, but they always seemed to be greatly over-priced. I would probably never purchase one, even if I won a lottery and was rich overnight.

Though I've never owned one, Sony makes mediocre digital still cameras, in my opinion. If you buy their very best, you might get a decent camera, but most of the models are below average in capability, and don't come with a below-average price to match. They were also very fond of using their proprietary memory cards, instead of the more common, easy to find, cheaper to purchase alternatives. I've yet to hear of any advantage to the more expensive proprietary cards -- except for Sony's bottom line, of course. Furthermore, I have read in various places, that the software Sony provides to transfer your still pictures into your computer is very minimal, shareware crap! I have absolutely no trouble believing this, after the fiasco with dad's digital camcorder. Everyone else is bundling decent software, why can't Sony? As long as there is Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, and others, I'll never purchase a Sony digital camera. (I've loved and used fine cameras since 1980. I know a thing or two about what makes a good one. Most of Sony's cameras just aren't that good.)

I can't imagine ever purchasing Sony consumer electronics, or computer hardware, ever again. Other people might love it, but I don't.

To be fair, their pro gear might be some of the best stuff on the planet, but I'll probably never be in a position to need it. They probably have some very bright engineers working at the company, but they don't seem to be in charge of product design. It seems the sales and bean counter people are in complete control, and have no desire to produce excellent product--only to produce excellent profits for themselves.


Does this answer your question, eyeknow666?
(sorry to be so long-winded)


take care,
McLilith

than that's wierd! I've only had great experiences with their discmen (walkmans were always horrible no matter what brand). I have a 24X sony burner that's still working perfectly after 3 years (i use nero as well). M car's system is sony, and it's GREAT. When did all this happen?

[SWTrex]

Hormel

No problems with them since I installed a Spam filter...

[hello1234]

Hormel

No problems with them since I installed a Spam filter...

[McLilith]

I have a 24X sony burner that's still working perfectly after 3 years (i use nero as well). M car's system is sony, and it's GREAT. When did all this happen?

My Sony burner still works, but it wasn't really competitively priced, and the software included was UtterCrap(tm). If I didn't still have that full version of Nero from a previous burner, the drive would have been useless to me. (That is, without another trip to the store for software, which would have effectively doubled the price of my total CD burning investment.)

All this stuff happend over a period of several years. The Sony car stereo was purchased in the 80s. It was expensive, but the FM stereo reception wasn't as good as many $50 portable radios! It had decent mono reception, but it would automatically kick out of stereo mode if I wasn't nearly within sight of the transmitting tower. Other brands of radios performed far better in this regard. The CD section also didn't take very long after the warranty period, to start skipping like a maniac.

I imagine other people probably have decent luck with many Sony products, but I haven't. It almost seems as if some higher power decided that I should never receive any joy from a Sony product.

Either that, or Sony makes a lot of mediocre (I'm being generous) products.

Since I wrote my first post, I found out that dad does have a Sony VHS VCR, and a Sony DVD player. Both of those seem to work pretty well, but it's about time that something with that name on it worked for my family.


take care,
McLilith

[ouroboros]

Sony used to (at least 4 years ago) install metal plates in their t.v.'s for no other reason than to add heft. This contributed to their "well-built" reputation. Clever.

[o'malley]

I wouldn't buy a TV in general, from any brand.

creative is teh suxxor
compaq is teh suxxor
Bandalero triple sec is teh grossxor
MG is teh breax-down-all-teh-timexor

[Innominandum]

I swore I would never buy Behringer!!! But I bought 3 dual channel compressors for $60 a pop, and they're fine for live sound. I can't complain about 6 channels of compression for $180.

AOpen/Acer builds complete garbage. Maybe they've improved but my experience is "you're lucky if it works." Their junk is probably held together by duct tape. Can't count the number of class action lawsuits against them.

BenQ - bought an external DVD burner which didn't work, dead on arrival, didn't even power on. Exchanged it. The exchange model didn't work, didn't even power on either. Confirmed by the store too. OUCH.

[Kraku]

Kraku You'd never buy Roland?! I knew you were insane, but THAT insane?

Well actually they've made some really good stuff in the analogue synth era, but in the later years their products didn't sound that good anymore. And because I don't want to buy a synth that doesn't work as a VSTi (no HW analogue synths for me), I might consider Roland as a dead company for me and add it to my short "not to support" list

[John Vulich]

Acer and IBM... the WORST computers I've ever owned!

[McLilith]

AOpen/Acer builds complete garbage. Maybe they've improved but my experience is "you're lucky if it works." Their junk is probably held together by duct tape. Can't count the number of class action lawsuits against them.

BenQ - bought an external DVD burner which didn't work, dead on arrival, didn't even power on. Exchanged it. The exchange model didn't work, didn't even power on either. Confirmed by the store too. OUCH.

That's interesting! BenQ is actually the new name for Acer!

I have an Acer scanner, which is now sold under the BenQ label. This is really the same company. It's interesting that you found them disappointing no matter what the name. I wasn't too unhappy with my scanner. It was a bargain model, compared to the competition. I knew it wasn't nearly the best model, just the best price I could find at the time.


take care,
McLilith


--

An Acer class-action lawsuit by any other name...

[McLilith]

Kraku You'd never buy Roland?! I knew you were insane, but THAT insane?

Well actually they've made some really good stuff in the analogue synth era, but in the later years their products didn't sound that good anymore. And because I don't want to buy a synth that doesn't work as a VSTi (no HW analogue synths for me), I might consider Roland as a dead company for me and add it to my short "not to support" list

I also lost interest in Roland after the analog years. Their pro stuff seems durably constructed, but I'm just not that excited by the sound anymore. It seems that other companies do digital better, if you want a digital synth.

As for analog, Alesis did the Andromeda -- Dave Smith practically resurrected the Prophet -- Moog brought back the Minimoog -- Buchla even brought back the 200e! What analog sweetness did Roland contribute? Nothing, Zilch, Zippo, and Nadda. Instead, the just produced more stale ROMplers. (Not that all ROMPlers are stale, but I do think Roland ROMPlers are somewhat stale.)


take care,
McLilith

[skygge]

TimeWorks/Korg - i have a Pandora PX-1 guitar multi-fx which i liked so much that i bought the AX1500G floorboard when it came out in the hope of having the same sound quality plus a better internal routing flexibility but got dissappointed by the worst guitar sound i've ever heard/had. No more money from me, Korg!

Terratec - i have/had some pc gear from them - omg! They have completely crappy drivers + their customer support is somewhat hard to come by. A couple of years before it took me 4 days to get someone on the phone and another 5 minutes to find out that they just don't want to help me. Again, no more money from me!

Abit - a few years back (almost) every Abit motherboard was stuffed with pirated electrolytic caps (electronic parts) which leaked the aggressive electrolytic fluid after some time. Although the problem was known they didn't do anything against that. I had 2 boards from them at that time, both failed. F*ck you Abit!

Asus - Again a few years back i happened to own a Asus graphics card which failed. I sent it back to repair and had to wait 4 months to get it back! Bye Asus!

Philips - Although Philips was one of the inventors of the CD i have never seen a CD-Player/-Writer or anything else with the "CD" prefix from them that worked for more than 2 years. And i have seen tons of them. Philips Semiconductors is a big player in the IC market though and there is a good chance YOU have philips in your electronics too. Thank Odin their ICs are quality stuff, but Philips consumer electronics? - No thanks!

Native Instruments - Great software, but what a greedy bunch of people.

Steinberg - *see above

Muon Software - their website is from 2003 announcing stuff for 2004 that 2005 still hasn't happened. For me they also lost a good portion of reputation with the Computer Music software they made. What a ridiculous crap!

This post reflects my own opinion based on experiences that i made with those companies. No further explaination will follow.

[Rozzer]

Twinkies

[kovacs]

I disagree with whoever mentioned Behringer...I got their FCB 1010 floorboard and a Eurorack mixer and they work flawlessly! Their stuff is cheap and sturdy.

However, I'd think twice before I buy another IBM Deskstar hard drive...I had 5 60Gigs of them in a raid and they ALL managed to fail on me within one single week. The retailer decided to send me Maxtors instead, they worked great.

[Germ777]

I'll disagree on the Hoshino part myself- I've never played a bad Ibanez. I've owned four or five of them over the years; in fact my present electric 12-string's a '79 Artist.
ew

The quality of Ibanez dropped a big deal during the mid 90s untila couple years ago.
in the late 90s I had an ibanez and after only 6 months of use the bridge fell off I was left with it in my hand while the guitar suffered a splint from the bridge to the neck.
I took it to a Luthier and he told me the guitar´s wood was poorly dried and it was just normal. I went to the shop where I bought it and they would not change the guitar or recognize this as a faulty production deal.
I learnt my lesson so I went to Nicolas Volpe in Venezuela (the best electric guitar maker in the country) and gave him a good slab of Honduras Mahogany to make me a strat bodied guitar with a one piece Rosewood neck (bought at Warmoth) that is the best guitar I have ever played!!!! and it is aging beatifully
Hmm. what was this thread about? I just get carried away everytime I talk about "Brownie"
BTW. Now Ibanez is making a better productand even their low level guitars are made of wood instead of compunds like in the 80s and 90s.
I hate Mackie now for their awful customer support outside of the USA.
Would never buy ............................
Lamborghini I`d rather have a 1969 fastback Ford Mustang