jdm56 Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 Chapter 1: Last winter I bought a nice little Panasonic receiver for my humble family-room A/V rig. The front L & R channels were DOA. I exchanged it for another identical receiver (SA-HE200) which was, and remains A-OK. Chapter 2: This past summer I upgraded my music-room system with a Pioneer Elite receiver (VSX-55TXi) and Pioneer Elite universal disc player (DV-47Ai). By November, the power transformer in the receiver was buzzing. After nearly a two month stay in the shop, it was finally repaired and is just now back home. It seems fine. (knock on wood) Chapter 3: Within a week of getting the receiver home, the disc player has now started misbehaving. It won't play DVD-Audio discs without muting repeatedly. So, it appears it will get a trip to the shop, too. So, am I just one unlucky son-of-a-gun, or is the quality of affordable gear going to pot? Whatever, I probably will not be too quick to buy another Pioneer product for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwoods Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 Hey, the same question/problem is also posted in Trouble Shooting. You guys should compare notes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancestorm Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 I want to knock some heads at H/K for allowing my refurb unit to get in my hands in the first place. After a few months the 525 was acting very weird and took over a month for H/K to even consider replacement. The guy at the shop said the main board was saudered to hell and back. I must have received a unit that had been tossed around like a rag doll by the previous owner. He said it was in such bad shape that in no way should it have left repackaged as a refurb. But at least I got something out of it and complaining: a brand new 630. I am thankful that my Reference series speakers are in great shape and working great. No problems with quality there, knock on wood again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor.Ham.Slap Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 I dunno, perhaps I'm just lucky but I have a Pioneer VSX-D711 reciever, Pioneer DV-C503 DVD player and a Pioneer DVD-R(W) drive for my computer and all have worked flawlessly. But, I do agree with you. Quality has been on a steady decline it seems in the last few years. Too much emphasis is placed on filling the product with cheaper components in order to increase company profit margins. Meanwhile, we still eat the same cost. /mini-rant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syclone385 Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 My Pioneer Elite VSX36 is currently in the shop, if you can call it that! I drove 42 miles one way to drop it off at the Authorized repair center. Turns out the Authorized service center is some guy out in the middle of nowhere(Decatur,TN)working out of his garage. I have serious doubts about whether my receiver will ever work again. The guy had no idea what DTS was or DD for that matter. To make matters worse I have continuously tried to call and get nothing but the machine. I wonder if I will ever get it back! Pioneer is going to hear it real soon if something doesn't happen soon. Oh yeah, his wife was one crazy foulmouthed B!tch!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancestorm Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 ---------------- On 1/23/2004 11:28:07 AM syclone385 wrote: My Pioneer Elite VSX36 is currently in the shop, if you can call it that! I drove 42 miles one way to drop it off at the Authorized repair center. Turns out the Authorized service center is some guy out in the middle of nowhere(Decatur,TN)working out of his garage. I have serious doubts about whether my receiver will ever work again. The guy had no idea what DTS was or DD for that matter. To make matters worse I have continuously tried to call and get nothing but the machine. I wonder if I will ever get it back! Pioneer is going to hear it real soon if something doesn't happen soon. Oh yeah, his wife was one crazy foulmouthed B!tch!! ---------------- Wow dude, I wouldn't have even dropped off the unit to that kind of place. Especially after your initial interactions with them. I would have called the company and told them no-way you were going to drop it off with them. You expect good customer service! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygmn Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 I never seem to have any problems....except I did once with my Pioneer Laser Disk player after about 5 years.....Seems a wire got lose inside and well it got the platen stuck... I fixed it myself...... no problems with other things...... My experience is electric stuff tends to burn out after about 48 hours of use or it will work for a long DAYUM time..... Good luck with future purchases... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 ---------------- On 1/23/2004 2:24:15 AM James D McCall wrote: So, am I just one unlucky son-of-a-gun, or is the quality of affordable gear going to pot? Whatever, I probably will not be too quick to buy another Pioneer product for a while. ---------------- I don't know, I hope to write that off as a spate of bad luck, but then again... At least my Denon AVR3802 reciever is still working like a champ after nearly two years (although it is now pretty much working as a pre/pro). I have faith my B&K amp will continue to be working for a long long time. For that matter, my old Yamaha R-V702 reciever that I had for the past 6 or so years still works perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 I've had 2 problems that I can think of. One was with my JBL PB-12 sub just dying completely the other was the Terk antenna I received just a few days ago...something with the power supply, I'm going to try to fix that myself. but yes, I think quality with electronics and things in general has gotten alot worse. I wish things where still made out of metal..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeptic Posted January 23, 2004 Share Posted January 23, 2004 IMHO, quality gear still exists. However, with a lot of brands its simply cheaper to make a certain percentage of faulty products, and have them come back, than to have a 100% success rate. Its just the reality of business these days. This is an ever greater problem with the current ability of consumers to shop around via the internet. Profit margins are getting smaller and smaller for a lot of the medium-lower priced gear (in that range Im counting anything klipsch makes, and anything pretty much I've seen anyone own on this forum). More people are shopping for crazy sale prices, and willing to go to non-authorized dealers, so authorized dealers are pushing for lower and lower manufacture costs. If you buy higher priced, most of the time higher quality stuff, your rate of failure goes down. Why? Because they are not trying to sell things that people are price checking on the internet, they are selling the stuff to people who walk into a boutique, buy it, and want it to *work*. The internet is the devil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted January 24, 2004 Author Share Posted January 24, 2004 I wonder if part of the decline in quality from the Japanese brands, if there really is a decline, can be traced to the fact that they (the Japanese) are farming so much production out to other countries. Very few Japanese A/V components seem to still be made in Japan these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted January 24, 2004 Share Posted January 24, 2004 My Sony receiver, DVD player, and CD changer (VERY, VERY hevily used for the last 2 years) have not as much as blinked. They are working like champs. Same thing with out Pioneer receiver and Panasonic DVD changer, they are both over a year old (more like 2) and both work great, and the receiver has more on/off cycles that you care to fathom (like 500-1000 a year) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted January 24, 2004 Share Posted January 24, 2004 Don't say that too loud, Ken. That's a hell of a luck streak with Sony gear. I remember the first (and last) time I bought a Sony receiver - brought it home, hooked it up to my Advent 5-channel package (this was back during the ProLogic days) ran it for about two weeks and POOF! smoke pours out the back one day when I open it up to about 75%. Take it back to Sears. Swap it out and give 'em a little more for the next step up. Take it home. Same thing - about two weeks and POOF! I replace all my wiring, install a surge suppressor, and one more time I bring it back, swap it out, bring it home and POOF! I'll take their CD and DVD players, man, but I'd never touch another Sony receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Griffinator: As with most electronics, if it is going to fail, it will do it within a day or two, or 15 years... I know people with a house full of Sony and nothing has failed. Maybe you are just unlucky. We have never had a piece of audio gear fail on us, and we use our stuff faily hard, and VERY often. I know people that have gone thru 4, 6, 8 PS2's or X-Box's in a year - some people just have that luck. I don't. My Parts Express amp is dead, and I am not too happy about that. At least I will get a new Crown and ART 351 on MY tab, so that will be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelerFan Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 ---------------- On 1/23/2004 12:37:02 PM ygmn wrote: I never seem to have any problems....except I did once with my Pioneer Laser Disk player after about 5 years.....Seems a wire got lose inside and well it got the platen stuck... I fixed it myself...... no problems with other things...... My experience is electric stuff tends to burn out after about 48 hours of use or it will work for a long DAYUM time..... Good luck with future purchases... ---------------- I have a Pioneer Laser disc player that has never worked consistently right for me. I went through all kinds of hoops with the authorized dealer I bought it from. One of those problems where sometimes it worked and sometimes not. Everytime I took it in for repair it would work and they acted like I was nuts. Dealing with Pioneer did no good, they kept refering me back to the dealer. In this instance buying authorized did me no good. Ofcourse back when I bought it there was really no internet yet to speak of, most everything had to come from an authorized dealer. It won't play laser discs anymore but that doesn't matter, I just use it in my 2ch system for CD's. Now it's starting to skip like an old record player on them. I guess soon I'll have to buy a new DVD player and put my old one in my 2ch system. I'm going to enjoy throwing the old Pioneer in the garbage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 ---------------- On 1/25/2004 5:28:17 PM kenratboy wrote: Griffinator: As with most electronics, if it is going to fail, it will do it within a day or two, or 15 years... I know people with a house full of Sony and nothing has failed. Maybe you are just unlucky. We have never had a piece of audio gear fail on us, and we use our stuff faily hard, and VERY often. I know people that have gone thru 4, 6, 8 PS2's or X-Box's in a year - some people just have that luck. I don't. My Parts Express amp is dead, and I am not too happy about that. At least I will get a new Crown and ART 351 on MY tab, so that will be nice. ---------------- Well, as a (now ex-)employee of Best Buy, I can tell you that the rate of warranty repair on the Sony equipment we sell (granted, we're not talking about Elite Series, but...) is second only to the rate of repair on Samsung. Sony receivers, televisions, and DVD players have a horrible track record in these parts. Diehard Sony fans who "upgraded" from their 10-year-old Sony TV to a newer one quickly became non-fans after repeated QC issues with the new Mexican and Malaysian-made sets. PS: I quit BB yesterday - and it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders as I walked out that door. No longer are my principals compromised by the demand to sell everything that isn't nailed down, and never to disparage product (even if it is an $80, 150-total-watt "surround sound" package with built in "progressive scan" DVD player) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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