My experience with Sony is rubbish!

My basic rule of thumb when it comes to dealing with Sony:

If it was developed and marketed for the United States, it's overpriced and of low quality.

If it was developed and marketed for Japan, and is imported, or subsequently ended up on Western shores after success in Japan; then it's likely still overpriced but of higher quality and possible worth it.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but it seems to be a general guide to go by.

Sony doesn't usually make crap. They just make average products and charge excellent product pricing. When they really want to make a flagship product and kick some ass, they generally do it with high success though. So the company still has some gusto left.

With the exception of only a few headphones, I tend to avoid Sony like the plague. Sony has pulled off the classic business market brand naming technique: Build an empire of quality goods for years, make a name for yourself, and then continue to make mediocre to good products, but demand excellent prices for them. People remember the good ole days when Sony WAS good, and associate that with modern products. "Hey, it's Sony, AND it costs more than that other one... it has to be better right?".

My rules of thumb.
Cheap Sony products = Cheap Products
Top of the Line Sony = Great Products

I think that's fair enough.


Examples:

My last $120 Sony VCR had tape sticking problems after one month.

My Sony ES Cd player was still going strong after 11 years when I finally gave it to my sister-in-law.

My TRV900 camcorder (cost $1,700) still functions perfectly after seven years of hard use. Try that with any piece of electronics, let alone something as delicate as a camcorder.

Sure, there are some cheap, products that can be lemons. But I can't think of any other major brand, however, that I trust more than Sony. GE? Phillips? Magnavox? Sharp? Panasonic? I'm more than satisfied with my Sony success rate.

Sony has been always been good to me...

My first radio/tape player as a kid was a Sony, worked great, only got rid of it becuase it looked like a childs toy.

I've had a 51 cd changer mini system for like 7 years now, still works great.

My parents both have Sony clock radios, never had a problem.

My mom has had some old Sony headpones forever, they still work.

Our main tv is 48" Sony Rear Projection unit, had no problems with it and have had it for many many years.

Along with said tv is a Sony DVD player, VCR, and Surround Sound Receiver. Never had any issues.

My Sony Walkman from the early 90's still works.

The only Sony product that ever stopped working for me was a crappy discman that I trashed in highschool, but I found on the bus anyway so no worries.

We use Sony cd players at Best Buy as sources for the speaker displays. They take a lot of abuse and still work fine after a few years.

I Sell a lot of Sony tv's at Best Buy, I really like their widscreen tube tv's. I think they look phenomenal. We don't get very many Sony tv's returned either.

Sorry for the long reply, but I believe in Sony, I have never been dissappointed in any of their products. They're definetely not the company they were 10 years ago from a quality standpoint, but no major company is.

Sony is "The King" of garbage. Everything I've ever owned by Sony has malfunctioned in one way or the other, while most of my other electronics seem to fair much better. I have a Panasonic PCDP player from 1994, and an Aiwa cassette player from earlier that function perfectly. Two Sony cassette players died in the interim (purchased after the Aiwa, and they were both WAY more money), two Sony PCDP die (purchased after the Panasonic, and more money), two Sony Playstation's sputter out, and a PS2. All my other game systems, dating as far back as the ancient Commodore64, still run as new. My Sony VAIO laptop never functioned properly, and in total frustration, I gave it to my brother (who wouldn't know a good cpu from a VCR ).

When my second PS2 dies (and surely, it shouldn't be long), I'm an done with Sony, period. They make over expensive garbage. Their headphones suck big-time, too, unless you want to spend atleast $200 more than they are actually worth.

Let's see what I've had so far...

Sony Discman - had issues playing scrathed/copied cds that my Panasonic played perfectly.

Sony Boombox - skips on almost every cds I've ever put into it, even the ones that were brand new!

Sony Walkman - started stretching my tapes about an hour after I owned it, bad sound quality too compared to my Aiwa.

Sony DVD Player - refuses to play a lot of region free DVDs. I brought these legally and I would like to see what's on them! And has a tendency to skip on even region 1 brand new DVDs

Sony telephone/answering machine - lasted two years, then the phone refused to recharge anymore even though we replaced the battery.

Sony clip-on headphones - sadly these lasted me the longest (4 years) , then I found this place so they went into storage.

OK, so most of these were not very expensive products and were from Sony's lower line. But I still expect these things to work. It doesn't matter that they're higher end products are what they spent most of they time and efforts developing. I still expect some quality even from a $50 pcdp. I have a lot of products that I brought for way less then their Sony counterparts and they've lasted longer and worked better.

So my new rule is to pretty much avoid Sonys all together. I don't want to take a gamble with them anymore. Panasonic and Aiwa have worked great for me so far, even their crappier products have stood the test of time.

Sorry long post/rant.

I actually Love sony's TV's (xbr crt's) and cd/dvd players. Its the u.s. customer service I had loads of issues on with their headphones.


Somuch so I am affraid to buy another sony cause of this.

I have a Sony ES 400-CD changer: love it.

I just purchased the KV40XBR800 40" bohemoth Sony CRT TV - to my eyes, absolutely the best HD picture I've ever seen. Better than ANY plasma or LCD or DLP I've seen.

I had a Sony 8mm camcorder for 15 years before it gave me a problem.

I have a Sony mini-DV camcorder which I love.

But I know how one feels when they hit a bad streak. I've had 2 Toshiba laptops, both get rave reviews, yet I think they are pieces of crap based on my experience and will never buy a Toshiba laptop again.

According to my personal experience, Sony products are not made to last more than the warranty period. It seems they have some built-in clock which tells them when the warranty is gone, and they go kaput immediately (days, maybe weeks) after.

I will never ever buy Sony products again (if I have an alternative for the same price/quality).

Always have good luck with Sony products....

Stereo integrated amp - from my first "rack" stereo in 1987. Still working pumping out music everyday. Not bad sounding at all.

Speakers - giant 3 ways from above "rack" system. Still working despite multiple karaoke session by my sister with sound level approaching 100 dBs.

D-NE300 PCDP - was on treadmill the other night listening to it, dropped it....twice. Still works.

My mom's 26" console TV - sold it after 13 years to a bunch of college kids....then discover it again in a Salvation Army store. Still working.

DVP-NS725V DVD player - shockingly smooth transport and picture quality. It's on for at least a couple of hours a day being used by my mom for her Korean dramas on DVD/VCD.

I have 3 Sony SACD players....DVP-NS500V, SCD-CE595, and a DVP-NS775V....all good.

I've had mixed luck with Sony product:

1. I recently tossed out a 35" crt because the tube blew out on us...we only had the tv for 6 1/2 years! Damnit. I purchased a 32" wega to replace it, lets see how long that sucker lasts

2. Sony VCR- it's a top of the line model (went for $400 new in 1997), still works perfectly to this day, never had any issues with it.

3. Sony MDR-V7506 headphones- I've owned these since Spring 2001 and have never had any issues with them. I imagine they'll last another 4 years, i was actually considering buying a backup pair in case Sony decides to stop producing this model.

Various walkmans: Most have fallen apart not even 6 months into use. I do have one walkman (imported from Japan, cost me $189) that still works fine, just sounds like the motor needs to be greased a little.

Various discmans (used from ebay): only one was faulty from the get go and another died quickly, the others still work great (D-4?, D-33, two D25's).

It's hit or miss with Sony. I always held them in high regards with their tv's, but after this 35" dying so quickly, i'm not so sure nowadays. Maybe in the future i'll try Panasonic gear and see how that works out.

On the subject of Sony TVs. While I don't doubt that they are quality products, I do have a short anecdote to share.

About 4 years ago I had a buddy who worked at a Best Buy. He did a number of jobs there, but mostly he worked in computer and TV sales. He once told me that when they get new TVs in, they would have directives on which TVs had the most margin on them. Typically the Sony TVs have the highest markup. Well, whichever TV was "marked" to sell like hotcakes, the sales team would intentionally alter the color settings of the other brands to look slightly washed out, while the marked TVs would display perfect colors.

He told me that when the Wega TVs hit, they even had different video feeds on them. They were all showing the same picture, but the video feed was coming from a different source box for the regular TVs vs the Wega's so that even when the customer compared the two side by side and played with the color settings, the higher priced (and margin) TV would look favorable.

Of course this has nothing to do with Sony themselves, and he never mentioned any directive from Sony instructing this behavior, it was all Best Buy's doing from what I understood.

None the less, it explains why some brands typically have the popular opinion that they offer the best picture. Home and theater boards are just like head-fi and have "flavor of the month" brands of TVs that offer the best picture ect. Therefore one might assume that all major brands of TVs can offer very good performance given a particular model type. Some brands have more model types that hit rather than miss, but you get the idea. You can also find similar stories of retail store's shady practices to sell you the TV they want to sell instead of the one you want to buy.

Well, I have to agree with you on the Sony bashing, my feelings mirror your's exactly. I won't buy Sony if there is any way to avoid it because everything I've bought of their's has broken way before it's time...

So far so good with my Sony Headphone Experience. *knock on wood*

Yeah, Sony makes a lot of overpriced junk. But they make a decent amount of overpriced gems too.

The key is to look into their specialties. I have a Sony pocket transistor radio. It just never quits. Then again, if Sony knows how to build anything, it's a transistor radio. It's afterall what got Sony started in the first place. Also how Sony got their trade name.

-Ed

In the past year or so, my dad bought two different sony dvd players, they both ******** up quite soon. Now we have a pioneer.