My two Panasonic cordless phones are about 15 years old now, and on their 3rd set of batteries.
They use 2 AAA NiMh batteries that last about 5 years before losing charge ability.
As for the Westinghouse 'Made in China now' brand, they're garbage, I've had tons of them come into the repair shop over the years.
Same goes for the LG brand... they used to overdrive the LED backlighting which eventually failed, in order to "impress" a customer with their "vividness".
My 2014 Panasonic Viera LED tv is now 9 years old, still running like new - that brand rarely ever came into the repair shop, so naturally a tech like me would buy that brand for it's durability.
Hi Bonsai,
I think the guy who is responsible for the hardware (Bob Bauman) is competent enough, except for one thing: He still adheres to an obsolete/worthless/misleading metric, that is, THD+N.
To my complaint about the increased distortion at low frequencies he responded with:
"We have chosen to use the THD+N value (measured on the Ap) in our specifications because it’s an industry standard that allows customers to easily compare to other products and it is an excellent gauge of overall audio quality."
IOW, this "excellent" (read: stupid) "industry standard" was the reason why he didn't notice the massive THD increase because it was masked/swamped by noise.
It's time to abandon this "industry standard". Today, (opposed to the good ol' HP 334A) we have the tools to measure THD and noise separately. So mixing these two -totally different by nature and origin- quantities together, makes no sense at all (are you listening IVX?)
Cheers,
E.
The maximum signal level should be nearly independent of the signal frequency and the noise should not depend much on the signal either, so it is unclear to me how the SINAD could be substantially worse at low audio frequencies if it were not for the increasing THD.
Aren't they just measuring only at 1 kHz? That's the easiest way to get away with a cheap capacitor.
Aren't they just measuring only at 1 kHz? That's the easiest way to get away with a cheap capacitor.
@MarcelvdG ,
I don't know how Lynx Studio measured the THD+N exactly, but I do know that according to my own measurements (see the link, 1st figure) the noise is about 24dB higher than the distortion. So if you only look at THD+N, a THD increase of 20dB or less will be left unnoticed in most cases.
Cheers,
E.
I don't know how Lynx Studio measured the THD+N exactly, but I do know that according to my own measurements (see the link, 1st figure) the noise is about 24dB higher than the distortion. So if you only look at THD+N, a THD increase of 20dB or less will be left unnoticed in most cases.
Cheers,
E.
I understand the frustration, those companies move their production to China for only one reason, CUT COST! So they can sell the product very cheap. If the product breakdown, buy a new one usually cheaper than get it repair. 😕
You get what you pay for. 😉
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All my main audio equipment was made in japan, when they were still dedicated to quality.
And my main speakers were made in the USA.
And my main speakers were made in the USA.
Hyundai has improved their act, and they are the company that Toyota fears the most.
Here in India, No. 2 behind Suzuki, between them they have more than 80% of the market.
Watch out, the Chinese have quietly taken over companies like Volvo and Saab, and they have the electric car technology, the chassis / suspension /body design part was where they were lacking.
The Koreans started by assembling Japanese and European cars, then got designs for new bodies, same engines, then new engines in new bodies.
Sure, they made mistakes, but they are aggressive, and hard workers who learned from their mistakes.
The Chinese BYD firm has started delivering electric trucks in India, and other countries.
Tesla are in taxi service in Dubai...so nobody will buy one for themselves, it is a status thing, taxi is taxi...
The Americans could not handle competition here...GM and Ford quit the local market, also Fiat / Chrysler are a joke, junk stuff.
Parts are unique, and expensive, and the cars are simply not reliable, electronic unit failures are too frequent.
Some GM branded cars sold here were clumsy left hand drive to right hand drive conversions, in spite of them having the Vauxhall UK operation as part of the group, so calling out Hyundai for that is a bit unfair.
Design errors...the engines on Hyundai Accent cars had the oil filter right on top, so removing a stuck filter was easy.
Try that on a European car, the filter is something you have to fish for, and in a cramped location...sure, the master designers?
Suzuki Swift, 2010, horn and fog lamps low down in bumper, monsoon puddle means no horn, and that is ESSENTIAL in India.
Mercedes E Class Diesel , the car had to be towed from Goa to Bombay, the owner got impatient waiting for the driver, he started the car and revved it immediately...the timing chain came off, and cut the tappet cover, valves hit the pistons.
It seems you have to wait for the oil pressure to build up, and some lights to go off, before revving the engine. The driver knew that, the owner did not. Some form of safety device could have been added...
Tata cars have weird locations for their horns and fuses, different plants and different batches means it could be in any one of six locations, and people quibble about paying so much to replace a fuse...
You have to search for the fuse box, and the horn may be in the right or left side of the bumper, so the entire bumper has to come off, and the cause usually is a wire broken at the crimp, no sleeve, wire too thin.
So the asking charge is high, and the repair men sometimes send them on to another shop, too much work for too small a price.
The Hyundai Santro had two horns, right on top next to the radiator, easy to repair / replace, and dual redundant, both do not fail together, unless the wire broke. That is nice...
Fiat cars had a two part rubber windscreen wiper, the back was stiff rubber, bonded to the blade (normal soft rubber), so replacements were like $175, the ordinary metal supported blades are like $4 a pair here...
In audio, remember the British and German sets made in small factories?
The only thing that kept them going was the lack of competition, the Japanese blew them away...see how few survived that initial onslaught.
Men in white lab coats, 20 people in the factory!
And a huge advertising presence in trade journals.
If you look at them now, they are crude, as if some kid assembled a kit at home...
Oh, and Skoda Fabia, cousin of VW Polo, Denso micro AC compressor (no space for big regular compressor), so it ran at high RPM to get delivery (those are rated at displacement per revolution), and naturally failed fast.
$750, the normal ones are $175 to 300.
Later, a chain driving the oil pump from the crankshaft, inside the crank case broke, the engine had to be rebuilt, cost him $750, the owner sold the car later for less than $900, it was 13 years old, parts sold only at car breakers...
If it to be replaced, easier to put the chain outside the block, is it not?
I have no ties to any companies named above.
Here in India, No. 2 behind Suzuki, between them they have more than 80% of the market.
Watch out, the Chinese have quietly taken over companies like Volvo and Saab, and they have the electric car technology, the chassis / suspension /body design part was where they were lacking.
The Koreans started by assembling Japanese and European cars, then got designs for new bodies, same engines, then new engines in new bodies.
Sure, they made mistakes, but they are aggressive, and hard workers who learned from their mistakes.
The Chinese BYD firm has started delivering electric trucks in India, and other countries.
Tesla are in taxi service in Dubai...so nobody will buy one for themselves, it is a status thing, taxi is taxi...
The Americans could not handle competition here...GM and Ford quit the local market, also Fiat / Chrysler are a joke, junk stuff.
Parts are unique, and expensive, and the cars are simply not reliable, electronic unit failures are too frequent.
Some GM branded cars sold here were clumsy left hand drive to right hand drive conversions, in spite of them having the Vauxhall UK operation as part of the group, so calling out Hyundai for that is a bit unfair.
Design errors...the engines on Hyundai Accent cars had the oil filter right on top, so removing a stuck filter was easy.
Try that on a European car, the filter is something you have to fish for, and in a cramped location...sure, the master designers?
Suzuki Swift, 2010, horn and fog lamps low down in bumper, monsoon puddle means no horn, and that is ESSENTIAL in India.
Mercedes E Class Diesel , the car had to be towed from Goa to Bombay, the owner got impatient waiting for the driver, he started the car and revved it immediately...the timing chain came off, and cut the tappet cover, valves hit the pistons.
It seems you have to wait for the oil pressure to build up, and some lights to go off, before revving the engine. The driver knew that, the owner did not. Some form of safety device could have been added...
Tata cars have weird locations for their horns and fuses, different plants and different batches means it could be in any one of six locations, and people quibble about paying so much to replace a fuse...
You have to search for the fuse box, and the horn may be in the right or left side of the bumper, so the entire bumper has to come off, and the cause usually is a wire broken at the crimp, no sleeve, wire too thin.
So the asking charge is high, and the repair men sometimes send them on to another shop, too much work for too small a price.
The Hyundai Santro had two horns, right on top next to the radiator, easy to repair / replace, and dual redundant, both do not fail together, unless the wire broke. That is nice...
Fiat cars had a two part rubber windscreen wiper, the back was stiff rubber, bonded to the blade (normal soft rubber), so replacements were like $175, the ordinary metal supported blades are like $4 a pair here...
In audio, remember the British and German sets made in small factories?
The only thing that kept them going was the lack of competition, the Japanese blew them away...see how few survived that initial onslaught.
Men in white lab coats, 20 people in the factory!
And a huge advertising presence in trade journals.
If you look at them now, they are crude, as if some kid assembled a kit at home...
Oh, and Skoda Fabia, cousin of VW Polo, Denso micro AC compressor (no space for big regular compressor), so it ran at high RPM to get delivery (those are rated at displacement per revolution), and naturally failed fast.
$750, the normal ones are $175 to 300.
Later, a chain driving the oil pump from the crankshaft, inside the crank case broke, the engine had to be rebuilt, cost him $750, the owner sold the car later for less than $900, it was 13 years old, parts sold only at car breakers...
If it to be replaced, easier to put the chain outside the block, is it not?
I have no ties to any companies named above.
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Hmm, maybe you were unlucky there. I haven't seen too many problems with those, they are much simpler than the AVR's.
The main design issue with the AVR's is that they kept adding more and more features to and old design that could not support it thermally. So the main PCB power supply grew and grew, got hotter and hotter, and everything got cooked faster. The case got more and more crowded so there less room for air to circulate. A simple thing they could have done to mitigate all this and improve reliability considerably would have been to fill the top cover all over with vent holes. There were only 2 small rows of holes above the power amps. But despite revision after revision, they never took this one simple step that would have improved things considerably.
The other stupid design flaw with these is that you have to take the back cover off to remove any rear vertical module. If they were going to follow the IBM PC architecture, they could have at least copied it properly. PC cards were removable without taking off the back off the PC. To make this problem even worse, they soldered large earth wires from module to module, so even with the back cover off you can't easily service one module! Obviously there was a ground impedance issue there as well.
Another bad design choice. Why have 2 microcontrollers on the main board when one would have been adequate?
Another design mistake, using diodes as power resistors to drop voltage.
Another design mistake, wrong value resistors on voltage regulator to DSP resulting in higher than spec voltage and causing early DSP failure.
Another design mistake, incorrectly specified power transformer, resulting in exessive power dissipation for regulators.
Another common construction mistake, using glue on the PCB that dries out and becomes conductive with heat.
I'm sure there are quite a few more which I've forgotten since it's been a while since I looked at these.
@kramtweeter....
Those "Design Mistakes", those were built-in planned breakdowns, insuring that companies kept gatting cash-flows from your wallet to their bank.
It's the way things are these days.
And you have to wonder why I stick to my older vintage stuff...When greed wasn't a factor and quality craftsmanship was king.
Those "Design Mistakes", those were built-in planned breakdowns, insuring that companies kept gatting cash-flows from your wallet to their bank.
It's the way things are these days.
And you have to wonder why I stick to my older vintage stuff...When greed wasn't a factor and quality craftsmanship was king.
Indian people are smart, they'll figure out things swift. Linux box running on mint here (https://distrowatch.com). Great history, mythology, extreme contrasts.
This topic reads as The rise and fall of the Roman Empire, in concise chapters.
What came thereafter? War, destruction and the dark middle ages.
Civilisation lost, for some thousend years.
As it is all diyAudio related, we're the last outpost, the last Mohicans...
Knights, heat up the soldering irons!
Darn, also broken. Pass me that glue!
How long did they survive?
I sometimes wonder if I can get away with using TO92 at the absolute maximum or near.
"it's always been that way" ..... but is
far worse now with Asian outsourcing (parts AND the design).
Perhaps we should discuss what STILL IS made well - the rare stuff that is designed right.
far worse now with Asian outsourcing (parts AND the design).
Perhaps we should discuss what STILL IS made well - the rare stuff that is designed right.
There are much lesser volumes in audio now, servicing is next to impossible with Class D modules.
And part numbers and versions change with alarming frequency. So the service center, if it exists, will have to stock many versions, just to be able to service your part, if it fails.
And LED backlights for three year old TV are not available sometimes....
And do not discuss spare LCD panels, some repair men buy old TV sets to remove the panel, and make money on that.
TV has become a generic business here, like assembled computers...your get your choice of plain or smart TV main boards, your choice of panel and housings...
The good chips are gone from the maker's lines, like we see so many posters here looking for the LM3886.
So you are stuck with copies...and capacitors...do not ask.
Tell me then who makes good stuff that will work twenty years without any problems...
And part numbers and versions change with alarming frequency. So the service center, if it exists, will have to stock many versions, just to be able to service your part, if it fails.
And LED backlights for three year old TV are not available sometimes....
And do not discuss spare LCD panels, some repair men buy old TV sets to remove the panel, and make money on that.
TV has become a generic business here, like assembled computers...your get your choice of plain or smart TV main boards, your choice of panel and housings...
The good chips are gone from the maker's lines, like we see so many posters here looking for the LM3886.
So you are stuck with copies...and capacitors...do not ask.
Tell me then who makes good stuff that will work twenty years without any problems...
@NareshBrd "Tell me then who makes good stuff that will work twenty years without any problems.."
I do.
I build and service things the Old School Way.
😉
I do.
I build and service things the Old School Way.
😉
I meant commercially, available in many areas.
I respect you, but equipment made by you is not available off the shelf everywhere.
No offense intended.
I respect you, but equipment made by you is not available off the shelf everywhere.
No offense intended.
This might not be a real design error, but anyway…. The new ICEpower 2000AS amp module has «1200AS» written on its PCB. Pretty stupid if you ask me ….
I don't know. It didn't belong to me, I only fixed it (in 2013). I guess it was old enough for the warranty to be expired.
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This is about a bathroom digital balance which broke for a stupid reason. As my weight is on the lower extreme of human body weights, I am sure it was not my weight that broke it. This balance is one of those on which you tap and it turns itself on. The fault consisted of the balance refusing to turn itself on no matter how hard it was tapped, err no, sometimes more like a kick rather than a tap. At first, hard taps worked but then it started to refuse every time to turn itself on. So, I opened it and after I cannot remember how many times I opened it, I found that one of the many extremely thin single core wires broke but remained attached to the point of contact with the plastic. The cure was to strip some plastic away for all suspect wires and resolder the joints.
Now, it works every time with gentle taps instead of kicks.
Now, it works every time with gentle taps instead of kicks.
I can , after going through so many sources (and returning so much junk for refund).
For example , trafo's = antek .... I buy their stuff on Ebay. Overbuilt pieces.
Some Asian stuff is good. My "esp32 wroom 32 dev kit v1" ... very good china tech.
Japan/Taiwan/US companies , if they outsource to China (with strict oversight) ... still have high quality.
Still , a lot of "dollar store junk" out there.
I just bought a "TC1 component tester" (pix) , it's a ATmega324 + tft display + software .... only 20$. Works great. amazing to get
that much tech in such a little box for so little !!
I profit off of some of the junk , I buy polk subwoofers for 20-30$ with blown amps ( decent drivers / blown amps). Polk amps
are full blown design errors !! What junk ! But , we know how to make amps here (with antek toroids). I have lots of "top cheers" 50VA
trafos from the so called "100W A/B) junk amps.
The biggest factor is that the public has been "conditioned" to accept planned obsolescence and continuous consumption as the norm.
They would not know quality if it fell on their heads , or they they would be told lies like "you need to upgrade". Yeah , upgrade to
something that will have a shorter lifetime than the last item. "Scamerica" ... at it's best.
