CD Player elements

[Fringe Ryder <Fringe@ai.net>]

I've done a lot of work on stereos in general.  I've -owned- a lot of
stereos in general, including somewhere around ten after-market car CD head
units.  They are not all created equal.  In my Escort (small tense souped-up
road rabbit), Sonys tracked better than anything else, but I never had a
Pioneer.

For home units, most sound the same to me.  My last Sony lasted a devil of a
long time.  But I've found Phillips units to be more solid, longer lasting,
and, depending on the unit, better sounding.  I have at my home a Pioneer CD
changer, a Denon CD carousel, and a Pioneer laserdisc player.  I bought my
dad an RCA (Phillips) CD player a few years back too.  

So I believe that Phillips units are somewhat better.  Would I use this to
purchase a car stereo?  No.  I didn't.  I prefer the features on Sony units,
the warranties are similar, the sound is similar, and Sonys track well.  The
home units have to last longer and the environment is more conducive to
noticing their problems.

My advice?  Avoid Sanyo, Kraco, JSL, and Clarion.  (Of these, I've only had
a Sanyo, but you get the idea.)  Other than that, in a car as smooth as most
Audis, the brand won't matter as much as the features.

>From: dan_masi@MENTORG.COM (Dan Masi)
>Subject: Re: RE:Hi-Fi installation 101
>
>While I agree with much of what Mike said, I want to add
>my 2c on a couple of points...
>More and more, consumer electronics are becoming disposable
>commodities.  Failure modes tend not to lend themselves to
>very affordable repairing, with the price of the goods falling
>and the cost of service (both in labor costs and labor complexity
>due to increasing complexity of the goods themselves) increasing.
>Consider the warranty, of course, but I wouldn't look too hard
>beyond that.
>I agree with Mike's comments regarding Sony, and yes, they make lots
>of parts and assemblies used in other brands.  But in my experience,
>they have a mechanical failure rate that's a bit higher than should
>be expected.  This is my experience only, very small sample size.
>
>Yes, but this contradicts what you just said to some extent.
>There are people who love the sound of the Pioneer Supertuner;
>name brand loyalty might make sense for them.  There are some
>who may find the aesthetics of Kenwood to work well for them,
>so sticking with Kenwood might make sense.  There are some that
>cling to the Alpine name for some bizarre reason, as if those
>old marketing posters of the Countach "Powered by Alpine" had
>some lasting, scarring effect on their faculties.  Etc.
>
>etc.
>
>Dan Masi
>'96 A4Q
>