Markus said:
Let see if I had the 1.4 million it would be spent on:
Projector: Runco MBX-1 DLP Projector = $250K
After spending all that money, shouldn't you at least put in a projector that will work for more than 3 days?
I have spent the last 5 years working on the integration side of the A/V business and I am more than willing to point out equipment and manufacturers that I think have engineering and pricing that is absolutely out of line with the products they produce and they continue to under-engineer their products and make what I consider crap.
Runco, is by far and away the leader of that group.
Now that I am doing more commercial stuff... Barco is a close second.
Third place: Marantz who doesn't seem to actually make a single product, but likes boxing stuff up in pretty packages and putting their logo on it with no regard for actual quality.
Fourth worse companies... Sharp perhaps - who produces a line of "high end" components with serial control that didn't actually include an 'ON' command, and no discreet 'ON' by remote. Yes, that would be their famous Aquos LCD displays.
Phillips who makes the Pronto series of remote controls whose entire functionality is based on discrete controls, then makes a ton of product that doesn't actually HAVE discrete controls.
Adcom who produces multi-channel amplifiers which consistently break down or overheat or have channels simply fail on them regularly. Who cares about saving $200.00 when NOTHING works!!!
Best companies (if somewhat sketchy in several areas):
Sony: Even on their $100.00 products you get halfway decent reliability and discrete codes for on and off and input selection. It's nice that their top of the line has it, but awesome that their cheap stuff does as well.
Yamaha: The difference Yamaha made changed my complete thinking of them as a company. In the V1/2200 era they claimed 'multi-zone' control, but didn't deliver and their serial protocols were bad - plus we saw a lot of bad V1 receivers... and no serial on anything under the flagship. The 2300/2400/2500 and introduction of the Z1 Yamaha gave us true discrete zone 1 and zone 2 (now zone 3 as well!) control via IR or serial as well as consistency from receiver to receiver in those commands, increased power (the 3300 had more power than the V1 did), and phenomenal reliability compared to prior years model. They actually seem like a company that not only listens to customers complain, but even ACT on those complaints to make a better product.
Extron: Their stuff is expensive, but it actually works. If Runco charged 50% more for their product, but actually engineered it to work correctly and consistently, then you would know what Extron is like. Everything I have used from Extron has been excellent.
I actually have a lot more companies that I have been pretty happy with and turn to on a regular basis... (Sanyo, JVC, Mitsubishi, others) But, I gotta tell people when I think something or some company is crap.
Speakers though... I am just a member of the video age and stereo audio and music does very little for me. Just a good surround package with some smooth bass for effects makes me really happy. But, I do run Def-Tech speakers and my sub does NOT make me happy... so I guess I do look for the right speakers and a good value for my dollar. Anyone give a listen to the Def-Tech Mythos line up yet?
