Sony fanatic wants to buy all new gear, help me change his mind (1 Viewer)

[Jarett]

hey all,

I got a freind who's looking into buying a hole new system, tv, reciever, dvd, surround and all. He wants to d it all Sony things, is this a bad thing? I thought he might be able to get better bang for his buck but he says sony works well with sony and he likes the looks. Any ideas on what would be better?? How do i break it to him sony isnt always the way to go, or is he right?

thanks

J

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Point out to him that while many mfgs offer all types of HT gear, most including Sony excel at some things and are not as good at others. Most mfgs of electronics (recievers, etc.) also offer speakers for example but usually their speakers aren't nearly as good as those made by dedicated speaker mfgs. Almost anyone would advise the purchase of Klipsch, Paradigm, Energy, Axiom, or any number of other speaker brands over Sony, Pioneer, or Yamaha speakers. Likewise a company that makes excellent tv sets may not necessarily make the best dvd player or HT reciever.

In my experience there's never been a compatibility problem when using dvd players, receivers, and display devices from different mfgs, and one almost always gets a lot more bang for the buck by varying mfgs for different components. In the past there have been cases of some dvd players not working well with some tvs, but those days are pretty much over.

Sony doesn't make a receiver as good as the Pioneer 1014 for anywhere near the 1014's street price, for example, so it would be foolish to pay more for a Sony as good as the 1014 or settle for an inferior Sony at the 1014's price point.

That being said, one of my dvd players, my tv, and my HD STB are all Sony. This is not due to any love of Sony but because these offered the best performance and feature sets for the money I could find at the time of their purchase. I also have an HK receiver and in the past have used Yamaha, Pioneer and Denon, and my speakers are Energy with a Hsu sub.

 

[JackS]

Talk him into Sony ES. At the bottom of the ES line there's not that much difference in price if he's considering the top of the standard line. The extra warranty with ES should easily justify the extra cost.

 

[Shiu]

For mass market products, everything being equal, you almost always end up paying more for Sony. Unfortunately this seems to be true even for receivers. One rare exception was the STR-DA4Es that I used to own. At that time (2002), and at that price point, it was a tough one to beat.

At the moment this is not the case. I read a lot of AV magazines, and I cannot name a Sony receiver (within the ES line) that can compete with Pioneer and Yamaha equivalents at the same price point. Of course their DE models are very price competitive, but not in terms of quality.

 

[Grant B]

I have a fairly large & complex system most of which is sony and I did it on purpose.
They tend to make everything from $ to $$$$ and many things are great values, All tv remotes are interchangable and have the same feel to them which helps my wife.
Ask him the reason for his choice and if it is valid ....let him be

 

[Dave Lindhorst]

My guess is he is a Sony fan for a reason. What is it to us if he likes Sony. I say let him buy them as it will make him happy. Having him change his mind will only get him the stuff you like. Some people like Chevs and some like Fords. Oh well.

You make it sound like Sony is so horrible nobody would buy any of it. Not true.

 

[John S]

Going with other products:
More bang for buck?? Maybe
Better performance?? Maybe
Better reliability?? Maybe


I think I'd actually help him get the best all Sony system he could afford. He will end up with a very nice system for the money spent. All other things so called better will be subjective at best.

Could be worse.. He could of been a Bose head..

 

[Chu Gai]

He defined his priorities. Just let it go. Some people are Chevy fans till the day they die. 'Mah pappy drove a Chevy and I drive a Chevy.'

 

[terence]

In the end you have to go by what will make someone the happiest, and if Sony dose it then like a pig mud. He will love it reguardless.

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah I used to be a Sony fan until I discovered "affordable hi-fi" stuff like NAD, Marantz, etc. But I do know what Brand Loyalty is all about.

And one thing about Sony: they sure do standardize their remote codes! I had a Sony TV that was 14 years old when my parents bought theirs new, and my old remote worked their new TV! Their remote integration is pretty good, so if your friend gets a Sony receiver chances are his remote will control most of his Sony gear without him having to program anything into it.

I still own some Sony stuff [old STR-DA555ES receiver, new DVP-C685 SACD/DVD changer] so I'm clearly not in the "Sony is trash" category, just not as enamored with them as I once was.

I do agree with going with low-end ES stuff, as the price isn't that much greater and the 5 year warranty is hard to beat.

 

[Shiu]

I had to laugh when I read this. This sounds so funny but could well be true! The 1000ES is a decent receiver and is still analog, but newer models may be out soon.

 

[RickER]

Cant go wrong with the Sony 36"XBR, a damn fine TV. Only thing id say is buy speakers from a company that KNOWS speakers Otherwise have fun with the Sony stuff.

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Compromise.

Tell him to buy a Sony TV, but have him look at some non-Sony stuff (audio aspect).