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bgadow · #1 08-07-2007, 01:29 PM

Yeah, Setchell-Carlson was about as far as you could get from a Muntz! I only have limited experience with them but I would put them on the same level as Zenith.

I used to be a big fan of CU but not so much anymore. What I liked about them: I always enjoy it when a tester runs a product down. Most magazines won't do that for fear of losing an advertiser. Anyhow, for some reason I just don't find Consumer Reports to be as entertaining a read as it used to be. Maybe there is less to run down these days! They certainly didn't like color tv-there was not what I would call a full report until the late 60s.

Whirled One, I had a copy of "I'll Buy That!". I was probably the only teenager in America to put that on his Christmas list!

Carmine · #2 08-07-2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgadow

What I liked about them: I always enjoy it when a tester runs a product down. Most magazines won't do that for fear of losing an advertiser.

I don't think that's automatically true, although I know they (CU) love to make people think that. Read a copy of a Car & Driver review of some car where they rank them 1st, 2nd,...8th, etc. Obviously whoever brings up the rear ain't gonna be happy.

Yet I doubt a single manufacturer doesn't run huge ads in C&D.

I found an old copy of Popular Science at the same estate sale I picked where I picked up the Halolight, with a review of the 1970 Detroit pony-cars. They put the Camaro well ahead of the Cuda, Mustang, & Javelin. All four companies had huge ads inside.

If your magazine is big enough, and honest enough, manufactuers can't afford NOT to run ads.

oldtvman · #3 08-08-2007, 06:18 AM

Back in the day you had Zenith and Rca, everybody else was playing catch up.

Now you have old-line names being resurrected such as Sylvania and others. The Sylvania products now are made by Funai. I'm not sure that what your getting today. Other than brands Like Sony, Phillips and Pioneer, the rest aren't what they seem Zenith is nothing more than a glorified Goldstar. Rca also uses other manufacturers for some of their models.

Big Dave · #4 08-11-2007, 05:36 AM

When I was in school, and pretending to be studying, I found old CR magazines. I don't remember if it was YSU or KSU, though. Anyhoo, I found an issue where portables were tested. There was an Emerson that got an unacceptable rating because the hot chassis made contact with the metal cabinet. It amazes me what the manufacturers got away with back in the day.

bgadow · #5 08-13-2007, 11:36 AM

Actually, old issues of CR led to my demise as a college student! Instead of being in class I was in the library reading old color tv and car ratings. It wasn't long after that when I dropped out! They didn't have anything from before about 1966 at that college.

wa2ise · #6 08-27-2007, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgadow

Actually, old issues of CR led to my demise as a college student! Instead of being in class I was in the library reading old color tv and car ratings.

I did some of that, though I did manage to graduate. I enjoyed calculus class so much I took it twice!

My college (Syracuse univ) had issues of "Wireless World" from the UK. Was interesting how other countries did stuff. On diagrams you'd see 4K7 instead of 4.7K and so on. Makes sense as decimal points might get lost in bad xerox copies.

Brian · #7 08-26-2007, 07:19 PM

My father was an Andrea dealer as well as other brands and compared to the others the Andrea was closer to a much later product called a Trinitron. The picture was bright and very sharp. The quality of construction was better as was the ability to work. The biggie was that these sets were less prone to needing adjustments as often as the others.