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The Zenith we all knew and loved overbuilt its sets compared to the competition. By the 80s TV sets were becoming a commodity. Why buy the Zenith when the store down the street has a FlungDung that does the same thing: it has a decent color picture and the same basic features, yet costs $100-200 less? Zenith had to change; it had to cut costs. It moved production to Mexico. It lost ground on R&D versus the competition. At some point, faced with an uncertain future, they had to cut more corners. From what I have read, the '93+ crts were designed to be just as good, or even better, but be cheaper to make. Even if the crts had been good, those sets were far from the best on the market. From what I've seen an RCA/GE from that era was a vastly better set. The sad thing is that Zenith was probably the most common brand being sold by independent dealers. I've spoken with several guys who sold only Zenith in later years because of easy parts availablity and the fact that they catered to the small shops. All those little guys then had to deal with unhappy customers.
I really don't think there was any malice on Zenith's part. In the situation they were in c.1992 the only other choice may have been to close the plant and buy all their tubes elsewhere.
Oh, why is there crap like plastic camshafts and FlungDung TV sets? 'cause that is what people buy. The next time you're in WallyWorld, take a look at the lawn mowers. Now, had did they get them that cheap? Compare the price of a no-frills push mower to the cost of a new 3.5hp motor out of a catalog. The money is in volume; the volume is in cheap. This is not new...it is older than any of us having this conversation.
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Bryan
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