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The Re-Badged Electronics Thread

musicgeek91

musicgeek91

Member
The reason for this particular thread is mainly for this:
Have any of you run across or even owned any electronic piece (i.e. TVs, stereo equipment, VCR, DVD players, etc.) that you thought at first was made by the brand seen on the front, when it turns out that someone else made it entirely? For example, I have seen a few Realistic Clarinette 108's on eBay, but I know that the stereo itself was also under the Symphonic brand as well... I even once had a rebadged GPX (aka Gran Prix) cassette player - Philco had their variant as model#800K, however, I've run across a few others like mine also using the GPX brand - as model#C3176 as well - long story short, have any of you fellow AK members run across this as well?
 
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Very common. A lot of gear made for suppliers like Radio Shack, Lafayette, Olson, and other distributors under store brands was OEM'ed by reputable manufacturers. Others found it more practical to have gear relabeled for them than actually manufacture themselves.
 
I forget who posted it in the Yamaha forum but the A700 amp was sold by Blaupunkt, rebadged under their own name. I don't know that any made it to the US though.
 
As for "Canadian" brands, most Noresco receivers were essentially rebranded Rotels, and the Viking brand (essentially an Eatons department store brand) were rebranded "Lafayettes", which apparently were made by Luxman! How confusing is that??? :p
 
I have an Allied 495 stereo that is a Pioneer SX-990 under the hood. Slightly different faceplate and knobs, but not so different that you can't see the resemblance.
 
This has been common since almost the beginning. Goes all the way back into the twenties with radios. There were about 6 companies in Chicago that was all they did. Some of them eventually made under their own name such as Admiral, some never did such as Warwick.

Many companies did it with hifi. Pioneer, Trio (Kenwood), and even Luxman are three that come to mind. Foster electronics made many Realistic items for Radio Shack and Stereotech for McIntosh.
 
At one time (early days of cdp's 3 out of 4 decks were Phillips as they owned the patents on the transport mechanism. Even vintage mcintosh used them.
 
Warwick, division of Thomas organ, made Sears Silvertone electronix during a period around the 1960s. Dunno who/what else when.
 
My old Magnavox CDP was a rebranded Phillips (CDB-502 IIRC).

Was a really good CDP too,so much so that I've been thinking about tracking down another one.

Also,there was a thread in another forum here about some MCS stuff being rebranded NEC gear,so yeah it seems to be fairly common if you know what to look for.

Bret P.
 
Pio1980 said:
Warwick, division of Thomas organ, made Sears Silvertone electronix during a period around the 1960s. Dunno who/what else when.
Click to expand...
Just using Silverstone as an example, Warwick, Wells Gardner, Colonial (Admiral), Fisher/Sanyo, Arvin, and plenty that I missed have all made product for Sears Silverstone.
 
Some Bose car stereo HU's are actually made by Clarion (!). Nissan,Infiiniti at least.
 
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I can't count the number of brands and models of TTs that are re-badged CEC tables.

Re-badging was and still is quite common. Sometimes (like in the case of CEC and NEC), because these manufacturers did not have great name recognition in the US, and re-badging them for other brands or major retailers greatly expanded their market. In other cases, it was for the big names to "round out" their product offerings. Marantz was know for their receivers, but if you wanted and "all Marantz" system, you got out-sourced, re-badged components to match--Marantz NEVER built a single TT for example. Carver is the same way--famous for amps and preamps, but never built a single CD player or tape deck--and the list goes on.
 
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Realistic TR-3000 is a TEAC X-3.


realistic-tr-3000-stereo-reel-to-reel-player-and-recorder-model-14-700-as-is-608.jpg


Teac_x3.JPG
 
I have an RCA surround receiver, sold only at Radio Shack. It is made by Pioneer. The replacement remote I got is a pioneer remote. I don't remember the model off the top of my head but I use it on my outdoor system.
 
Due to the start up costs (tooling) most all company's did this, they might adjust some features due to marketing reasons (up or down) but the Japanese respected patents and their were licenseing agreements to consider but still way cheep to outsource and still provide a good quality product. Today due to NO respect for patients by the Chinese who knows what you get.
 
I have an Optimus CD 8000 CD player on my desk that is identical to a Pioneer I have out in the shop. They both have a removable 6 disc cartridge that the CD gets loaded upside down in. The carts are interchangable between the two brands.
 
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