Hanleyster
ambitious but rubbish
Remember when Volkswagen sold Dodge Caravans with VW logos on them? LOL
The Re-Badged Electronics Thread
- Thread starter musicgeek91
- Start date
Pio1980
AK Member
Thnx for the list, was it Wells Gardener that made the Loctal tube era gear?
nj pheonix
Lunatic Member
I remember back in the day, working on TVs (think 4x3 crt, often with tubes, aside from the picture tube ). The Sams photofact folder would list several manufacturers and models for the same chassis. It did make troubleshooting easier.
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Almost all of the old crt tv's I've owned could be found under other brands. RCA=GE, Philco=Magnavox ect. In the beginning there was what, maybe two manufacturers of VCR transports?
markn2wae
Mark T N2WAE
Do I take it that "back-in-the-day" if there is "re-branding", you got reasonably good quality because it was "fathered" by the "big guns", but today not so much ("Oh, this system is for 'SHOLCK-MART', so lets make it as cheap as possible"). Food for thought here!
Mark T.
Pio1980
AK Member
I acquired one of the NEC CM TVs that another repairer had got lost in back in the 70s, excellent set. Their big TVs were discontinued totl RCA series.
TT-newbie
Active Member
I bought a Scott R376 at a garage sale, and found out it was almost identical to Hitachi SR-903 except for some minor changes on face plate layout. The schematics and components in the cabinet are all the same as well as the specs. By the way, they are very good performers and very much "undervalued".
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OMGCat!
Super Member
That's right, thanks for the clarification. I'd pick one of those up in an instant if it popped up.
A coworker of mine has one of those and really it's not bad. He paid less than a like year Caravan and can still get nearly all parts at the usual aftermarket stores for good prices. The VW specific bits are another matter though...
ggregg
Super Member
Both them and Warwick mostly. Warwick made stuff for them for a long time, into the seventies.
Pio1980
AK Member
I have a Warwick Silvertone console amp I like for its elegant design and decent opts. I've had a few of the Loctal wire recorders and have one of the 1940s 10 inch roundy Loctal console TVs.
That was my question also. Did lower quality parts like caps and resistors get used? I'm thinking in places where the Pioneer branded might have low-leak caps, did the re-brand just have GP? Or ELNA vs no-name...Do I take it that "back-in-the-day" if there is "re-branding", you got reasonably good quality because it was "fathered" by the "big guns", but today not so much ("Oh, this system is for 'SHOLCK-MART', so lets make it as cheap as possible"). Food for thought here!
Mark T.
When ordering from a manufacturer the buyer would state the quality they wanted the manufacturer would show the buyer different "build outs " with different quality of parts,technology, ect they were building toward a price point , so there were compromises made all the time at all levels. Same by the original designer.. if no compromises were made there would be no mod or upgrade market or hobby. The bean counters always have their say. That's where brand preference comes in "who do you trust to make the least compromises " of course the sale price will reflect this. You pay more for the Marantz than the JC Penny, may be the same TT but we assume Marantz would use say a better "ginble" in the tonearm, maybe a motor with more poles, ect.
Splatter Pak
High-End Scrounger
I have one thing to add to this thread: DAK. It was all rebranded, and none of it was any good, AFAIK.
Edwin Powell
Active Member
Very common practice indeed. When I was a kid, we had a Truetone TV set from Western Auto that was a re-branded GE. Likewise, I have a Sears LXI TV set that's a re-branded GE. The same set was also sold under the RCA brand (both made by Thomson Consumer Electronics) with slightly different external plastics. Back in the '70s and early '80s, a lot of the audio components JCPenney sold under the Modular Component System (MCS) brand were actually made by Technics. My Sanyo TP-1020 turntable, also from that same era, was also marketed in Europe as a Grundig PS-1020. I also have a Magnavox six-disc CD player that responds to a Pioneer remote and uses Pioneer style six-disc magazines. I have to wonder whether it was actually made by Pioneer or if Magnavox just licensed certain designs and technologies from them.
My favorite, though is my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 digital camera that was co-developed with Leica and sold by both companies under their respective brands. The camera is a few years old now and a Lumix-branded version can be had for around $100 in the secondary market, while the identical camera, branded as a Leica, brings two to three times that much.
My favorite, though is my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 digital camera that was co-developed with Leica and sold by both companies under their respective brands. The camera is a few years old now and a Lumix-branded version can be had for around $100 in the secondary market, while the identical camera, branded as a Leica, brings two to three times that much.
