From: hyc@hanauma.jpl.nasa.gov (Howard Chu)
Subject: Re: Sony Receivers (was Regrets to this petty newsgroup)
Organization: SAR Systems Development & Processing, JPL
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 08:26:56 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.175839.1169@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> gfl@hera.uucp (22402-lenahan) writes:
>I'm a bit confused with what you're asking;
>
>bss+@cs.cmu.edu (Bruce S. Siegell) writes:
>> Aside from the quality control problems (noise in surround channels,
>> clicking relays, etc.), is there something wrong with Sony receivers when
>> compared with other receivers in the same price range? 
>
>I have no idea, compared with a median performance level.
>There -are_, however, a few brands that significantly
>exceeed the median performance level in terms of sound
>quality and electrical performance (current drive cap, etc)

Hm. My brother has a button that reads "hurt me, beat me, make
me listen to mid-fi" or somesuch. Personally, I have seldom run
across any systems that I could say obviously sounded far
superior to any other. (Sure, you can tell when a set of
speakers are blown, or are being driven into distortion, etc.,
but anyway, my impression is that the speakers have greater
effect than the brand of receiver/amp, assuming comparable
amps...) So, given that I'm not going to sweat out the last
2 dB of tuner sensitivity, etc., I think the Sonys do well and
pack in a lot of "cool/whizbang" features for the price.

Of course, it's pretty obvious to me that I don't listen to
audio the same way a lot of other folks on the net do. Audio
is almost always just background for me. I've read a lot of
posts from various people mentioning how thus-and-such system
was fatiguing to listen to, somesuch ambiance was missing, etc.
I can't imagine sitting still, quietly enough, for long enough,
only listening to the stereo, to notice these phenomena. Listening
of this nature just doesn't work for me, I have to have visual
stimulation as well. That means either reading a book or working
on the computer, so my main attention is visually focused and
the sound is just something (hopefully pleasant) in the background.

Although, as a musician, I've found that sonic clarity is
incredibly important to me, usually because I may be trying
to learn a piece from a recording. In this mode, I'm definitely
being more attentive to the audio, but then I rapidly switch
to just listening for my own sound, and again the stereo 
becomes just background. At any rate, I think this issue is
more one for the speakers than the receiver/amp.
>
>Sony may do just fine.  They used to make some cassette decks that
>were very reliable, and sounded better than average.  This was,
>admittedly, nearly ten years ago and _anything_ could have 
>happened since.

I've always loved Sony Walkmen. Right now I could use some
pointers re: dual-cassette decks. I'm somewhat disappointed
by the feature set of the current Sony crop. Whereas their
receivers seem to be loaded with every imaginable kind of
bells and whistles, their non-ES tape decks don't even have
real-time tape counters. Oh well.
-- 
  -- Howard Chu @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

All true wisdom is conveyed in one-line witticisms.