Greg Mayman wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 -=> Roy J. Tellason said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "*BIG* TRANSISTORS" on 02-27-04  12:19.....

 RJT> There also seems to be a tendency for more lights on cheaper stuff.  I
 RJT> remember the first time I encountered one particular brand of stuff a
 RJT> while back,  doing a service call on an organ and these people had just
 RJT> got themselves a new stereo by mail-order and wanted some help with it.
 RJT> It looked like a christmas tree!

 GM> Have you seen the sound systems with the display that shows
 GM> pretty pictures while the thing is playing? I guess maybe $20 worth
 GM> of parts to put $200 on the price... or probably more.

Yes,  that's exactly what I'm talking about.

 GM>  I encountered that same brand of
 RJT> stuff some time later when we were dealing with rental companies, 
 RJT> where people would pay $800-1000 for a unit that had cost the company
 RJT> about $225.  Yikes! 
 RJT> And it was all the most cheaply made crap.

 GM> Yep, designed to break down just outside the warranty period.

I don't know about that,  but we made some money doing warranty repairs on it.

 GM> 6 months seems to be very common these days where it used to be 
 GM> from 1 to 5 years. And of course the electronics are unrepairable, 
 GM> you just replace the modules... except that by that time they are 
 GM> no longer made.

No,  actually the electronics were repairable.  But they weren't very well
made. The cheapest model had a pair of freestanding speaker boxes,  but
used only a pair of TDA2040 chips for output devices,  which tended to
explode with regularity as they applied 40 volts or so to the supply pin, 
which is just at the absolute maximum rating for that part.  Power supply
rectifiers were 1N4001! These also often went bad...

 RJT> Not only was there a 5-level (or so) "VU Meter" in
there,  but also
 RJT> what they called a "spectrum analyzer" as well.  With
all of maybe 6
 RJT> bands to cover the whole audio spectrum...

 GM> Like the 5 band "graphic equalizers" on car sound systems.

Just so.

 GM> That kind of gimmickry turns me right off. But it obviously must
 GM> appeal to some people.

Sure.  It's kind of nifty to watch the blinking lights...

At least my preschool grandkids all seem to think so.

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