Could you live without AV brands?

loz

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6977844.stm

I see that Neil Boorman who a year ago burned all his branded goods, has now published a book, "how I learned to live with labels".

The whole thing is very hypocritcal of course as all this is, is a cheap trick to try to create brand Boorman. i.e. he hopes we will in future buy other works from him based on his reputation created through this work. In other words, a brand...

However, it raises the question of just how far could you go with AV brands?

I mean, I know I can buy unbranded cables at the computer fair or ebay? But an unbranded TV or DVD player? Even the cheapest of supermarket brands still has a brand...

So, apart from growing your own food and kniting your own clothes, it seems that in most cases you simply cannot do anything but buy a brand, av being a good example.
 
Well I wouldn't call (for example, as found on cheapies in Tesco) Technika a "brand".
Unfortunately though, Joe Public in many cases thinks Technika (and Alba, Bush, Whafedale, Dual, Akai, Pye etc.) are brands.

Many original brand names were and are being sold off for a price - I spotted a post in AVforums recently that says Comet (or was it Currys?) have bought the rights to the good old Hitachi name for radios sold in UK; they can then have cheap oriental or Turkish A/V stuff badged as what was once a rightly trusted name.
Additionally lower end TVs from the big names (Sony, Toshiba, Philips etc.) also use the same Vestel, Beko or whatever chassis as the "no-name" similarly low end TVs.

Chris Muriel,
Manchester
 
A brand provides a starting place when looking at certain criteria that are important to me when contemplating a purchase. It's not like Corn Flakes where the store brand is much like Kellogg's.

In the 80s I used to buy Sony TVs for their Trinitron tube and the early walkmans were reliable purchases. Their stuff came across as well built. So went looking to them first when I wanted some new electronic toy.

Nowadays I tend to think of Sony as an overpriced also-ran with unexceptional build quality with the interests of its customers furthest from its mind and with weird little proprietary formats that make it expensive to switch. I find their advertising grating and smug. I find Sony shops doubly so; the presumption that the rest of the world looks upon their brand with such reverential awe that they need their own outlet/temple doesn't seem justified by the products on display.

They may make some wonderful products, but the associations I make with the brand may rule it out of contention (probably unjustifiably) from the get-go.

Having said that, looking round the house, I know I have a PS3 (good), a Sony video camera (OK), a Sony all-in-one AV thingy in the bedroom (junk), and a Sony portable DVD player (also junk). Nobody made me buy these widgets.

Anyway, my rambling rant of a point being, I tend to associate a brand with a certain level of expertise and quality control from that particular manufacturer.

Of course, once bought, I'd love to be able to remove the logos and just look at a clean fascia.
 
Well I like my gadgets but clothes specifically, yes. Most of my clothes are years old. I only buy on average 2-3 new shirts per year
 
Personally I think the guy is an idiot.

He says he bought his clothes from a tailor rather than 'branded' ones, but then isn't a decent tailor going to 'make a name for themself'? Whoops, they name have a brand identity too! Better find a rubbish tailor then!

I have 'Mark Grant' cables. As far as I'm concerned, he now has a brand as well. People with a reputation for quality can charge more than people with no rep. That's how brands start.

Brands go bad when they're just badges on generic tat, or when kids are forced by peer pressure to have the latest branded clothes or be an outcast. This was part of his point of course, but by attacking all brands, good and bad, he's just a muddle headed anti-capitalist.
 
Toshiba , Libermarr (spelling is wrong, make fridges and so forth), Guinness, these brands I think actually have a high quality standard and they do what it says on the blurb and do it well.
 
It's not like Corn Flakes where the store brand is much like Kellogg's.

Oh come on now! Of all the cereals, corn flakes??!! NEVER touch own brand corn flakes!!!:D
 
Actually branded cornflakes are so much nicer. "Unbranded" cornflakes taste stale and plain in comparison
 
No brands would mean no AVF :eek:

Forget that idea :D
 
Actually branded cornflakes are so much nicer. "Unbranded" cornflakes taste stale and plain in comparison

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg would have been disappointed to hear you say that.

From Wikipedia:

The history of corn flakes goes back to the late 19th century, when a group of Seventh-day Adventists began to develop new food to meet the standards of their strict vegan diet. Members of the group experimented with a number of different grains, including wheat, oats, rice, barley, and of course corn. In 1894, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the superintendent of The Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan and an Adventist, used these recipes as part of a strict vegetarian regimen for his patients, which also included no alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine. The diet he imposed consisted entirely of bland foods, since he believed in sexual abstinence and following the precepts of Sylvester Graham, the inventor of graham crackers and graham bread and felt that spicy or sweet foods would increase passions, while cornflakes would have an anaphrodisiac property or lower the sex drive.​
 
I couldnt give a tinkers cuss about brand names.As long as the bloody product works as it should then thats fine by me. They could change the name to Gudjerof for all I care.As all the products are made the same few manufacturers who just change the casings /logos and just add a few exrta features , I do feel there is a bit of snobbery attached to brand names.
As for supermarkets I always start by buying Value or Basics where possible then the rest.
Even though it is a publicity stunt I do belive Boorman is making some sound points we are to obsessed and influenced by brand names. Even I would not have bought my Mac if it wasnt a Mac unless it worked like one of course nad the harman Kardon amp i bought I did so because I'd read somewhere that it played music better than most.
 
Unfortunately though, Joe Public in many cases thinks Technika (and Alba, Bush, Whafedale, Dual, Akai, Pye etc.) are brands.

I am typical Joe Public then as last I heard Dual was a respected manufacturer of turntables whilst I last heard of Akai many years ago as manufacturers of quality tape recorders.

Even a couple of years ago Wharfedale was a manufacturer of budget but decent quality speakers - when did that change ?
 
I am typical Joe Public then as last I heard Dual was a respected manufacturer of turntables whilst I last heard of Akai many years ago as manufacturers of quality tape recorders.

Even a couple of years ago Wharfedale was a manufacturer of budget but decent quality speakers - when did that change ?
I also use to own one of those Alba amps that looked like a keyboard which wasnt at all bad
 
I would never have anything with LG (Low Grade electronics) in my house.

AV brands are essential.
 

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