# Sansui



## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

I remember Sansui's audio hey day back in the '70's and '80's. I also remember them pulling out of the U.S. market in the late '80's. Now it would seem they are diving into the U.S. market again, only this time it appears they are on the HDTV bandwagon. 

Their LCD HDTV's seem to be priced very competitively. Just curious about the quality. Anyone have any experience with Sansui since they have re-entered the U.S. market?


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I think the company is now owned by the Chinese and the sets are made by Orion (at least that is what I heard about some of them). They likely do what most LCD sellers do these days and that is buy from the lowest bidder for what they want to build this year.

IIRC the same Chinese company bought some other names like Nakamichi.


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Kinda surprised that more people aren't buying them. Pricing appears to be even lower than the Vizio sets. Curious to see where the Sansui name goes from here...


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Is there something special about this brand? What makes it different from all of the others that are just a name that someone slaps on the front of the cheapest panel they can buy this week? What is special about Sansui?


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

That's kinda what I'm wondering about. Is there anything special about the return of Sansui?
Personally I've never really cared for their stuff, but hopeful that maybe there is something special. 

I could be wrong but it sure seems like a lot of companies have licensed their name and those logo's are just slapped on a bunch of run-of-the-mill products. ie; Westinghouse, IBM, Phillips et al.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Polaroid, Akai, Advent, Emerson, Magnavox, Nakamichi, RCA, Zenith, and many more are nothing more than a name that is owned by some corporation that has little if any resemblance or relationship to what the company once was. There are, of course, a wide range of ways in which names and companies are aquired by other companies, but these are all just mostly names and not much more. Some cases, like the D&M scenario, involve trying to maintain what the acquired companies do well and keep them largely intact. I don't think that there is even a bit of the old Sansui left in this case. And they certainly never had a reason to be considered special in terms of video products. They sold some CRT sets made for them by NEC, IIRC, at one time, then later by funai. Nothing that would represent anything unique or interesting.

My guess would be that you are better off with a Vizio than one of these "slap a name on the front" brands. At least they have the market power and capital to dictate something about what they get from their vendors, and they are starting to provide at least a notion of post-warranty repair and support.


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