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Beosystem10
Member (SA)
Does that horse know that someone hung a giant packet of Marlboro from his face? What a strange advert but some of the electronic items make me want to invent time travel. Now.
Lasonic TRC-920
Moderator
Lasonic TRC-920
Moderator
blacksnake
Member (SA)
Should be clarified that these shops "CORECOM" do not exist more than 20 years.
In these shops, shopping mostly foreigners visited my country (Bulgaria - eastern Europe)
In the past, you could shop if you have dollars...
They exchanged only illegal - about 3-4 lev. for 1 dollar.
With an average monthly salary of 160-180 lev, it makes about 40-50 dollars max ...
You can realize, how expensive it was for us...
In these shops, shopping mostly foreigners visited my country (Bulgaria - eastern Europe)
In the past, you could shop if you have dollars...
They exchanged only illegal - about 3-4 lev. for 1 dollar.
With an average monthly salary of 160-180 lev, it makes about 40-50 dollars max ...
You can realize, how expensive it was for us...
Beosystem10
Member (SA)
Too true, but it was expensive because much more of it was discrete, much more was hand soldered (itself a recipe for reliability if the operator knew what they were at) and the passives were reliable as they hadn't the restrictions of enclosure size that today's factories (that'll be Vestel and LG then) have forced upon them by production engineers more concerned with volume and margins than actual build quality.
Hands up anyone who has a Vestel-assembled (Goodmans, Alba, Durabrand, Dual, Bush, Murphy, Grundig, etc.) PVR that didn't need at least a couple of caps replacing the day after its warranty ran out?
MY Wharfedale one has the dents in its top cover that describe perfectly where thae two failed electrolytics burst, I replaced the whole lot with reliable ones from Just Radios in Ontario but Wharfedale's founders would turn in their grave if they could see what came of a family name that used to belong to the world famous maker of good quality, budget speakers. 
Unless they're not dead of course, in which case they probably gnashed their teeth away to nothing by now.
Hands up anyone who has a Vestel-assembled (Goodmans, Alba, Durabrand, Dual, Bush, Murphy, Grundig, etc.) PVR that didn't need at least a couple of caps replacing the day after its warranty ran out?
MY Wharfedale one has the dents in its top cover that describe perfectly where thae two failed electrolytics burst, I replaced the whole lot with reliable ones from Just Radios in Ontario but Wharfedale's founders would turn in their grave if they could see what came of a family name that used to belong to the world famous maker of good quality, budget speakers. Unless they're not dead of course, in which case they probably gnashed their teeth away to nothing by now.
Lasonic TRC-920
Moderator
So true so true!Beosystem10 said:Too true, but it was expensive because much more of it was discrete, much more was hand soldered (itself a recipe for reliability if the operator knew what they were at) and the passives were reliable as they hadn't the restrictions of enclosure size that today's factories (that'll be Vestel and LG then) have forced upon them by production engineers more concerned with volume and margins than actual build quality.
Hands up anyone who has a Vestel-assembled (Goodmans, Alba, Durabrand, Dual, Bush, Murphy, Grundig, etc.) PVR that didn't need at least a couple of caps replacing the day after its warranty ran out?
Back then stuff lasted, today its all trash. The sad part is, people used to say Japan made inferior stuff and yet we are collecting stuff that still works today. My cell phone barely lasts to the end of my 2 year contract. Sad
Retro Addict
Member (SA)
I think it was a good thing that electronics were expensive back then, as nowadays top-of-the-range electronics are too easily obtainable and disposable. People don't value electronics goods like they used to. For example, your average jobless scrounger can have the same high-end mobile phone as the likes of David Beckham and other multi-millionaire celebrities. That would've been unheard of in the 80s, as only successful businessmen and people on high incomes could afford to obtain the latest gadgets back then.Alberto said:
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