Info and forum posts by 'david dunne'

RE: LG 5095 a dud? and Richer Sounds heavy duty sales techniques...

Interesting to read Cush`s posting and subsequent replies - yesterday, having faced the painful fact that my three year old Samsung 709 was on last legs, and after a day of scanning and comparing dvds on websites,(including reading this posting) I drove to my local Richer Sounds to compare the LG with the Sony DVSPN 700(now discontinued) which was on offer for £189.When i went in and said i wanted to look at some multiregions dvds, before i could state my preference, they immediately jumped in with the LG - I explained I wanted to see it but also the Sony and the salesman straight away said "Oh, No Comparison mate, i guarantee it) after half an hour in the demo room(during which time the saleman did not bring me either the remote for the sony(he`d given me the LG remote) or the manuals for both models despite requests, I came out and said I`d plumped for the Sony - the manager then got involved and said "But don`t you think the LG has a better picture?" - i said yes, marginally but that the sound on the Sony was better and it had more features too - he still tried to disuade me from the Sony, even suggesting a Toshiba...I was told (by another Richer store that I had rung that day) that it wouldn`t play VCD without a handset hack and when i told him this he just said "Where DO you get your info from?"

So, I bought the Sony.

There ISN`T much to choose betwen the Sony and LG for picture - very similar, but Sony has better picture/noise refinement features. And as a CD player it is superb - it also handled every format I chucked at it yesterday fast, smooth and with no hesitancy(it was £370 when it came out about a year and a half ago and has a lot of mid range player features, too)
On sound it is way, way better - even standard unmodified sound was deeper, more rounded and fresher at top end. The LG didn`t sound great even through the Richer demo room posh demo sound set up. Only drawback is that the Sony doesn`t look as pretty as the LG though .In the end I guess it is purely personal preference (LG is £199, Sony £189)
I was a bit disillusioned at Richer though as it is obvious they have got a ton of LGs (which is how they have em cheap) and they have obviously told all their stores to flog em fast as they can - considering one of their much repeated mantras is "The Customer is always right" it is a bit much to be made to feel like I am a mis-informed halfwit for making the choice of player they don`t want me to make......

This item was edited on Thursday, 3rd October 2002, 15:48