Its funny Grundig would be embarrassed having there name associated
with the 800...Maybe they should take a closer look at the S350 that
bears there name...Now that is a radio to truly be embarrassed about...

D. Peter Maus wrote:
John S. wrote:
D Peter Maus wrote:
John S. wrote:
D Peter Maus wrote:
John S. wrote:
junius wrote:
I don't know who actually designed the Eton E1 - it could have been
Tecsun or Degen I suppose. I believe that Tecsun is part of Degen and
that the Eton radios come from one or more of their factories. Whether
Degen/Tecsun farms out production to another company in India probably
isn't as important as the original design and quality control applied
during production.
Right, well, quality control was at the heart of my "better Bharat than
Tecsun" comment. I don't think we need to go into Tecsun's problems in
producing a quality Satellit 800. That went on for years...with
constant threads in this forum on whether or not the 4th or 5th
generation of the '800 had finally "worked out all the kinks", etc. It
became quite meaningless in the end. I wouldn't want to be the guy
looking to buy a used Satellit 800, that's for certain.

It's encouraging that with the manufacture of the E1, there seems to
be, from what is coming out so far, consistently decent quality control
applied.
The 800 was overhyped vaporware for a very long time. When it was
finally delivered the quality was poor especially considering the
price. Given the multiple failed deliveries I would fault Grundig/Eton
as much as the manufacturer. They appear to be little more than a
marketing and distribution company.
'


Grundig AG is neither involved with, nor do they acknowledge the 800.
That's certainly convenient for Grundig AG. They sold the rights to
the Grundig name in a geographical area but refuse to acknowlege the
cheap radios the distributor puts the name on.

The reason they do not acknowledge the 800 is precisely because of
the poor quality. It's also the reason they did not let Lex market it as
a Grundig outside of North America. It was, according to one Grundig AG
designer I corresponded with, who was on the original German Satellit
team, "an embarrassment."

Lex also tried to slide it past EU regulations by declaring it CE
compliant, which is required for European marketing. They even had CE
stamped into the case. They did not submit Sat 800 for CE evaluation,
however, and the CE had to be removed from existing castings, and
remaining cases recast. As a counter move, Lex bought and distributed a
number of CE compliant power supplies with 800 models. Some 800's made
it overseas. None through legitimate channels.



And the Grundig to which you refer is actually Lextronix. Lextronix
bought the right to use the Grundig name in North America, later calling
themselves Grundig of North America, and Grundig USA, before being
acquired by Eton. It was Lextronix which commissioned the creation of
the 800.

And you are correct, they are a marketing and distribution company.
Lex was the North American distributor for products of Grundig AG.

I'm really amazed that Grundig AG so completely squandered the value of
that brand name in noth america. It was apparently sold with few
restrictions on it's use. I can only guess that the german Grundig was
hurting for cash at the time.



The move surprised a lot of people. But then, the relationship
between Grundig AG and Lex had been very good, and very profitable for
years. So Grundig had no reason to think that such a natural evolution
would turn so far south. But Lex is a marketing company. And without a
product line of their own, it had to be fairly clear that a third party
product bearing the Grundig name wasn't going to be the equivalent of
Grundig AG quality. Grundig AG may have been building offshore
themselves, but design was their own and QC was carefully monitored. A
third party would not have the same interests, nor the same focus.
Products would be different. And it would be tough to compete with
Grundig's reputation for Quality.

The use of the name was not unrestricted. But you know how corporate
contracts can be interpreted. Every specification creates another
loophole. And Lex, seeing cash at hand, exploited as many of them as
they could.

And yes, Grundig was hurting at the time. Fresh off their screwing by
Philips, they needed the cash to rebuild. Licensing the name on a line
of products in the lucrative US market, where Grundig AG has never had a
profound presence, would have to look like free money. And to be fair,
Lex turned out a line of products that were marketed to both the Grundig
aware, and those to whom the name was not a household word. And Lex'
marketing was non pareil. They created demand in both the nostalgia and
the non SW markets for a line of retro radios marketed as 'updates' of
Grundig classics.

But the claims went beyone misleading. They even went so far as to
claim they had found and hired the original designers and craftsmen, in
their camera-ready ads, to faithfully recreate the hardwood cases of
their retro products. This, despite the fact that their biggest retro
product, the Classic 960 wasn't wood, but bakelite or catalin. With
brass insert trim, not gold paint.

The electronics wern't any better. I ordered a Classic 960 and found
the quality to be so bad, I returned it at once. Dial calibration was
off by more than a megahertz. It drifted. The dial backlash was almost
half a channel's width. They sent me a new one. The replacement was
worse than the first, and the second replacement was worse than the
first replacement. Build quality was criminal.

I"m not the only one who noticed this.

Not exactly the result Grundig AG had hoped for from this arrangement.


Grundig is currently under recovery in Germany. And a new product
line is hitting the world market. Some significant innovations, too.

But the name, in the US, at least, has been tainted. And isn't likely
to be revived soon.

I suspected as much with the sale of the Grundig brand name in North
America. Companies don't normally sell a valuable intangible asset
like a brand name unless they have to. Without tight controls on its
use consumers end up being at best confused if not intentionally
misled.

Yes, it takes many decades to build up a brand image, but it can be
lost so quickly. The name Gruding that I and many others once
associated with expensive high quality sound equipment is now tied to
the glitzy cheesy stuff that places like Sharper Image and ShopNBC
peddle.