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![]() 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. |
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