On Fri, 11 May 2001 06:04:41 -0700, "Richard Crowley" wrote:

>"Neuman - Ruether" wrote ...
>> This was my point - I'm tired of reading about these
>> owners, when in fact they appear (mostly) not to be
>> first-hand ("I've heard...", "Is there still a problem...?")
>> type comments - extended rumors that perpetuate, often based
>> on second/third/etc.-hand comments/questions, and sometimes
>> based on first-hand (but ill-informed technically) comments.
[...most deleted - go back and read the original above...]

>Well, I HAVE heard first-hand reports from PD-150 owners. There have been at
>least a couple on one of the mailing lists I am a member of. Real people who
>had a legitimate beef, especially when Sony originally was going to charge
>several hundred dollars to fix the audio problem. Apparently sanity
>prevailed and they switched gears when professionals started to doubt their
>commitment to quality. Within days after announcing the PD-150 fix (for
>$$$), they announced that the repairs would be free.
>
>And, BTW, these are professionals who know the difference between a
>rolled-off high end (which is unacceptable for professional use, but you
>knew that!) and a proper fix for the audio circuitry. Engineers have been
>designing and building audio circuitry with signal to noise ratios of >120
>dB for dozens of years. Even ANALOG video equipment (not known for having
>"audiophile quality") has had SNRs of >65 dB for years and years. It is
>trivial to make the analog part of a digital camcorder reasonably low noise
>for literally a few pennies worth of components. Sony does it all the time.
>Lesser companies than Sony do it all the time.

Hmmm...., now we are down to a couple of instances...
This, I can believe. There is a defect rate in all gear,
and a couple of VX-2000/PD150s with noisy audio probably
indicates a (rather low...) defect rate rather than a design
flaw. I have heard of one instance with a VX-2000 of a
picture defect also that appeared real - but it did not
indicate a design flaw, either... You are correct about
better audio not being THAT hard or expensive to do
(I used to design audio gear, and was always amazed how
easy it was to make simple things that sounded good, instead
of convoluted circuits that often didn't...;-), but, to
reiterate, this is ***consumer-level*** video gear, of
truly excellent quality, sold at a tiny fraction of
truly "pro" gear! Reasonable expectations are in order,
and except for the very occasional obvious mfgring defects,
we have little to complain about with the VX-2000/PD150
(and certainly NOT a universal "hiss problem"...;-).

>Sony just screwed up with this one and tried to blow it off. These things
>happen, we are all human. They made good on the PD-150 to preserve their
>professional reputation, and "explained away" the problem for the VX-2000
>owners caught in the bubble.

I do not believe this is true, except for Sony offering a
"sop" to the pro users of their *prosumer-level* gear...

>Yes, I completely agree that the continued life of the issue is stupid now
>that Sony has learned from their mistakes and moved on. However, denying
>that it ever happened is called revisionism. Revisionism is not helpful. It
>prevents us from learning from past mistakes. Buyers of used VX-2000s should
>be aware that they should check for the problem if non-AGC audio is
>important to them.

OK, this is a reasonable approach (you can believe or
disbelieve in the "problem", but it is an ***EXCELLENT***
idea to check out used AND new gear upon purchase for
correct operation of ALL functions) - there is a possibility
with BOTH used and new gear of defect (people often believe
new gear is "tested" and therefore "OK" upon purchase, but
this is not true).