Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Coby home theater systems

This is topic Coby home theater systems in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-28-2009, 01:48 PM:

I have a good friend in a distant city who is asking my opinions on Coby products. She's got these "points" built up on her credit card and is thinking of using them to buy this home-theater system. From the description she read me, it seems to have all the necessary capabilities as far as formats, (although it's not blu-ray), has four speakers + subwoofer, but outside of that the only thing she knows is, it's a "300 watt" system and is made by Coby. She doesn't know the model number, unfortunately -- this is one of those deals that come in the credit card statement.

From the little bit of info I've found online, it seems like the brand gets pretty bad reviews quite often. Anyone here ever had any experience with that brand?

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 07-28-2009, 02:04 PM:

Coby has a home theatre system?

That's insane!

I have only seen that brand on CD Players that they sell in Dollar Stores. Really cheap pieces of crap that they sell in dollar stores.

Seriously, your friend should take that as an insult and a sign that they should get rid of that particular credit card!

Posted by John Henry (Member # 3084) on 07-28-2009, 02:08 PM:

I had won a CD player by Coby in a raffle for a fundraiser...I used it at my office desk, and only lasted 2 months. Personally I would not get another Coby product. My 2 cents worth

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-28-2009, 03:17 PM:

Coby is rebranded low-end crap from the far east. I don't believe the company actually manufactures any of their products.

They used to have some rebranded DVD players built by Sampo, who were once a favorite of the region/PAL-hacking crowd, after Sampo decided to pull their brand from the US market.

Their whole business model is electronics at bargain price points. They're built as cheaply as possible, and they show it.

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-28-2009, 03:33 PM:

I was given one of those portable DVD players for my birthday. It's a Coby brand. No real complaints so far, except the battery always needs charging. I can have it off overnight, and plug it in the next day and the battery will show that it's charging. But it plays mp3's as well, which is mainly what it gets used for. I have the original stock '94 honda radio in my car /w tape deck. So having something that plays CD's and MP3's is nice. I guess QC at Coby isn't the best( [bs]

), because 1 minute I'll hear bad shit ( [bs]

)about them, and the next I'll hear high praise( [thumbsup]

).

We're either getting a Coby distro center, or a Coby plant here. There's a nice sized plot of land our MPC cleared and set up at the crossing of I-16 and I-95 anticipating a Dahmler Chrysler plant that never happened. I believe that's where Coby's supposed to be going. It's about time they did something with that land. The taxpayers paid alot just to have that land sit fallow for so many years.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 07-28-2009, 05:44 PM:

Same experience as everybody else. Once got an mp3 "boombox" player 'cos it was the only one at the time we found that could read SD memory cards and had half-decent sized speakers on-board and mic recording.

It was cheap in all senses.

As others said, it's just a name sticker in basement-bargain chinese electronics which usually means short-lived products full of quirks.

You may get lucky with the eventual odd-product that actually works as it should and for longer than a couple of years, but that's the exception while the opposite is the norm.

For a home theatre, I would rather get something else and use the cc points elsewhere. Usually trusted brands like Sony or Philips i.e. has a whole range of low-end home theater systems at low price points.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-28-2009, 06:36 PM:

Absolutely horrible equipment, everything they make. Its right up there with such well-respected names as APEX.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-30-2009, 02:14 PM:

Haven't had a proper stereo system in years. Always waiting for the next thing. Then I had a baby and figured that a stereo would wake the baby.

My Father In Law, seeing a need, bought a Kirsh Home Theatre system in a Box off the back of a truck in a parking lot somewhere. He proudly presented it to me. I looked it up on the Internet and came across "The White Van Scam." They dummied up a website that said that the Kirsh Home Theatre system cost $2,400. Then the guy in the van would say that he had one left over and that he can cut you a smoking deal. The typical mark gets taken for $500. My Father In Law only got taken for $80 cash.

I hooked it up and got some kind of noise out of the Subwoofer but the other speakers didn't work.

My wife told him that he got scammed and he was very embarased.

Anyway I ended up using a Sony receiver I found in the alley behind my house and some Radio Shack Optimus Pro X77 speakers that my wife's previous husband had put up in the garage and got a decent system for $0.

Anyway, I have a nice Kirsh Home Theatre System for sale. It's only been used once. $500 [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-31-2009, 02:46 PM:

I use a Technics receiver that I've had for a while. Incidentally, it's only Pro-logic, not Prologic II, but it must have some sort of un advertised scheme for separating the surrounds into 2 channels. I can hear sound pan between the 2 surround speakers at times. I lack a center speaker, and so have it in Phantom center mode, not sure if that messes with the matrixing of the surrounds tho.

Either rate, it's nothing fancy, and not the biggest/baddest system of its time, but I've been very happy with it. My "stage" speakers are just a set of $70 technics speakers, and the surrounds are a set of speakers that came with an old magnavox all in one (Phono/Tape/Radio) unit. They work good, though I do have to turn up my surround channel alot to get them to balance. Correct impedance tho, just weaker I guess.

Technics isn't exactly generic, but it definitely isn't designer level.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-03-2009, 08:48 PM:

I have a similar one from Wal-Mart that she can have if she pays the UPS on it...