Vizio 510, Vizio 210, JVC BA1 another Davyo shoot-out w/ pictures - Page 12

I was just going to leave it alone but really can't help myself with your obsession with all things that is Vizeo. Are you really that hung up or can't so blind that you can even understand plain simple 5th grade level english. He begins with that he owns both models the ysp 1100 & vizeo 420. He sd twice that the ysp 1100 is superior and concluded that between the 2 it's no contest. Is that enough clarification for you or do you need more? please let me know I'll be glad to assist. Or maybe you can't just comprehend or accept anything can possibly be better than Vizeo.

Davyo,
Your info shared here has helped many folks, including myself, in choosing a soundbar. I want to thank you personally for the efforts you've made to share your experiences. I am toubled, however, with the endless products you seem to swap out almost obsessively. If you are selling them to third parties that's one thing. But if you are just taking advantage of liberal return policies in order to audition equipment, that's just plain wrong and in the long run, hurts us all, and IMO amounts to theft. I, for one, hope it's the former and not the latter. Either way, thanks for sharing.

Really, it does not hurt the retailer or the consumer for anyone to make a return. These items are all resold (unless defective and eligible for an RMA). If I go by what I have seen at Best Buy and Sears, returned items are typically sold at approx. 10% less than retail. You can sometimes walk into one of their stores and find the items from their weekly fliers at a lower price than the returned merchandise. Of course, if you point this out to a sales associate or manager, they will typically meet or beat their price form a new unopened item (not always). Electronics are typically keystone markup (50% of MSRP) so there is ample room for a retailer to include the cost of returns in the regular cost of items. I have not taken advantage of these return policies very often, but would not hesitate if I found the quality of the item less than expected. I also do not put any faith in the audition of audio of video equipment in a retail environment and wish to verify how these perform in a home setting with familiar material. I usually do considerable research prior to making a purchase and go into my buying decision having a good idea of how the product should perform. I have dealt with a number of higher end electronics retailers who had no reservations about bringing items to my home for audition for several days knowing that if there were two pieces of equipment, one would be going back to their shop.

I will echo Capecodguy and express my gratitude and appreciation to Dayvo, Dr Freeman, and a few others who have posted extensively here. I have learned a great deal by perusing their comments and ideas, and those comments steered me into the Vizio VHT 510, purchased a few weeks ago. It has worked flawlessly, and sounds extremely good.
So, muchas gracias, amigos!

+1

I purchased the Vizio VHT 510 last week after reading through this forum and getting the great advice from Davyo etc..

I am having an issue I wanted to run by you guys. I have my blu ray player and directv dvr running into my plasma via HDMI, then I am running 1 optical cable from the TV to the sound bar. I notice no issue with Blu-ray, but I notice that when I watch Directv the sound of background music and theme songs is low or weak, while voices etc are loud and clear.

For example, when watching "Family Guy" the voices are very loud and great, but the theme music at the beginning of the show (or when scenes transition) is lower than normal. It's almost as if the main speakers in the center unit pick up voices on one channel, and the background music on another (softer channel).

Is this common? Do I need to run optical cables from the Directv box and Blu ray to an optical switch, then switch to Optical in on the sound bar in order to correct this?

Thanks in advance.

Rob

Rob,

I am having close to the same problems with my HR-21 Directv receiver. Sound is all over place. I posted a new thread in this forum seeking advice you might want to watch it. I did chat with Vizio last night and they recommended to turn Dolby off and set the box to PCM. Seems that I would loose 5.1 if I did that.

Anyway I just received the system from Amazon. Lights went out after a day. this is a new one with L in the serial. When chatting last night with Vizio they did acknowledge the problem and said that the problem had been corrected. We will see giving it another try.

Whoa Dr., but you have a boatload of inaccuracies in your statement. Serial returns hurt all of us in higher prices and stricter policies. Why do you think that many retailers have spent huge money on systems that allow them to track people who abuse liberal return policies? Costco is but one example of a company that once had a fantastic return policy that had to be restricted due to abuse.

Keystone markups on electronics? Not in this world. Margins are so tight on major electronics, sale prices on many brands often result in single digit margins and occassionally break even pricing. Why do you think these stores push so hard to sell service contracts which have huge margins? Even price fixed brands like Bose and Sony have margins in the 25-30% range and nowhere near the 50% you claim. I know this because I used to be the general manager and a buyer for a local electronics chain. So that open box item at 10% ioff is often a break even or even a loss to the stores. I have no problem with returning anything that doesn't perform as expected, but to buy two items with the full knowlege that one will be returned is stealing, pure and simple. No way to spin it otherwise.

Yamaha YSP even in teh Yamaha Store 20% off
Buy.com sold it for $500

So who lost money when buy.com sold the units?

Restocking and the fees are build into the price. So we all pay for it, but without people being critical and posting the review and reasoning more units would be sold and reviewed.

And return policies need to be liberal. There is a limited amount of B&M stores to try to listen to hardware. And then the room is not my living room.
Money is saved on B&M when selling through the internet and Customer Returns are just part of the deal.

They can charge whatever they want in restocking or return shipping. Why don't you buy at places with no return possible so you are not affected?

I apologize if this is directed at me, but I haven't a clue as to the point you are attempting to make.

Are you really asking me why don't I buy at places where all sales are final?

Cape Cod - you may be correct with your figures. I ran a home business in my spare time in the 1970's and 1980's selling some select Hi-Fi gear not available from any of the local retailers. Even purchasing from a middle-man distributor, my profit margn exceeded 40% at retail. Of course, I never charged retail and custom set up was included with a purchase. And at the time in my 20's, young 30's, I loved this stuff so much I would have been happy to do it for free. Through the late 1990's, I kept a close relationship with the few remaining boutique shops in the area and because of long standing relationships with the owners or managers, I was allowed to purchase equipment at 10% to 20% over cost, which still appeared to have the same margins I had dealt with 20 years earlier.

I understand that the BB's and other big box retailers have changed all of this around and was unaware of how tight margins were these days. As you say, the big box retailers have ways of keeping track of people who abuse the system. However, at least with BB and Sears, it appears that they have no problem selling open box items at fairly close to retail. When it comes to Costco and Wal-Mart, I have read (so am not claiming it as gospel), that their extremely low prices on electronics are a major come on to get people in the store. Neither store has had much in the way of gear that interested me. However, Wal-Mart did have the ridiculously inexpensive Vizio VSB-200 soundbar in 2009 that I thought I was going to try as a lark. Just wanted to see what could possibly be offered in audio for a c-note. After hearing how good it was in direct comparison to my Yamaha YSP with Sub (at about 12 to 13 times the price), I kept the unit and used it for the next fifteen months. Without the liberal return policy from Wal-Mart, I would have never considered bringing something in this price category home.

capecodguy, you are annoying... go away.

After a couple of weeks with the vht510, I have to say I am very impressed with it. I also have the sony ht-ct350 in my bedroom which is 13*15 and it does not compare the the vht510, which is in my living room with 25ft ceilings.
Quick question, I purchased an optical switcher where I plan on plugging in my blray, xbox and comcast hd box. For my cable television audio feed would it be more of a benefit to run optical from cable box or from television for the audio? Right now I have everything hooked up directly to telvision through hdmi cables and I am getting 5.1 surround sound but from my understanding it will be better if audio is coming directly from the source.

There have been a few posts about this here but in summary, most TVs (unless they are very old) do no pass through 5.1 audio. This is an FFC restriction. So if you want to get true 5.1 you should hook your soundbar up directly to your source.

I have tested this and you do indeed get better sound going optical stright to the source as oppoused to letting your TV do the switching and then mimic surround as the soundbar will have to do.

Don't pick on CapeCod. He did correct me on some things I was unaware of. I know I can get pretty high up on my soapbox at times and probably need to be taken down at least one notch.

FFC ? never heard of them, you mean FCC

and this is why the upcoming VHT520 SUCKS because it only has 2 HDMI'S it NEEDS 4 of them, SO we can hook up DIRECTV/DISH/CABLE + BLURAY + GAME SYTEMS

GLM06...Solid 5th post...but I think your best bet is to take the HDMI cable coming from your TV and shove it up yoiur stupid a$$.

How's it sound now dickweed?

And thanks DR, It wasn't my intention to offend. Appreciate both yours and Davyo's contributions to this forum.

You are correct, I meant FCC.

As for the VHT520, it does have only 2 HDMI ports, but it also has your standard co-ax AND optical inputs. So really it will have more inputs than most soundbars. The lack of inputs is my only real gripe with the 510 and really I think the 520 address those needs nicely.

Sure I'd like 3 HDMIs in the 520, but keep in mind this is somewhat of a budget HTIB so you can't expect them to have tons of bells and whistles, and quite honestly I think the 510/520 give a lot of bang for the buck and produce a nice sound. Really hard to kock them for what they are.

If you still need more, then go spend $1,000 on a nice reciever cause it sounds like soundbars don't meet your needs.

yeah DAVYO I was at CES and have been last 20 + years, so saying i was not is wrong. Also I seen HD 1080p in analog as well (the Japanese style) before the digital one was here in the USA. So Davyo continute the lame lies and crap, cause all your revelaing is you are a tool, who likes to toot his own broke horn

Anyone bought this recently from Amazon, does it come with the coveted "L" in the serial number.
I had a VHT510 from December and I gave it to a friend of mine, so am on the lookout for a newer one and thought would save some $$ buying from Amazon.. but dont want to get into the hassle of returning it it the LED issues still persist.

Recieved it from Amazon on February 14th, no problems so far, last letter in the series of letters is the "L" followed by numbers.

I just checked my serial number and it is the same; the "L" is the last letter before the number sequence. My second (current) unit arrived on January 8th and is still working perfectly. LEDs have not failed once. The first one I bought was from Costco; I started having intermittent LED failure after the first week or two then they stopped working completely. I am very encouraged that this second one I got on Amazon seems to have come from an improved lot. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though!

@JimboLNT5265 @rxcats
thanks! I was a bit worried considering the recent reviews on amazon..
I am going to order it right away!!

If you can wait, it may be worth waiting until later this year and picking up the VHT520. No release date yet but I'd guess in June or July.

If you can't wait, it seams teh VHT510 issues have been resolved, at least for members here.

I've tasted blood and now the TV's speakers just dont cut it...its already been a couple of painful weeks without the VHT510...

After having the Vht510 for about 2 and half weeks now and then switching back to the Tv's Speaker's(Panny 54G20) It's amazing just how crappy the Tv's Speakers really are.

I received the "L" series VHT 510 mid-February. It was hooked up right away, and has been performing flawlessly ever since, LED volume lights included. VERY glad I made this purchase!