Toys and Technology
There's other techy-stuff that I'm into besides computers and cars. You'll
find some of it here. This document last modified August 24, 2004.
Cable vs Satellite -- Comparing Dish Network
to Comcast Digital Cable in Monmouth County, New Jersey
Digital Photography
Audio & Video Product Manufacturers
Retailers and Mail-Order Vendors
Cellular Phones and Accessories
UHF/VHF Scanners
Digital Photography
Back in September of 1999, I purchased a digital camera
-- an Olympus D450-Z. This is the first camera I've owned since I was about
six, and there are quite a few more bells and whistles to this one than that
old Kodak Brownie! The best thing that I can say about this camera is that
it's really easy to use.
A few important considerations for me were portability and image processing
speed. All of the SLR-style cameras were fairly bulky, so they couldn't
easily fit into a jacket pocket. I should also mention that the cheapest
of the SLRs that would fit the ticket for me was running at about $600 at
the time. What really swayed me toward this particular Olympus is that, at
the time, it was the fastest digital camera available for under $1500. That
means that you spend less time waiting for the camera to process and image
before you can click away the next shot. Considering that I wanted to take
quite a few pictures at local autocrosses and friends' club races, I new
that some of the 2 second wonders out there weren't going to cut it. (This
one's good for about 2 images per second in its lowest quality, and about
one second in the standard quality that I use for just about all of the images
that I take.) If you expect to be taking such moving shots, look out for
that image processing specification.
Rather than bore you with any more techie details here, you can go read
about the camera at The Digital Camera
Resource Page and at the Olympus Web
Site.
Audio & Video Products
Sound and Vision Online --
not a manufacturer, but this site is produced by one of the better Consumer
Electronics magazines on the market today. From the same publishers that used
to produce Stereo Review. Very useful reviews for audiophiles, as well as
introductory articles for novices.
Yamaha makes some truly outstanding,
audiophile quality equipment, at mid-range prices. Case in point: their now-discontinued
TX-950 tuner
has spec's that out-perform tuners costing several thousand dollars.
I picked up a used one from E-bay recently for about $300, then found a matching
Dolby Digital amplifier,
model DSP-A3090,
for under $500.
Onkyo makes great home audio products,
and they're right around the corner from me. Consistently top quality and
long-term reliability. I had a tape deck from them that gave me twelve years
of great service. It needed a drive roller once, and the service guy just
handed it to me -- no charge! He cost his company 35 cents, but he won over
several thousand-dollar customers. Great A/V receivers, as well, with top-rated
surround decoders and amplifier sections that typically put out at least
twice their rated power on peaks. (Think they've got a fan in me?)
Marantz has been making state
of the art audiophile equipment for years.
Sony Consumer
Product Guide Obviously, better known than Onkyo, but probably not as
high in quality. I'd trust them for CD players and tape decks, but they've
got a reputation for inaccurate preamplifiers and amps that barely meet their
power specs. They're also right around the corner from me. I haven't been
impressed with the factory service, though.
Magnum Dynalab Ltd. - extremely
high end audio receivers, FM tuners, antennas.
Boston Acoustics is a top-rated
brand for home and car audio speakers. I have a set of their RX series speakers
in my Mazda, and I had their CX-series car speakers in my last Volvo.
Infinity Home And Car Audio
-- another great brand of speakers. I have Infinity speakers at home, and
in my Mazda.
Alpine makes some of the best car
stereo equipment available.
BlaupunktUSA, makers
of some excellent car stereo gear.
Clarion car stereo equipment
ranges from fair to outstanding. Hope you like bells and whistles, though,
'cause their stuff is not conservative.
Metra makes wiring harnesses
and other accessories. I used one of their wiring harnesses to install an
Alpine CD/Receiver into my old Volvo 740.
Antenna Performance Specialties
makes some of the very best, high performance FM antennas on the market.
For most folks, though, Radio Shack
has a $20 FM antenna (Catalog #15-2163) that is commonly regarded as the best
value on the market.
Retailers and Mail-Order Vendors
Crutchfield is probably the most
well known mail-order house in consumer electronics.
Sound Conceptions has car
stereo equipment and installation kits. Cheaper than Crutchfield.
Nobody Beats the Wiz is a local retailer
with cruddy prices, a reasonable selection, and a good "we'll meet anybody's
price" policy. The Paramus, NJ store has been pleasant to deal with, but stay
away from the Secaucus store.
J & R Music World is one of the
longest established mail order electronics houses that I know of.
6th Avenue Electronics has much better
prices, a good selection, and killer salesmen. Know exactly what you want
before you step foot in the store, or they'll eat you alive.
The Beeper & Stereo Store Car Audio
Catalog -- found 'em on the net. Good prices.
The AutoPhile sells high-end
car stereo equipment.
HiFi.com is another high-end mail-order
vendor.
ABC Stereo (also known as Alpha
Sound & Vision, Alpha Stereo, American Buyer's Club, ABC and Alliance
Technologies, www.alphasound.com, www.stereoscape.com, and www.abcstereo.com)
is a local, high-end A/V shop in Freehold, NJ. I've been in the shop, and
they seem pleasant and knowledgeable enough, but I was recently surprised
to read that they were just fined $75,000 for deceptive business practices.
(See the Asbury Park Press article at
http://www.injersey.com/news/backstories.pl?id=424348&paper=0,
or contact the paper for their 7/26/01 article. You should also see
the survey at
http://www.visi.com/~nau/mailorder/companies/abcdistributors.html.)
I'm really glad I didn't give them any of my hard-earned cash. I just thought
you should know about these guys, just in case you were tempted to do the
same.
Cellular Phones and Accessories
HelloDirect! These folks sell
some of the coolest desk- and cordless-phones available. They're just starting
to get into cell-phones. But they're expensive.
Action Wireless is a good, low
priced alternative for cell phone accessories.
UHF/VHF Scanners
The Bearcat brand, by Uniden, is probably
the most popular brand of scanners out there.
Scanner
Frequency Guide for New Jersey