After reading the many postings to this forum and others concerning
the poor reliability of Zenith TVs made after roughly 1992, I will
never purchase a Zenith product of any kind again. Zenith used to be
my all-time favorite brand of home-entertainment gear, but that was
when the company still handwired the sets and built them at their
suburban Chicago plant. Since Zenith was acquired by Gold Star and
moved to Korea, however, the quality of their TVs, as many people here
have stated, has deteriorated to the point where I do not and cannot
trust them any longer to build quality equipment. I had many old
Zenith TVs in the late '60s and '70s (trash day finds in my old
neighborhood in suburban Cleveland) that either worked as soon as I
brought them home and turned them on or had only minor problems; as
soon as those problems were resolved, the sets worked for quite a
while with no further troubles, but that was then, in the days when
Zenith meant quality in home entertainment. The company had a slogan
it used for many years: "The quality goes in before the name goes on."
I'm very sorry to have to say this, but since Zenith's exodus from
Franklin Park, Illinois some years ago, the company seems to have
forgotten the meaning of that slogan and that of the word "quality" as
well. I own a 1995 Zenith Sentry 2 19" color set that still works
reasonably well after eight years, but when it eventually breaks down,
I will put it out for the trash and replace it with another brand,
probably Panasonic or Sony. But never again will I put my trust in
Zenith. This company, which once was a well-respected brand of
home-entertainment equipment (remember their slogan of years past,
"the royalty of radio and television" and that instantly recognizable
crest emblem with the crown on top?), has finally, IMO, hit rock
bottom, never to be the same again.

If I decide to get another Zenith TV in the future, it will be a used
tube-type hand-wired set, made in the days when their slogan meant
something and the sets were built to last for years, and use it with a
cable box. I have two Zenith radios, one from 1951, the other from
1963, both purchased at auction on ebay, that still work well today.
(In fact, my 1963 Zenith radio looks and sounds every bit like a
console, although it is in a smaller walnut wood cabinet.) If their
TVs were still this good, Zenith would still be "the royalty of radio
and TV" today as they once were.


Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV (mailto: )
Fairport Harbor, Ohio