Enzer

This is a warning to anyone tempted by the low prices. In this case, as opposed to Bose (which is bad in the opposite sense), you get what you pay for. I recently bought an impressive-looking Enzer home theatre system from Carrefour, HT 1357 (or something like that). It was cheap, $399 with a free DVD player thrown in. In retrospect, I was stupid to buy on looks alone. :) But who would have thought that anyone could screw up basic electronic equipment like that?

The first inkling that all was not right was the way the tuner worked, or didn't, as it turned out. Firstly, there's no indication of what frequency you're tuned to. No digital or analogue dial or display. You tune the thing by pressing a button which jumps you to the next station. There's also no memory, you have to tune the radio every time you turn it on.

Another thing I noticed straight off was how bad the speakers sounded. The sound was rough and split. I'm no audiophile but the poor quality of the sound just jumps up and bites you on the ass. It's that bad.

After about 2 weeks, the volume knob went wonky. The volume would go from very soft to very loud with just a slight turn. It was effectively unusable. I had no choice but to send it in for servicing. The man at the service centre seemed to know exactly what I was talking about.

All in all, I'm extremely disappointed. Hopefully, this warning will save other people from making the same mistake. If you really have to buy any Enzer product, test it carefully before bringing it home. As for my Enzer home theatre, I'm going to relegate it to computer speaker duty. They'll be the biggest computer speakers in Singapore. :)