Teac A7 Series
Can't find much info about them other than a few posts saying Teac is
're-badged Chinese junk, from a few years ago.
Wondering what peoples opinions are about the new A7 series & does it stack up among the budget brands.
Specs —>
https://www.teac.com.au/product/55-premium-uhd-dolby-vision-…
The 49" is around $450 @ the 55" can be grabbed for $595.
I’d avoid. Most companies use only a few companies to actually make the LCD panels, mainly being Samsung, LG, and some Chinese manufacturers. But, even if a company does use a Samsung panel for instance, they’re still likely using in-house software to drive the panel. Things like motion interpolation (MEMC) are heavily affected by software, this is usually why there’s are big variation in performance between larger makers like Sony, and Samsung to smaller or generics such as a TEAC, or an AWA.
Essentially companies like AWA or TEAC maybe ran at a loss, or lost massive market share, went effectively bankrupt, and the rights to the name was bought by a Chinese firm, or they sell the rights to a certain region for a period of time. For instance I think Pioneer sold rights for North America but weren’t actually selling anything there themselves. The main advantage being that people think they’re still getting a brand-name even though it’s just generic origin.
Also, generally mainstream reviewers don’t consider generics in their reviews because there’s so many models already from mainstream makers. Even finding benchmarked reviews of Hisense who aren’t a small maker is often difficult.
So, ultimately you don’t know what you’re getting, whether or not the software is any good, who made the panel, and if the panel performs well.
The other issue is that other makers like Hisense, and TCL offer similar priced products, with a much larger consumer base to assess quality, regardless of independent reviews. So I can’t really even see the financial advantage with something like TEAC. It could be that TEAC is producing high quality panels, with excellent processing, and being cynical we’re missing out, but all things being equal I suspect that’s not the case.