Page 32

AUTOMOBILE

The 2802X was in for 75K checkup & new wipe blades, etc. I've decided against getting new tires because I probably will get new car by year end, and dealer can put on new tires then, as well as fix up the upholstery.

However I will contact Holman Body to get dents & rust off the car for my own sake. And get detailing done.

STEREO

I pretty much knew I didn't want to get "Department Store" Fisher stuff again even if Magnolia was selling it. (Magnolia was rated one of the top 10 HIFI retailers.) But I wasn't sure what I wanted. So I looked at my old consumers reports, not so much for ratings but just to see what the considerations were. November 84 issue had small listings on each component, and

March 82 on turn tables

June 84 on cassette decks

July 84 on receivers

All of these focus on medium-priced components. Because I don't have the March 82 issue I'm happy that the series I've chosen, Sony includes a turntable listed in the Nov 84 small listings. Linear tracking with photoclas.

As I expected, receivers all have pretty much the same performance since the electronics are easy to do with today's advanced technology. (I just want to be sure it does about 50-70 watts for compact disk.) The key requirements centered around features & convenience.

Tuning: station scan, manual stepping, keypad

Memory backup

Remote control

Hooking up 2 tape decks

Tone control: equalizer, subsonic filter, push button

Mute switch

Switched power off

Sony was rated eighth in Consumers Report Ratings. It had a lot of extra conveniences, and it was a well-known name as well.