Today I went and bought a new DVD player & surround system.

This was because my old surround system went a bit odd: the centre channel disappeared entirely, and it started acting up generally, and buying seperate parts (decoder, amp, speakers) is expensive. One day, I might do it all properly and get a good AV amp and some nice small KEF AV speakers, but that’s low on my priority list at the moment.

The old Creative surrond system was a little cheap and nasty, but still cost £200 a few years ago. The DVD player wasn’t cheap & nasty, and cost about £200 too.

My new system cost…. £49.97. The DVD player is clearly not as nice as the old (Marantz) one, but it seems to perform about as well, plays every kind of disc you throw at it, and the surround sound is actually better. In the same shop, they had a speaker package for £35, but I thought my decoder was stuffed too, so I threw caution to the wind and blew the extra £15 for a DVD player too.

How can they make these, ship them here, and make a profit- even allowing for the fact that the workers assembling them will be paid a pittance?