New King!

It has been more than a week since the new TV arrived.

Like a child, I was very excited to await the arrival of my new, big TV. I Before I cleared the space for it to sit on its 'throne', the sentimental me decided to take some pictures of my old, matrimonial TV (a couple's new flat is called 'matrimonial home', right?) before letting it go.

 My cluttered console with my 29-inch CRT

 Clearing the space for the new king

 In my excitement, I wanted to visualise how much space the new TV would take up

 Here it comes - the huge, huge box!

 The new king, seated on his stately throne

Bought a 5.1 home entertainment system with the TV

Verdict:

At $3650, the TV isn't the cheapest around. I read on hardwarezone forum that Best Denki Takashimaya is selling it at $3599 (arghhh ...!), but well, I have bought it so no point lamenting getting 'cheated' by Harvey Norman.

At about 9 or 10 feet distance, the TV feels just right. In fact, as days go by, I thought perhaps we could do with an even bigger TV. After a while, it just seems to feel not-that-big.

I was trying to decide between this TV and Samsung 55" ES 8000M. I love the sleek and borderless look of Samsung. The thin, metal bezel with the glowing 'Samsung' logo at the bottom of the bezel really looks enticing. And 3D images are positively better on Samsung.

However, the salesmen at Courts and Harvey Norman were adamant about the superiority of Sony:

1) HX955 is the newest Sony model while Samsung's ES 8000 is one week short of being replaced by the new F series, and thus the cheap pricing now ($3399).

2) Sony's black is real black while Samsung portrays black as grey.

3) There is (slightly) more depth on Sony images than Samsung's.

4) Sony displays better skin tone than Samsung. Images are more 'real' compared to Samsung's vivid colour depiction.

5) Sony has the least number of customers asking for repairs.

I used to love very vivid colours on still images, but I must say I have doubts about how sustainable moving vivid coloured images would be on the eyes.

I feel that vividness of colours enhances a still image, but it may feel artificial on moving images.

Although Samsung's 3D rendition is evidently superior to Sony's, I would be watching Standard Definition programmes most of the time. 3D would be something that we probably do in the name of novelty.

If the statistics in hardwarezone forum is anything to go by, I would say Samsung TVs see quite a high number of customers complaining about them going kaput, with or without warning, usually right after the 3-year warranty, as if the capacitors in the TVs are programmed to blow after 3 years. But such incidents don't seem to happen with customers who have bought the extended warranty.

I felt that if I were to buy a Samsung TV, I would purchase the extended warranty. However, if I buy a Sony TV, it is not likely that I would get one. I could use the money for the extended warranty on something else, like a home entertainment system.

The sales pitch had it that LCD TVs have inferior sound quality compared to CRT TVs, so people usually buy a set of systems to go with it.

I know the 'people usually buy a set of systems to go with it' is a pack of lies, but I requested to listen to the same set of music with and without the home entertainment system. I have to admit that there is a substantial, noticeable difference even for a non-sound, non-aural person like me. There is more depth, more fullness in the sound produced by a system.

I had wanted to get a stylish-looking sound bar to go with the TV for a clean look, but the blu-ray player that is in the home entertainment package is too good to forgo. On top of that, 'unless you get a $1.6k Yamaha 1000w soundbar, you would be better off not getting one".

So I stuck to the 5.1 system, with 5 speakers staring at me from the console.

But my Fish Leong CD now sounds so much better than when I played it on a DVD player!