Showing posts with label Hi-End. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hi-End. Show all posts
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Each year for the past 10 years, a group of highly-regarded TV reviewers, top ISF-certified calibrators, enthusiastic videophiles, and an interested public have converged at Value Electronics in Scarsdale, NY to pit the industry’s best TVs against each other and pick a winner. That’s not exactly what happened this time around. Robert Zohn, Founder and President at Value Electronics, moved the event up on the calendar and out of his store to coincide with CE Week in Manhattan. Held in a private room at the Altman Building, the event was considerably larger, with higher attendance and, therefore, a bigger pool of voters. The verdict? LG’s EG9600 4K UHD OLED took the crown, hands down.
The LG OLED had some tough competition this year, namely the Samsung JS9500 SUHD TV, and Sony’s X940C. In fact, Zohn told Digital Trends that it was effectively a tie for second place. “All of the TVs performed exceptionally as these are the flagship models from LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony,” said Zohn. “LG’s 65EG9600 OLED won in 5 of the 7 categories. Samsung and Sony scored so very close it would be only fair to say they tie for 2nd place.”
Apparently, while some folks didn’t like the curved screen on the Samsung, for example, others were opposed to the Sony’s large side-mounted speakers. In the end, however, all agreed both LCD-based televisions were outstanding — just not outstanding enough to take the trophy.
What put the OLED over the top this year was the same thing that cinched the top prize for last year’s LG 55-inch 1080p OLED: perfect blacks. The OLED is unique in its ability to pull off this trick while still offering outstanding brightness, resulting in tremendous contrast — an aspect most experts agree is the most critical factor in picture quality.
Experts noted a few flaws with the LG OLED, and wound up honing in on one issue in particular: slightly dimmed edges on the far left and right sides of the panel. In fact, some reviewers dug in deep to expose the issue and make it clearly visible to onlookers. One presenter used a notoriously difficult scene from a Harry Potter film to make the dimmed edges more apparent.
Related: Samsung vs. LG cage match: Watch their best TVs fight no pay per view needed
But the general audience’s vote wasn’t swayed. If the slightly dimmed edges were visible to them during casual viewing at all, it wasn’t enough to influence their decision. The LG EG9600 OLED took lead honors, with its excellent off-axis performance, vibrant color, and excellent webOS 2.0 user interface all helping to dazzle onlookers. And the pros agreed: “I was happy to see the pro voting results closely matched the general attendees,” Zohn said.
Of course, the shootout does little to take price into consideration, so the notion of value doesn’t play a role. If it did, it’s possible that voters might have been swayed a different direction. Presently, the 65-inch version of LG’s EG9600 OLED goes for $7,000. A comparably sized Samsung JS9500 SUHD comes in at $5,000, and the Sony X940C, which is only available in a 75-inch version, runs $8,000.
And for good measure, here’s our side-by-side comparison of these two flagship televisions: OLED Winner
Thursday, April 2, 2015
PHX High-End Acoustic Drums
The PHX Series, from the YAMAHA Drum Laboratory
We redefined what a high-end drum-set was
when we introduced Recording Custom in the 1970s. With the introduction
of PHX, we set the bar even higher by creating the ultimate musical
instrument for drummers.
PHX TQF:Turquoise Fade / Gloss Finish / Ash
The shells of the PHX are 11-ply hybrid shells. The woods used are
progressively harder from the center ply to the outer plies. The center
ply is jatoba; this is a very hard wood' and it "anchors" the
fundamental of the shell. Sandwiched on either side of this is kapur.
This wood is in the mahogany family and adds warmth to the sound of the
drum. The inner and outer plies are maple, except in the case of drums
using the optional burled ash outer ply. These drums use an outer
half-ply each of maple and burled ash. Maple rounds out the tone adding
high and mid frequencies to the shell.
Polar White
All drums have a 30° bearing edge, but each "family" of drums uses a
different profile. Bass drums have a sharper edge cut toward the outer
plies. This gives the bass drums attack and shortens the decay. Floor
toms have a slightly rounded edge to give them a perfect balance of
attack and sustain, making them very articulate at all dynamic levels.
Toms have an even more rounded profile for warmth and sustain. This
combination of shell composition and bearing edges makes PHX what many
of our artists described as "the most musical drums [they] have ever
played".
Textured Amber Sunburst
PHX uses redesigned versions of the Nouveau lug and YESS. The new lug
mounts on a square hook rather than a round post. This keeps the tension
rod in perfect vertical alignment and eliminates the need to use two
hands while tuning the drum. We used the aluminum die-cast hoops made
popular on our Absolute series for PHX. These hoops are very light but
rigid, giving you the open, warm sound of a triple-flanged hoop and the
accurate tuning of a die-cast hoop. Lugs and hoops are available in
chrome or gold. The new version of the YESS mounting system supports the drum at the top and bottom. The new version mounts the tom bracket onto a piece of the shell, and that wooden plate is isolated or shock-mounted using rubber grommets. A 3-piece fastening system is used to attach the new YESS to the shell, and the inside and outside fasteners do not touch. This system totally isolates the drum and allows the full tone to come through and maximizes sustain.
Turquoise Fade
- Matte Natural
- Matte Black
- Polar White
- Cherry Sunburst
The finishes available on the burled ash are:
- Garnet Fade
- Sapphire Fade
- Turquoise Fade
- Textured Amber Sunburst
- Textured Black Sunburst
$8,850.00 - $12,000.00
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