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
Thanks to Yamaha's yAired™ technology, you can use your YSP-5100 with an
iPod and subwoofer without having to connect any cables. The yAired™
link transmits uncompressed data (linear PCM) so there is no loss of
signal data, unlike systems that use Bluetooth® wireless technology to
send compressed data. This ensures maximum sound quality. The PDX-50TX
provides wireless connection capability to your iPod. This allows you to
use the iPod as a remote control while listening to your iPod music and
provides synchronized power on/off. In addition, the iPod charges when
it is in the included charging cradle. The SWK-W10 allows the wireless
connection of any subwoofer, highly recommended for boosting bass sound.
Both of these kits can be used together; when doing so, turning on the
iPod automatically turns on the YSP-5100 and the subwoofer.
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.
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".
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 design of the cabinet is of course extremely important if the aim is
to create a speaker with superior reproduction capabilities. The goal
was to reduce standing waves to ensure highest accuracy, as well as to
provide a full, three-dimensional sound with an awesome feeling of
depth. The solution was to design a cabinet with non-parallel surfaces,
having the woofer and midrange sections divided by a slanted partition,
and strengthening the entire enclosure with vertical ladder bracing.
Another important point is the 3-way mitered construction of the cabinet
joints, achieved thanks to Yamaha’s excellence in woodworking. This
technique ensures extremely tight joints so the entire cabinet behaves
as a single unit, providing tight, powerful and accurate bass
reproduction.
The NS-F901 adopts Yamaha’s unique new A-PMD (advanced polymer-injected
mica diaphragm) with improved cone paper in order to reproduce high
resolution sound sources. Taking advantage of the strong points of the
A-PMD—extreme lightness, rigidity and stability—the speaker achieves
smoothness, very fast response and sound with good dissemination,
reproducing information-rich sound sources with an impressive feeling of
density. The A-PMD incorporates a powerful magnetic circuit with a
large neodymium magnet and a highly stiff aluminum diecast frame that
increases the aperture ratio, achieving outstanding power handling and
responsiveness in the mid frequency range - the heart of the music. The
rubber surround, a spider made by Kurt Müller of Germany and meticulous
tuning also contribute to the reproduction of high quality music and
movie sound.
The bass unit also adopts the new A-PMD with a paper cone upgraded for
the reproduction of high resolution sound. The use of a large ferrite
non-shielded magnet ensures high drive power that provides prodigious
bass volume. By utilizing high quality parts such as a high rigidity
aluminum diecast frame that dampens resonance, it reproduces bass with a
deep sense of scale, achieving both power and speed, leaking out of the
speaker cone. This means the full power of the waves is forced out
through the air port, resulting in clear, powerful bass.
The 1” dome tweeter is made of aluminum for both hardness and
responsiveness and like the midrange unit, uses a neodymium magnet. It
delivers sound that links the medium and high ranges with natural
smoothness and transparency. Firmly integrating the diaphragm and voice
coil and using a thick surround material increases the sound density and
resolution in the high range. With a heavy aluminum diecast tweeter
plate that minimizes unwanted resonances and an extremely fine mesh
grill that provides ideal sound dissemination, it faithfully reproduces
dense sound atmospheres and nuances from high resolution sound sources.
The crossover networks employ the highest quality parts, including Solen
metalized polypropylene capacitors and large iron-core coils with
carefully selected wire. All parts are connected by directly soldering
each one individually, instead of using printed circuit boards, further
contributing to the rich and vivid sound. Finally, meticulous sound
tuning ensures optimum transitions between drivers for smooth and
natural sound across the entire frequency range.
