Just Tested
Power amps
Naim NAP 100
Designed to partner the DAC-V1 DAC/preamp, the NAP 100 has much to offer anyone wanting a fine power amp in compact form
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Android Smartphones & Tablets
Google Nexus 4
Our once-favourite Android bows down to fine rivals. Still great value, though
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Hi-fi amplifiers
EAR Yoshino V12
The EAR Yoshino V12 is a terrific integrated amplifier – it needn’t fear any rival at this price
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In this month's mag
August 2013
GROUP TEST: Floorstanding speakers from £440-£500
GROUP TEST: TV Titans – 55in tellies from £2300-£2500
ULTIMATE GUIDE: DACs from £180-£4995
© 2013 Haymarket Publishing
Comments
Hello. Been off to the Sony centre to see this yesterday and John Lewis today. Put the roof chase scene from quantum through it and never seen so much smear and blocking. Even got the motion resolution settings to off and terrible picture. What is happening here. My five year old 400 quid plasma delivers a more consistent picture. This is a five star product. Has tech moved backwards in the last five years. Please help
That doesn't sound right. These Sony TVs come with a variety of picture enhancement options, not just motion, and it sounds like they were set without care. Properly adjusted, the picture should look really good.
I went to look at this set and the stand is a complete joke, as soon as I touched the set I thought it was going to fall over, it rocked back and forth. If you have any pets or children forget it.
Do they make the same spec TV with a decent stand and without the sound bar? Most serious users buying this have a cinema set up as the sound is never up to much on any of these TV's.
It has put me off buying this set now and I think the Panasonic TX-P50GT50B is favoured.
There's no alternative stand available AFAIK, the only other option is to wall mount it.
Does the supplied stand force this tilt? or do you have the option to set it completely vertically on the stand?
No, I don't think it can be fitted vertically in the stand. But you could hang it on the wall if that's an option.
Great to finaly see a review of a Sony lcd with no backlight bleed, Sony should do well with this model however i think that Sony should start to develop there Crystal LED prototype from ces 2012 and get it out there for us consumers, With Crystal LED having the ability to show knockout evenness and colour should prove lucritive for the brand, as uneven backlight bleed and less then a 180 deg viewing angle is unaceptable Crystal LED is the way to go, Sony just need to add Freesat and adopt the better passive 3d technology and there they have it, Its a no brainer and Sony should start to earn a few quid.
I have seen a second review done elsewhere on this Sony TV, and the truth is Sony has excelled on this TV!It is not the best in 3d as it has some crosstalk despite a new 2oohz panel. It doesn't have the dual core processor like the pana vt50 but with 2d it is probably what makes it possibly the best and cheaper than the samsung led sets. its new motion interpolation and upscaling ability is the key to this TV's greatness.
2d is still important as sony's survey shows, and if you are a gamer you know the games industry isn't going down the 3d route as no one is bothered - the last 5 big ps3 games isn't not compatible....Resident evil 6, a real big is NOT going 3d...thank god. GT5 3d didn't convert anyone to 3d games as a must....
Yes, this TV will be for the gamers,photograhers and those occasonal 3d user who does not want too many online widgets......and and no backllight bleed....not Samsung or LG sourced panels!!!!!! I can't say Samsung have got this rubbish resolved!
The best 2d tv.....yes......I have chosen my next TV!
the x-reality pro engine uses a dual core processor with 14 bit upscaling & 12 bit deep color. Also its not hard to spot average upscaling on pre SD DVDs...& like every other edge-led tv,there is corner flashlighting without partial local dimming,which when used causes problems with colour gamma & greyscale on these sharp panels.
guys this is getting serious!!! I haven't seen a tv review frenzy like this since the pio LX 5090 & KRP-500a & probably not even then. Is this tv that good because the review,while very imformative & positive ,is not really inspiring as much as it looks like it should be...i mean this looks like THE TV of recent times..."The best lcd ever" recent line from an online review...does Whathf agree? Maybe even better than the Panasonic VT/GT 50?...this sounds more than an incremental step imo...any more reviews like its getting & it will reach fever pitch!
Well there's a great Supertest to be done with the latest Samsung/Panasonic/LG and other 2012 models going head-to-head, for sure. But until we've done it, we'll reserve judgement on which is the "best LCD/plasma" ever.
I think its a sad testament & legacy for Pioneers last gen plasmas, when the likes of the Panasonic vt/gt 50 & now the Sony hx853 still cannot beat them for outright picture quality, & its 4 years & 5 or 6 gens. later! Its an old story now & we have moved on,but imagine the Pioneer plasmas of today,what they would have been capable of. But they dont mess around when it comes to quality vs buisness. A lesson all the big a/v co's should learn. Yes they slipped up with the bdp lx54,1 player, but they didn't half put it right.
Love the point in the video (0.55) where he talks about accuracy of skintones and textures and it shows a picture of David "Mr Mahogany" Dickinson.
How does this compare to the Samsung Es8000?
We'll be doing a direct comparison soon. Will be a fascinating test
When will the comparison be up on the website, I am also interested to see a direct comaprison between the two
Patience, patience. Might go in the magazine first
Thanks buddy, cant wait, its a damn sight cheaper and thats why I really want to know.
This set needs to beat the pana's led offerings and come at least second to samsung, I don't think it will beat samsung's led overall in the supertest. It lacks the extra frllls and style. Image wise I don't think there is much between these led sets anymore. The brightess screens with the hightest bright and lowest blackpoint(cd/m2) will dictate my choice.
I am going to rely on other review sites for the contrast data
The 3d cross talk that affected the hx 823 and to a lesser degree the hx 923 appear to be gone.No backlite bleed as it uses Sharp sourced panels.
Not all of us are plasma fans, they are indeed reference sets as the pana vt 50 and gt 50 are, but I am a photographer and I need that punch in the images that Sony sets have aways delivered with their color space boosters
if contrast is anywhere as low as the hx750 then its not long before the stories of washed -out blacks start appearing, Contrast was never one of sharps trumps on tv panels,but sonys x reality pro chip may do some trickery though,it certainly does the hx8/920 no harm,quite the opposite .. The 3D sounds better in this review and the added bonus of lcd brightness must rate it alongside any of the best this year,but as for crosstalk in the hx823,theres very little to see,with bluray 3D far outdoing the hx800 of previous,with quality colour & 3D pictures that are more lush and as vibrant,with a great actual 3D effect with good depth and smooth motion. But where the hx850 obviously goes a bit further is with a negative disparate advantage,with no crosstalk to mention seemly,showing how it should have be done at first to compete with panasonic,samsung etc in 2011 going into 2012. I sincerely hope the hx750 isn't as bad as first reviews are making it out,but it looks very bad for this model,why they would let the side down with the hx750 is beyond me,with sonys current tv status.
Sony finds some mojo & it not a huge difference in the case of the hx823 tv review.Both have their strengths & weaknesses.The reviews are a far cry from the days of the W4500 & even the hx903. The next model down seems like a tv to fill out the range a bit,with terrible contrast,clouding & not great p.q. which incidentally was sonys 1st hx model of 2012. Its a long way till award time & there is not 1(well,maybe just 1) sentence in the hx850 review to suggest it has any hope of getting an award. Bad dvd upscaling & rough around the edges p.q . dont give much aspiration. The time has come to roll out Oled or with any luck,Crystal led,so as to catch up to the competition aka pana,samsung,lg & tosh amazingly . Its good to see sony competing again though & as always wether 4 or 5 stars,sony always gives a good account of HD2D & now better 3D.
Yes, the photo you're referring to was taken at Sony's Tokyo HQ earlier in the year when I visited. That was a pre-production model (under embargo at the time) and the speakers were from a separate Blu-ray system alongside which is just out of shot.
I'm not too keen on the look of that stand, I take it, it is detachable.
Most people use a separate amp but if this stand has built in speakers then it will look stupid fixed to a wall if you don't own an amp.
Note: On your photo of this tv you are showing seperate speakers either side.
Yes, the plinth is detachable and the screen has speakers built into its chassis in case you want to mount it on the wall. They sound like everyone else's chassis-sited speakers though, whereas the sound from the plinth is actually pretty impressive.
Whilst I understand that the plinth is detachable, will it still work when detached from the actual TV but still connected to it by the cable?