Top TV's at any price (1 Viewer)

[Jim Sarri]

Hello this is my first post in these forums. Im trying to compile a list of the very best tv's reguardless of price. i have scoured the forums and have found that sony basicly owns the direct view market with its xbr series but what about flat pannels or RP/FP. im looking for concensus favorites with great picture quality good construction etc. so my question for you is, if you had no budget what tv would you buy from each catagory

BTW your forums sillica gel thread is hillarous

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Hi Jim.

Mitsubishi has a RPTV with 9" CRT's that sells for about ... $8,000.

The Pioneer Elite 620/720 RPTV's have always been considered top-of-the-line for about $6,000 - $8,000 (although you can find them street-price at about $4,000)

A small company called Optima sells a R50 for about $5,000 that came out very well for a rear-projector DLP based television in a recent magazine comparison.

(You do know there are 3 different technologies used in rear-projector: CRT, DLP and LCD - there are trade-offs for each which make it hard to do apples-to-apples comparisons).

 

[ChrisWiggles]

If you're talking only TVs, I have no Idea.

If you are talking display devices in generall, it would probably all be CRT front-projectors. *maybe* something like the qualia would enter in, but hard to say yet, black level suffers still, and it's not really been seen much yet.

So something like:
Sony G90
Barco Cine 9 (Runco DTV 1200)
Electrohome Marquee 9500LC modded (chris stevens, mike parker mods, etc)

Would be at the top.

And new, cost you probably $60K.

But you can probably get that for under 15K-20K pretty easy.

 

[Scott L]

Welcome to the forum Jim. Were you looking only at direct views? They are the easiest to set up but a front projector will give you the best, most tweakable image.

If I struck black gold I'd check out the Madrigal MP-9. At a thrifty $60k I'd grab a couple for sidestacking.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

The MP9 is an un-modded 9500LC. A KBK/MP/Stevens modded one would be much superior.

Not that I wouldn't be happy with a stock 9500LC, but I don't think madrigal even sells them anymore, and they certainly aint worth 60K...

 

[Jim Sarri]

ok my list is looking nice now but im lacking in the flat pannel market. personally im not to fond flatpannel tech but i would like to include them in my list so now what im looking for is the very best plasmas' offered as well as a couple lcd's thanks you guys!

 

[Scott L]

Chris what are the mods you speak of? Do the projectors sell as modded units or do they have to be done once they get to your house? I know Crystal View bought Madrigal's imaging division but didn't know it had the same chassis as that 9500LC you're talking about.

Jim- Samsung is coming out with the first 1080p plasma. Supposed to be 80" diagonal. Link

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Scott, it varies. Some are sold new, for ungodly amounts of money(such as the $60K for the madrigal). There are many iterations of the Marquee chassis out there, just as there are iterations of other projectors sold OEM to other brands, such as Runco. The thing is, that usually there aren't many, if any performance modifications made.

These are all Marquees, either stock, or modified:
Madrigal's CRTs, Vidikron vision 1 and 2, Reference imaging, Crystal vision, and TAW.

Runcos, FYI, are mostly Zenith (older), NECs, and now that NEC is no longer making CRTs, they use Barcos.

Stock Marquees are excellent projectors, I have one sitting in my living room. There are some wonderfully techy people who have developed extensive modifications to improve stability and image quality in the unit, etc. The mike parker mods you can purchase separately and drop in on your own, they are mainly board upgrades/replacements.

The units that are actually extensively modified, such as the chris stevens units, certainly are very nice. The others that are just rebadged, are overpriced, IMO.

Oh, and now that Electrohome is defunct, the Marquee is produced by VDC, still today.

 

[Matthew Todd]

I believe that the MP9 includes color filtering, which most would agree improves performance (better color accuracy, but lower light output).

That still isn't worth the premium in my mind though. You could make the same modification yourself for less.

Matt