I always look forward to reviewing a Panasonic plasma TV. While I've picked at problems with the company's CRT TVs over the years, I've never found anything but near-complete satisfaction with its plasmas. The company has its own plasma research facility in New Jersey, which I once visited, and its plasma products stand comfortably among the top rank of companies in this field.
For two decades now, Danish manufacturer Dynaudio has been known for making superb speakers in small cabinets. No, such designs can't produce the robust bass that larger speakers can muster—that's a simple factor of physics, not of design. But Dynaudio's track record should intrigue anyone interested in buying a compact speaker.
Digital Light Projection televisions are racing to become the new standard of the digital age; several companies have embraced them with the fervor of the converted. Plasma and LCD televisions are making their own bids for dominance. But these days, most manufacturers are saying little about CRT-based television, which remains the biggest-selling technology—by reason of price, picture quality, and consumer familiarity.
In fall 1998 through early 1999—the early days of digital television—every maker of high-definition sets was making large, expensive rear-projection models. That is, every maker but one: Sony. Their first direct-view, widescreen, high-definition set, the great-grandfather of the model reviewed here, was the KW-34HD1 FD Trinitron, which I reviewed in the May 1999 <I>SGHT</I>. It cost $8999, and was among the best direct-view televisions I have ever had the pleasure of watching.
Survey a panel of true video experts and ask them which of the many competing technologies, old and new, is capable of producing the very best picture, and the majority—perhaps even all of them—will still answer: "A top-of-the-line, data-grade CRT projector with 9-inch tubes." If asked who makes the best such CRT projector, many of those experts will cite Runco and its DTV-1200 model, though some also will praise Sony's VPH-G90U, the projector I own. The differences between two top-of-the-line 9-inch CRT projectors are modest at best.