Scott Wilkinson

Looking at this flat panel edge-on, you'd think it's an OLED, but it's actually an LCD TV that measures only 9.9mm thick. The light source is a set of white LEDs placed along the edge of the screen, so there is no local dimming. Like most of Sony's upscale LCDs, this one offers 120Hz frame interpolation, a wide color gamut, and Bravia Link. The off-axis performance I saw was amazing.

Sony's OLED demo included several 27-inchers and some 11-inch XEL-1s as well as a new 11-inch model (in the center of this shot) that's less than 1mm thick. The prototypes were all mounted in super-cool brushed-aluminum flat stands. As OLEDs are wont to do, these looked stunning. I only wish this technology was practical and economical from a manufacturing perspective.

Home-theater geeks like me have been waiting for large-screen OLED flat panels for years now, but all we've seen so far are concept products at trade shows and one 11-inch consumer model from Sony for $2500. Recently, however, a ray of hope issued from Sony Professional when it introduced two new OLED monitors, the BVM-E250 and BVM-E170, for the pro market.

The demo system I heard included an EMM XDS1 CD player, Pass X20 preamp, twin Pass 600.5 monoblocks, and Kimber cables throughout. Listening to Take 6 singing "I L-O-V-E U" from So Much 2 Say was astonishing in its clarity and definition of each sound in the dense mix.