Sony or Pioneer, pls help me choose?

[Deleted member 2457]

archy121:

Thanks everyone for you valuable feedback.

As suspected seems there is overwhelming support for the Pioneer - the set that i also preferred to start off with.

The only thing holding me to buy it is the price point my budget was around £1200 & stretchable to £1500.

I will have to buy a stand as well which is at least another £200.

I was secretly hoping someone would offer me a strong case to go for the Sony - telling me its extremly close to the Pioneer in picture quality & a great buy at its new lowered price point. Now it looks like i need to find some more cash from somewhere before as i really don't want to compromise if everyone here is outright telling me Pioneer is the way to go - even though its exdem & at a higher price. Hmmm.. what to do now....

Would i be correct to assume that Pioneer & Sony will be pretty much same for viewing Blu-Rays - possibly Sony better ?

And Pioneer more better than the Sony for SD material ?

Or does Pioneer take both crowns ?

@matthewpiano

- Are you saying that in your opinion the newer Z5500 would be a better buy than the X4500 ?

Why don't you look at the Philips LCD's at this price point?

 

[scene]

Just to add, I went through this whole debate between the 46" Sony, the Samsung UE46B8000 and a KRP-500A. Price, size, partner approval all came into it. In the end just couldn't help but realise that the picture on the Kuro was second to none. No matter which other TV I looked at in the shops, if there was a Kuro in the room, all I could think was "Is the picture as good as on the Pioneer", regardless of source SD / HD, etc.

And my partner agreed...

My KRP-500A was bolted to the wall on Tuesday and the cost was about the same as sgrant01 has been quoted and I can say it was worth every penny... All I can think about at work is what I can watch on TV tonight, even with the screen with lousy contrast for 200h run in. I feel like a child in a toy store.

 

[Anonymous]

I would recommend you have a look at the Panasonic plasmas, particularly the v10.

Of the two you mention, I would go for the pioneer.

 

[matthewpiano]

archy121:
Thanks everyone for you valuable feedback.

As suspected seems there is overwhelming support for the Pioneer - the set that i also preferred to start off with.

The only thing holding me to buy it is the price point my budget was around
£1200 & stretchable to £1500.

I will have to buy a stand as well
which is at least another £200.

I was secretly hoping someone
would offer me a strong case to go for the Sony - telling me its
extremly close to the Pioneer in picture quality & a great buy at
its new lowered price point. Now it looks like i need to find some
more cash from somewhere before as i really don't want to compromise if
everyone here is outright telling me Pioneer is the way to go - even
though its exdem & at a higher price. Hmmm.. what to do now....

Would i be correct to assume that Pioneer & Sony will be pretty much same for viewing Blu-Rays - possibly Sony better ?

And Pioneer more better than the Sony for SD material ?

Or does Pioneer take both crowns ?

@matthewpiano
- Are you saying that in your opinion the newer Z5500 would be a better buy than the X4500 ?

In my view, yes, it represents better performance per pound. The Z5500 is the one I would go for out of the Sony sets.

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:
In my view, yes, it represents better performance per pound. The Z5500 is the one I would go for out of the Sony sets.

Even with the 46X4500 reduced to £1600 ?

Anyhow the Pioneer is now reserved till Monday & tomorrow i hope to audition both sets.

Unfortunately they are likely to be in 2 different shops with different lighting conditions etc.

I accept that the Pioneer has the better picture but i need to determine for myself whether i prefer the softer plasma image or the sharper LCD one. From my research it seems that although the Sony LCD is not technically quite there with the Pioneer it is close. My eyes may not be able to detect the differences and they have a preference to a type of image produced - irrelevant of which is better technically. I was definitely wowed by Plantet Earth on my friends 40w5500 so lets see what the Pioneer can do. I will be equipped with the same Blu-Ray tomorrow.

BTW Other than size is the LX6090 exactly same as the LX5090 ? I will most likely be auditioning it on the 60" screen.

 

[matthewpiano]

You are doing exactly the right thing - taking the time to look at the sets with your own eyes and trusting in your own judgement rather than specs/figures. Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes.

(BTW at £1600 the X4500 is a bargain)

 

[Anonymous]

Actually its only £1500 taking into account the TV trade in deal that Sony are doing.

I'm leaning towards the Pioneer but just want to be 100% sure of why I'm going to be spending the extra.

 

[bigboss]

Yes, the 6090 is exactly the same as 5090 except for the size difference. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to compare a 60-incher with a 50-incher.

 

[Anonymous]

Today i went i went equipped with Plant Earth Blu-Ray and did a constructive comparison of the LX5090, V10 & X4500.
The comparisons were carried out on three different shops all being equally far from ideal testing grounds.

I first went to the very well lit Sony centre to demo the 55" X4500.
The Blu-Ray was absolutely fabulous to my eyes - certainly at the time. I looked at some of my favourite scenes & was amazed with the level of the colour & especially the detail. The BIG let down was the SD - blurry. I was also shocked by the depth of the LED Lit (local dimming) screen. It must have been at 10cm+ deep. Nothing like the Samsung LED sets (edge lit)

Second audition was for the 50" V10 at the Panasonic centre.

The sales men & the showroom setup was probably the worst of the three.On the positive side the store was not over lit.

The SD viewing was equally bad as the Sony if not worse which i did not expect at all. I'm guessing this was due to a very poor setup. I could somewhat forgive the SD quality due to bad signal etc but unfortunately the Blu-Ray failed to impress me too. I preferred the Sony's brighter & detailed picture to it. Whilst browsing through the Blu-Ray i came across a scene where a camera was panning up huge trees & judder could noticed. The sales man switched on some motion setting & the picture became smoother but created a new rather unnatural motion to my eye. One thing i noticed was that the TV's setting was on Dynamic. When the salesman flicked it between the other settings it seemed to loose way too much contrast & looked worse. Forgot to mention when i was watching the SD it was also running the same feed on number of other screens including the LCD range set. I was surprised to find that the LCD viewing had more detail & appeal. My expectations set by reviews & recommendations were shattered & i'm guess this was due to a faulty screen of a extremely bad setup.

At this point i becamee rather concerned with the Plasma tech i had put my initial faith in. The Sony LCD had outdone the Panasonic but even its SD picture was unacceptable for me. I went to the third audition very confused & not sure of what to expect any longer from a plasma display.

Third audition was of the LX6090 (no 50" left) on the well lit showroom of the Bentalls centre.
The TV was not connected with an antenna so Blu-Ray was viewed first.

Superb FULLSTOP.

That one word really sums it up for me. Natural is probably another good word to describe it. Sure the Pioneer did not have brightness or the extreme detail of the X4500 but it had colour & clarity that made everything look so much more natural & real.
There was a fly over scene across the savannah with river streams that looked incredible on the X4500. The water had looked amazing -in fact too amazing. When i watched the scene again on the Pioneer i realised what people meant by over processed images on LCD's. The pioneer gave a less brighter image but with more clarity that made the water look life real unlike the Sony that had made it super real - CGI like. I understood than why this TV is the REFERENCE.

The SD viewing was brilliant relative to the other two screens. It was better than i had expected & something i could live with. What a surprise & relief. Both of the boxes ticked.

I rushed off to the JL store fast as i could to secure my reserved LX5090 & now I can't wait till Tuesday next week for the delivery.

Its a lot more money than i had planned to spend but truly worth it. Its a bargain in terms of what it delivers compared to the competition. I'm glad I got one before they disappeared altogether.

If the Pioneer had not delivered today i would not have bothered going to HDTV for sometime yet.

To anyone else confused as i was...

The Only TV worth Buying Today -If You Can Find One Is The Pioneer KURO

 

[aliEnRIK]

As youve already said, they certainly wernt IDEAL conditions to compare (Far from it in fact). I viewed a 46"Z5500 a couple of weeks back in a sony shop and it looked cr*p

The reason being they had all the extra processing pap switched on. Ive since bought a W5500 and once its setup correctly is VERY comparable to my dads Pioneer A500 (When I say setup correctly I also mean greyscale calibrated as well as all the extra processing guff switched off etc)

Now dont get me wrong, id have an A500 over the W5500 anyday, but theres not that much between them (Save the hugh price, I got my W5500 for 930 quid!)

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:
As youve already said, they certainly wernt IDEAL conditions to compare (Far from it in fact). I viewed a 46"Z5500 a couple of weeks back in a sony shop and it looked cr*p

The reason being they had all the extra processing pap switched on. Ive since bought a W5500 and once its setup correctly is VERY comparable to my dads Pioneer A500 (When I say setup correctly I also mean greyscale calibrated as well as all the extra processing guff switched off etc)

Now dont get me wrong, id have an A500 over the W5500 anyday, but theres not that much between them (Save the hugh price, I got my W5500 for 930 quid!)

The FACT that they were ALL not setup up properly & could be further tweaked like you said, makes one think what more the KURO can achieve. Was amazing as it was on default settings in a open fluorescent lit showroom.

You have a TV that you are content with at a price point you are prepared to pay & that is great for you.

I find it hard to imagine that the W5500 could get near the KURO when
the X4500 local dimming flagship TV couldn't. Tweaking the settings cannot create miracles.

 

[aliEnRIK]

archy121:

The FACT that they were ALL not setup up properly & could be further tweaked like you said, makes one think what more the KURO can achieve. Was amazing as it was on default settings in a open fluorescent lit showroom.

You have a TV that you are content with at a price point you are prepared to pay & that is great for you.

I find it hard to imagine that the W5500 could get near the KURO when the X4500 local dimming flagship TV couldn't. Tweaking the settings cannot create miracles.

You find it hard to believe, but ive had 1st hand experience of calibrating them both.

Pioneers are still the kings of scaling mind

 

[Anonymous]

archy121:
Today i went i went equipped with Plant Earth Blu-Ray and did a constructive comparison of the LX5090, V10 & X4500.
The comparisons were carried out on three different shops all being equally far from ideal testing grounds.

I first went to the very well lit Sony centre to demo the 55" X4500.
The Blu-Ray was absolutely fabulous to my eyes - certainly at the time. I looked at some of my favourite scenes & was amazed with the level of the colour & especially the detail. The BIG let down was the SD - blurry. I was also shocked by the depth of the LED Lit (local dimming) screen. It must have been at 10cm+ deep. Nothing like the Samsung LED sets (edge lit)

Second audition was for the 50" V10 at the Panasonic centre.

The sales men & the showroom setup was probably the worst of the three.On the positive side the store was not over lit.

The SD viewing was equally bad as the Sony if not worse which i did not expect at all. I'm guessing this was due to a very poor setup. I could somewhat forgive the SD quality due to bad signal etc but unfortunately the Blu-Ray failed to impress me too. I preferred the Sony's brighter & detailed picture to it. Whilst browsing through the Blu-Ray i came across a scene where a camera was panning up huge trees & judder could noticed. The sales man switched on some motion setting & the picture became smoother but created a new rather unnatural motion to my eye. One thing i noticed was that the TV's setting was on Dynamic. When the salesman flicked it between the other settings it seemed to loose way too much contrast & looked worse. Forgot to mention when i was watching the SD it was also running the same feed on number of other screens including the LCD range set. I was surprised to find that the LCD viewing had more detail & appeal. My expectations set by reviews & recommendations were shattered & i'm guess this was due to a faulty screen of a extremely bad setup.

At this point i becamee rather concerned with the Plasma tech i had put my initial faith in. The Sony LCD had outdone the Panasonic but even its SD picture was unacceptable for me. I went to the third audition very confused & not sure of what to expect any longer from a plasma display.

Third audition was of the LX6090 (no 50" left) on the well lit showroom of the Bentalls centre.
The TV was not connected with an antenna so Blu-Ray was viewed first.

Superb FULLSTOP.

That one word really sums it up for me. Natural is probably another good word to describe it. Sure the Pioneer did not have brightness or the extreme detail of the X4500 but it had colour & clarity that made everything look so much more natural & real.
There was a fly over scene across the savannah with river streams that looked incredible on the X4500. The water had looked amazing -in fact too amazing. When i watched the scene again on the Pioneer i realised what people meant by over processed images on LCD's. The pioneer gave a less brighter image but with more clarity that made the water look life real unlike the Sony that had made it super real - CGI like. I understood than why this TV is the REFERENCE.

The SD viewing was brilliant relative to the other two screens. It was better than i had expected & something i could live with. What a surprise & relief. Both of the boxes ticked.

I rushed off to the JL store fast as i could to secure my reserved LX5090 & now I can't wait till Tuesday next week for the delivery.

Its a lot more money than i had planned to spend but truly worth it. Its a bargain in terms of what it delivers compared to the competition. I'm glad I got one before they disappeared altogether.

If the Pioneer had not delivered today i would not have bothered going to HDTV for sometime yet.

To anyone else confused as i was...

The Only TV worth Buying Today -If You Can Find One Is The Pioneer KURO

Yes, a truly fantastic TV. But do get it professionally calibrated and it will blow you away everytime you turn it on!