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Friday, October 3, 2008
There used to be this guy named Richard who worked at our office and liked to talk about TVs. In fact, it got to the point where he wouldn't even bother introducing the topic, because everyone already knew what he was going to talk about. He would just walk into your office and start saying something like, "You know, I've been thinking about it, and I've decided that 32 inches is just too small..."
I'm going to be channeling Richard in this blog post. If TVs aren't your thing, you know what to do.
Simply put, the Sony KD-34XBR960 is the Holy Grail of cathode ray tube (CRT) high definition televisions. I acquired it yesterday.
Sony started manufacturing this television in 2003, and quit about three years later, when the entire industry abandoned CRT technology in favor of flat panel form factors like plasma and LCD. However, most critics agree that the new flat panels still do not measure up to the best CRTs in terms of picture quality. Sure, they're coming closer, and since CRT development has been abandoned, it's probably only a matter of time. But for now, CRT is king. According to CNET:
The bottom line: This is the reference standard for picture quality among direct-view HDTVs and happens to be a great value.Since 2004, the KD-34XBR960 has been my white whale. I watched it drop in price from its initial list of $2200 to half that when it was finally taken off the market. I watched it go for $1000 on eBay and craigslist over the years. I watched as the official KD-34XBR960 thread at AVS Forums grew to over 6000 posts. And now it's mine. For just $400 from a nice guy on craigslist, including the matching stand.
I hardly know what to do with myself anymore.
