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Sedans Luxury Performance Sedans
10007 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 7:40 AM
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I am a long time subscriber of CR and find them a useful opinion. Are they biased? Of course. We ALL have our biases, worldviews, presuppositions, etc. We all wear colored glasses (rose or whatever) to view the world with! I agree with the many posters who have pointed out that CR is biased towards "practicality" for the middle-class. HOWEVER, I believe that bias is manifested in what they choose to test and not so much in the reported results of the test. CR is known for ranking products from top to bottom based on results and not on price. Only when products tie in quality/results does CR use price for a tie-breaker; and of course CR is well-known for their "Best Picks," but more often than not the so-called "Best Pick" is NOT the best or rated #1 - often a "Best Pick" is in the upper third of the rankings and available at an especially good price relative to the others. Specific to vehicles, CR always ranks from hightest score to lowest score independant of price and makes "Recommendations" based on performance, safety, anmd reliability. I can NOT recall when CR has ever "Recommended" a vehicle based on price. Please refer to the Issue, where CR has ever made a vehicle recommendation based on price alone.
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Replying to: msu79gt82 (May 20, 2005 8:37 am)
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Replying to: hpowders (May 20, 2005 9:07 am) I guess the value proposition is only useful when comparing German vs. Japanese. |
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Replying to: ksoman (May 20, 2005 7:51 am) |
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I like Definitive's new "Mythos" plasma oriented speakers a lot. However, their traditional powered bi-polar towers never sat well with me, as they were clearly HEAVILY inspired by Mirage's original M-1 and M-3. Ian Paisley (Mirage's founder\designer) has said he still regrets not getting a patent for a bi-polar speaker, and while he's never named any names, the Def Tech's are the only speakers I know of that are almost dead ringers for the old Mirages, gloss black end caps and all. The DT's sound though is excellent, they definitely rank up there with Dynaudio, Von Schweikert, and Mirage of course, as some of the best sounding speakers on the planet. |
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Anyone who thinks CR is "completely unbiased" is joking or "truly naive". Did anyone read the "veterinarian expose" they did? Could they be a little more biased? They are great for household products and items, and I enjoy their "are these claims true" section, but I would not judge them as the experts on automobiles (reliability evaluations or otherwise). I subscribe to CR, as do most of you guys, but I recognize which items are simple enough to test as they do and judge with a single 5 point system dot, and which aren't... |
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| I don't know why they even attempt to review luxury cars and SUV's. There's always that annoying and stupid statement accompanying the review that you can buy a Toyota, Honda or Nissan that is just as good for much less money. | |
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Replying to: lexusguy (May 20, 2005 2:36 pm)
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More than a few friends have asked me the same question. Unfortunately there's no easy answer. HDTV is very slowly improving, but there still isnt much out there. InHD, HDNet, and DiscoveryHD Theater are 100% HD channels, but most Cable and Sat providers either cant or wont offer all three. I also have HD HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. When the movies on these channels are recent and they do a good job with the upconversion, the results are stunning, and blow DVD away (even when upconverted to 1080i by my Hitachi). However, if the movies are older or the HD conversion job is mediocre, it doesnt look all that much better than regular digital cable. I think it will be either BlueRay or HD-DVD that steps in and saves the day to finally start driving HDTV sales in large scale. The broadcast industry is just moving much to slowly. As to buy an HDTV or not, I think what I would ask is how large your screen is now, and is your TV about to kick the bucket, or will it survive a few more years? Also, if you watch a lot of DVD movies, it may be worth it just for the widescreen aspect ratio. I wouldn't buy an HDTV today JUST for the HD. Also, if you still watch a lot of traditional analog cable, the results may be painful on a digital HD set. In my experience they just arent able to handle such low res garbage well. HDTVs DO improve digital cable and DVD though...just dont expect it to match HD level, even if its upconverted to the same 1080i (or 720p for digitals). As for me, my current set is a Hitachi CRT rear projection HD set that I bought in 2003. Even though CRT rear-pros are on their way out, I went that way for a few reasons. In 2003, digital LCD or DLP based rear projection sets cost twice as much for the same screen size, and in terms of visual quality they couldn't come within a country mile of CRT. The Hitachi replaced an analog tube, so its 24" of depth wasnt a problem. It does weigh about 250lbs, but it sits on the floor and has wheels so it isnt hard to move around. The only annoying thing about moving it is that the guns have to be re-converged manually. (So called automatic convergience is worthless). Prices of DLP and LCD rear-pro sets have come down, (and they've been joined by relative new comer LCOS), but prices of CRT sets are down as well. A 50" CRT rear pro now costs around $1400, vs. maybe $2500 for an LCD or DLP. CRT is still the best looking form of rear projection available, but DLP sets from Samsung, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba continue to edge closer. LCDs from Sony and Hitachi have also improved, and Hitachi's new "Cineform" series of LCD rear-projections have easily the most attractive cabinets on the market. However, LCD still has two major problems. 1. Black level - when in a totally dark room, black objects on an LCD screen will be a washed out gray. 2. The "screen door effect" - LCD technology requires much bigger gaps between pixels than DLP or LCOS, and these gaps are noticable (like looking through a screen door), especially on the larger sets. The one big proponent for LCOS in consumer digital rear pro's is JVC. Their sets have gotten very mixed reviews. LCOS has proven to be very difficult to manufacture, and thus you have a much greater chance of a DOA set from JVC than from LCD or DLP, so I would stay away from them. The advantages that all three digital rear projection formats have across the board is that they are much cheaper than plasma or LCD flat panels, they weigh half as much and are half as deep as CRT rear projections, and unlike Plasma and CRT, there are no phosphors to "burn in". You can view SDTV in 4:3 with black bars, view digital photos, or use them as computer monitors all without any worry of damaging the screen. The major disadvantage - bulb life. They need new bulbs every 6,000 - 8,000 hours of power on time. The bulbs are user replacable, but they are $150-300 a pop. Finally, if you decide you just MUST have a hang on the wall TV, I would suggest that you go with plasma, and specifically a Panasonic plasma. Panasonic has worked some sort of magic to get their plasmas to display fairly deep blacks, which pretty much all the rest I've seen, except for the $15K+ ones, cant match. LCD flat panels will improve, and may eventually overtake Plasma, but for now they cost WAY too much money, and they cant match Plasma on picture quality. Plasma's biggest problems, burn-in and lifespan, have pretty much been fixed. I still wouldnt leave a movie on pause for 24 hours, but accidental damage from things like news tickers are no longer a problem. Plasmas are now said to last for as long as 80,000 hours, so you wont have to worry about having a very expensive paper weight in 4 to 5 years. The best buy in a HD plasma set right this minute is Panasonic's 50" TH-50PX50U, which retails at $4999, which is actually a very reasonable price. (Its also available in 42" also HD, not ED for just $3500. Panasonic TH-50PX50U As for digital rear pros, I would suggest taking a look at the 50" Samsung HLR5067 ($2800) Samsung HLR5067 Or, Toshiba's 52" 52HMX94 ($3000) Toshiba 52HMX94
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| Plasma fades over time, no? Or deteriorates in some other way, as I recall. I thought plasma was on the way out vs. LCD. What gives? | |
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