We had a great time playing with the new Sonos package and got to review the Dell 26" LCD HDTV. All that plus listener email and HDTV news.
What more can be said about the Sonos whole house audio system? We
reviewed the
ZonePlayer 100 bundle back in
November of 2005 and were blown away. It was
incredibly easy to set up, easy to use, and just plain worked like it was supposed to.
One issue with had with the ZP100's, though, were their size,
and the fact that they had an amplifier even if you didn't need or want one. Someone at Sonos must have been listening,
because along came the ZP 80, a fully featured ZonePlayer, but no built in
amplifier. And it takes up about half the real estate of its big brother.
For those who missed the first review, or want those who want a refresher, the Sonos music system lets you play all your digital music all over your house and you can control what's playing all from the palm of your hand with a very sophisticated remote. There is no need for a computer in each room. The Sonos system connects to your PC or Mac and indexes your music. Then via the remote you tell the system which music goes to which zone. There is also a desktop controller for your computer that serves the same purpose.
There are a few products out there that have really nailed the customer experience side of the equation. Kaliedescape is one, Sonos is certainly one as well. The whole ZP80 bundle took at most 15 minutes to get it up and running. You plug one of the players into your wired network, then install the software. From that point you just add players at will and bring them into the Sonos system. It's a snap. Once you're done with that, you let the Sonos software index your music collection and it becomes instantly available anywhere in your house.
And the remote. We can't forget the remote, it's what really makes the Sonos system into a work of art. Easy, dare we say, fun, to use, and very reliable. With the addition of the ZP80 to their product line-up, Sonos has put together a really great offering. Not only can you play digital music all over your house, either in sync by joining zones together, or totally independently per zone, you can also push your own audio out to any zone. Each Zone Player has an analog audio input, so you can add a legacy source, like a CD player to your Sonos system. Or you can have the audio portion of a movie or football game running throughout the whole house when you have people over to share your awesome Home Theater setup.
Again, we were very sad to let the Sonos go. We found ourselves enjoying music from our libraries that we hadn't listened to in years, because the Sonos made it so fun to do. Now to work on getting a permanent setup, the finance committee is starting to get a little frustrated...
This week we take a look at the Dell W2607C 26 inch LCD TV. This is a 720p TV with built in ATSC and NTSC tuners. Just a quick note about the tuners. If you connect your antenna cable to the ATSC (digital) input the TV will pick up the analog channels as well. The TV has a multitude of inputs but unfortunately it does not have HDMI. The TV is wide! Although the screen is 26 inches diagonally the cabinet measures in at 32 inches. Dell states on their website that the TV is " Large enough for your den, perfect for a small room or personal space!" At 32 inches wide it makes it hard to find a space for it in your Den, Bedroom or even Garage (yes Ara is still lobbying the finance committee for this one). As a main TV the viewable area may be too small for many rooms.
OK, enough about how it looks when its off. Say you have found a spot in your home that will support the width what does the picture look like? We it looks quite good. The picture was clear, sharp and bright. Some might argue that its 600:1 contrast ratio is not going to cut it against other competitors but we found no issues with contrast. Ara found the colors to be better than he had expected as well This TV was evaluated side by side with his main TV and made him want to replace it. In fact everyone in his family immediately noticed the difference. For the record both TVs were properly calibrated and displayed the identical broadcast HD content. The ATSC tuner changes channels quickly. Standard definition programming looked good too. When you view standard definition on large screen HDTV the picture exposes the flaws in the picture. On a smaller screen you are less likely to see the flaws and as a result standard definition looked better on this TV than most of the large screen TVs we've looked at in the past.
If you have space on your desk this TV can serve double duty as a PC monitor. With a 8ms refresh rate the TV can work well with Games or fast action content like sporting events. There is VGA connection for the video and a mini stereo input for the audio. Finally, the TV can be wall mounted with equipment that is sold separately.
The issue with the TV beyond aesthetics is price. Today you can get a $200 instant rebate and free shipping (3 to 5 days) for $999. Except for the person who is looking for a PC monitor that can serve dual purpose this is kind of steep for a TV of this size. For the price there are other alternatives that will provide a similar experience with a bigger screen. We are not fans of TVs that have speakers on the sides, especially speakers that can't be removed. Dell makes good TVs and this is a good TV as far as the picture goes. Its just that the package it comes in and the price that are not pleasing to the eye and pocketbook.
What we liked:
- Picture - clear sharp and bright
- Color
- ATSC tuner - quick lock
What we disliked:
- Price
- Speakers
- No HDMI
- Of angle viewing washes out quickly as you move off center (this is true for most LCDs without In-Plane Switching)
