hambone

Ok, so I recently got a little bit of extra cash and am looking to get a new TV.

I want to spend around $1500 on it if possible, can be a little more if needed.

I have been looking at something at least 42''. Have looked into the Plasmas and the rear projection DLP sets. I don't want LCD since I will need it to be viewed from the side and after looking in the store, the LCD tvs kind of wash out when looking from the side.

So, I need some advice on brands to get, and also the DLP vs. the Plasmas. I don't care too much about the depth of a DLP set. Here is what I know so far:

DLP:
------
* Deeper TV
* Cheaper for larger screen size
* Easier maintenance
* Need to replace the lamp like once every 2 years or so

Plasma:
---------
* not very deep
* good view from the side
* more expensive
* if it breaks, hard to fix
* possible burn in, but nowadays, not so much as issue.

----

Also, I have an XBOX 360 and a HD enabled cable box, so I would like to have 2 HDMI inputs if possible, which some of the sets in this range do not have.


So c'mon enlighten me and please post any personal experiences with some HDTVs that fit this criteria.

Oh, also I am looking to purchase this probably on day after thanksgiving if the sales are good.

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MageB420666

That says it all right here. If you are going to be playing a game system on the television, don't go plasma. Burn is not an issue any more if you watch regular television. If you are placing static images on the screen (aka. game HUD's) for long periods of time, or over a long period of time, you will either get burn in, or reduce the life of the television correcting the burn in.

You've got some of the basic stuff down about the televisions your looking at, only thing I can say is also remember the area your watching the tv in as well. Plasma screens have a glass front panel, so if your in a room with a lot of bright lights or windows you could be facing a glare problem, which DLP and LCD don't have.

Oh, NEVER PAY TAG PRICE! Work with the salesman, you can usually get at least a couple hundred off the tag price, if not more depending on the brand.

And be sure to check out any extended warranties that may be provided for the television your getting. Replacing a "bulb" every 2 years may not sound like much, but those bulbs cost $200 and up. And as for protecting a plasma, you said it yourself, they aren't easy to fix and the cheapest replacement parts for them run around $200 dollars as well.

When you go into the store and look at the tv's, pay special attention to how the whites and blacks look on the screen, the colors can be altered, but it's hard to make a tv change it's contrast abilities.

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ASU2003

I have a 37" Sceptre LCD HDTV that I use as a HDTV and a computer monitor. It doesn't wash out if viewed from the side or top/bottom. Maybe the LCD projection ones have a little problem with that.

The thing to look at is the resolution. The XBox 360 doesn't do 1080p and neither do any TV stations. But my laptop does and I sit close enough that I can use the 1920x1080 resolution.

The HDMI inputs are important, but it is hard finding any with more than one. I have one and that is about all that I need. I would also get one with a ATSC tuner built in so all you need to do is hook up a HDTV antenna to get your local HD channels. It isn't as important if you have the HD cable, but I can live without cable if I can get perfect quality basic channels.

I would also look on-line to see what the prices are. You could save some on sales taxes if you can find someplace with free shipping.

Bossnass

I have a lcd projection hdtv. 42" Sony A10 series. It does have a little bit of a brightness drop from below (I have it set on a fireplace in the corner, bottom at 48"). My wife and my best friend claim they can't see it, but tilted the tv forward a little so I didn't see it anymore. It doesn't wash out to either side though. Perhaps that happened with earlier models. I know it still does with standard projection tv. I found that LCD projection and DLP were the best dollar-size-picture value. I did think that a plasma looked a little better, but not enough to double to price. I chose LCD projection over DLP because I didn't see the "screen door effect" but I could see the "DLP rainbow". The "silk screen effect" was present on both TVs, but does not bother me. The high ambient light also made the matte screen tvs preferable.

Also, as a side note, when I started my research last year, I determined to my satisfaction that burn in is not an issue with current plasmas regardless of use.

Coll Storm

I'm in the same boat you are, but I'm looking for a 27 inch LCD for about $500 - $600 with HD built in.

Very hard to find something for that price, unless I want to get it used. I'm in the same boat you are... I'll use it for both watching television and playing my 360.

MageB420666

Then maybe you should do more research. Plasmas do still burn in, although it is harder to do it. Playing video games for hours with the same HUD up will burn in a plasma. I know, I worked in a store that sold HDTV's, If you put the plasmas that had been out on the floor for over a few weeks onto a static color image(a grey or white screen mainly) the burn in stood out clearly, it also stood out on the World Cup fields.

And your not going too see the screen door on an LCD if you are viewing it from the proper distance. All it affects is the overall brightness of the screen, not the picture. And yeah, i get the rainbow effect too with DLP, really sucks.

Coll Storm: What kind of television service are you going to use? If you want satellite then the tv doesn't need to have a built in HD tuner, as the satellite receiver will provide that for you. As for finding one in that size and price range, you are most likely only going to find an off-brand model with a low contrast rating and low quality screen, resulting in dead pixels occuring.

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Bossnass

I have a friend that works at best buy who will swear that the latest generations of top tier plasmas are virutally impossible to burn in. We have half a dozen plasmas at the bar where I (occasionally/used to) work. Monday through Friday they were always on sports networks, usually with information bars or score boxes. No burn-in to be seen. Thats also pretty much the concensus at http://www.avsforum.com/ which seems to be the most popular and most reliable forum about tvs (and everything else AV related).

I'm not saying that burn in is impossible, but you'd have to be pretty ignorant and try pretty hard for it to happen. Potential for burn-in should not be an issue with current plasmas.

Jinn

The 360 does do 1080p. It's in the Menu.

I'm in the same boat, and I've been looking at that Sony 65" DLP HDTV. Everything I've heard lately is go with DLP..

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hulk

With Plasmas, it's not so much burn-in as it is the phosphors that produce the image aging at different rates. When I first got mine I played a few hours on the gamecube at full brightness, leaving a distinct outline of the Soul Calibur II life bar on the top. I panicked, read the net, where someone had advised that playing it on an untuned analogue station, essentially just playing the static, will erase it. Lo and behold, after about a week it was gone.

These days I've played for hours, even run a computer desktop on the screen for most of the day (granted at a low brightness) and there's been no remants that have lasted longer than the next power-on.

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Bossnass

I don't think that sony makes a DLP. Toshiba and Samsung seem to have cornered the market, while Sony and Hitachi went with LCD projection.

The 1080p setting for the 360 is just a compatability software upgrade. There is no content available that actually outputs at 1080p. Someday, with the hddvd addon, it will be used, and there is potential for developers in the future.

xepherys

Alright, a few tips and pointers as I've been looking into this a LOT lately.

First of all, Sharp has a new line of LCDs that offer 42", 46" and 52" called the D62U line. The 42" can be had for <$2000, a great price for a 1080p LCD.

As for the LCD viewing angle, Sharp's is one of the best. They compare well to MOST brands Plasma TVs, which is quite a feat for LCDs. The D62U line also features 2 HDMI inputs (as well as a couple of component and a composite). The picture quality is top-notch and makes it even more worth the $2000 price tag (which is cheap anyway, but doubly so for what you get).

I like the DLP cost-to-size ratio, but in the end, the Aquos won the day. I take delivery of mine on Wednesday and can answer more then if you might be swayed to LCD. My TV is primarily used for DVD movies and gaming on my 360.

While burn-in is LESS likely on modern plasmas, it's still very possible. If you watch a lot of ESPN, it'll happen since the score banners are almost always in the same place. Burn in won't happen on a DLP or LCD screen. Plasmas still use phosphorous elements just like CRTs, but are light by "glowing" plasma cells rather than the ray-gun. Phosphor burns in regardless of it's light source.

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MageB420666

Burn in happens, although now there are ways to repair it.(they reduce the life of the screen though). As far as the sports bar goes, if its always on channels with the tickers running you're not going to see it because the same thing is in the same place, but if the bar was running other channels on the televisions too, it would allow the screens to age more evenly without undue damage being done. However in my experience people who game, tend to game a lot and having a color saturated HUD on a screen in a little different than normal tv viewing.

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MontanaXVI

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...tion_42to51TVs

is what I just bought about a month ago, got it on sale at Circuit City for $1399 and used the extra $200 that everyone else was charging to get an extended warranty on it.

someone mentioned above about the DLP, that is not a technology that Sony uses, it is a Texas Instruments technology that Hitachi, Toshiba mainly are using, Sony uses their Wega engine, and the new 3LCD technology which has each color (red blue green) using it's own LCD chip to get the color ohh soo sweet looking.

I have mine hooked up with component cables with Time Warner's HD cable service with HD compatible DVR ( I have a Tivo in the bedroom, but with Tivo wanting $800 for their new HD Tivo, I just went with the Time Warner DVR)

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MageB420666

Yeah, Sony has managed to do some amazing stuff with those little chips, they also know how to get a lot out of a 3 LCOS chipset too. The XBR line is an amazing thing, and I believe they've now released the XBR2 line, or are going to soon.

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MontanaXVI

I have yet to see an XBR in action, I am very impressed with the Wega engine (Wega and Trinitron were always nice looking sets) and the 3LCD technology, this is a very nice TV and very glad I made this purchase.

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shakran

Yes, but not to insult your friend, but he works for Best Buy and is trying to sell TV's using the information his manager hands him -- - and his manager doesn't care if it's true, as long as it sells more TV's.

Burn in absolutely is a problem. If you watch a lot of letterboxed movies, you will end up with bars top and bottom. If you watch a lot of TV, you will probably end up with at least a vague burn in where the station puts the bug.

But even with out burnin you need to deal with burn out, and once that happens you can kiss your entire TV goodbye.

Bottom line is that plasmas pretty much suck. DLP looks better and is much more reliable.

Bossnass

I mentioned him because MageB420666 stated that he 'worked in a place that sold HDTVs'. I have a personal relationship with someone who I know sells plasma HDTVs on a regular basis, and I place the opinion of my friend at least equal and usually higher than an anonymous person on a forum. There could be many qualified (perhaps moreso) opinions online, but there are also many unqualified opinions that aren't backed up.

Incidentally, my friend who works at Bestbuy is a semester and a half away from an electrical engineering degree. He works there as much for his discount as the flexible schedule. Automatically discounting someone's opinion because of where they work is worse than my discounting yours because you are an anonyous person on a forum who thinks DLPs look better than plasmas.

I have empirical experience with plasmas and a qualified source telling me that burn-in shouldn’t be an issue. It certainly has been in the past. If you leave your new plasma on 100% contrast it could be a problem. But if I was to buy another hdtv, the issues would be cost, blackness, and picture quality. To me, burn-in is not an issue.

My opinion, and I believe the majority opinion, is that plasmas and (debatably) LCD panels look the best, with DLP and LCD projection coming in second. You’re the first I’ve seen to say that DLP looks better. To each their own.

Yeah, phosphor will burn out. Modern panels claim 50-70000 hour half lives, or the point 50% burnout/time for a new tube. I don’t know anyone that has watched 20k+ hours on previous plasma models, so it could be a big deal. Either way, that’s a lot of DLP and LCD projection bulbs at 5-8000 hour lives to get the same lifetime from a tv.

shakran

First off, this is YOUR TV. Get what you want, not what people on the internet tell you to get.

Second, you have some good points that lead to the point I should have made in my last post - CRT is still the best technology out there. The only reason people don't like it is that it's not the new technology and therefore isn't as "cool," whatever that means, and because it requires a deeper cabinet than the other designs.

8000 hour bulb life would only be annoying if your TV were on 24 hours a day for nearly a year. If you're watching that much TV you need a self help book, not a new TV

And yes I do think that DLP looks better than plasma. They both look fine from a distance but as you get closer the plasma's picture looks worse faster than the DLP's.

LCD panel IMO looks the best but you said you don't want that, so I didn't address it.

xepherys

Well, it's debatable that CRT is the best technology in many situations. First of all, the size is limited. While Sony concatenated multiple tubes in their early Trinitron days, you won't be getting a 60" (or even a 42" as far as I know) CRT television any time soon (or more likely ever). Also, the grain on the individual pixels on a CRT are normally larger at the same screen size than plasma or LCD these days. Then, of course, there's weight and bulk. In the end, CRT really isn't all that hot these days for multiple reasons. *shrug*

As for Plasma televisions, there's also the issue of burn out, as was mentioned. That is one area CRTs shine... they last damned near forever if they are good quality and taken care of (at least forever in terms of electronics). Plasma's seem to be at the bottom of the barrel. They burn out a bit faster (average) than LCDs and only some can be "recharged" which comes at a pretty hefty expense and also does not restore the original sharpness of the display. LCDs also burn out, but most (and ALL Sharp's FYI) have a servicable backlight (which is just a flourescant tube anyhow), but they do so after a higher number of use-hours and the "fix" is cheaper. On top of that, a new bulb, after recalibrating your TV (or making your own adjustments) will literally be as good as new since the liquid crystals themselves do not degrade.

The primary downside to LCDs used to be viewing angle, which really isn't an issue now. On my display, I can sit at roughly 45-55 degrees off center (giving a roughly 90-110 degree angle) without any dropoff in contrast. After that it's only contrast, and not much. The sharpness is still sweet. The other LCD issue are frozen/stuck or dead pixels. Frozen pixels are relatively easy to fix these days. Dead pixels are sometimes pixels that are frozen in the black stage and are fixable as well. A truly dead pixel does suck, but it happens relatively rarely.

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Bossnass

I have an LCD projection. Flat panel LCD/HD Plasma was not in my tv budget, but I probably would have went plasma if I had wanted to increase my budget.

I have no idea what the OP decided on, or if they ever returned to this thread.

hambone

I have just been reading.

Haven't decided if we actually will be getting a new TV or not at this point as my wife is not completely on board for it.

Very good info though, thanks

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Deltona Couple

I'll just stick with my DLP PROJECTOR that gives me a PERFECT image on my 105 inch screen. NO BURN IN. BEAUTIFUL picture quality at 1200x1600 resolution, and did I mention it is 105 INCHES on the screen?....lol
(also it has a DVI input, 2 RCA inputs, 2 S-video inputs, and 2 RGB inputs)

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xepherys

If I had the space, I'd get a 1080p projector myself. In my apartment, it's a waste.

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spike_foot

i find from viewing in the showroom that
1)lcd does not handle fast motion like camera panning during hockey football etc its bugs me. i do like the brightness of LCD over plasma
2) plasma deals with speed better. i am not worried about burn in as games bore me. i do however expect LCD to last longer than plasma but at the rate tech is advancing... i am not too sure i will care in 5 years. my new tv will likely be in the bedroom by then.

all the research i have done points to Panasonic 1080 plasma i am buying a 50" before xmas or just after. all the specs are thrown around so much... you need to visit a few stores and see for yourself make them set it up to show what you want to see. if they wont move the tv's around and input identical feeds then walk away. once you get all the info u need then go back and show them the money. u will be surprised how quickly they jump when the Visa is on its way back into your pocket. i have talked to a ton of "experts" and honestly... I already know more than they do. most people walk in and say wow .. big.. on sale!!! i want it.... i never do that.... sometimes i wish i could as..... when you are talking about 2-3000$ LCD or Plasama name brands.. they are all awsome and if you had it at home withn full HD you would just say WOW... SO my question is.... in Canada what HD service is best, least expensive and why are PVR's linked to the provider? i want my own hardware that is top notch even if i change my mind on providers... all they are doing is sending me electrons for cash... just send me lots of electrons for a low price and stop "packaging" hardware with connectivity... TIVO is now in Canada and if anyone would enlighten me on it i would appreciate it. at first glance it looks interesting....

oh if possible PM me as i have a hard time finding my way back to strings

Redlemon

TiVo is the all-time best technology purchase I have ever made. My wife agrees, and she hates to play with electronic gadgets. It just works.

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spike_foot

i find from viewing in the showroom that
1)lcd does not handle fast motion like camera panning during hockey football etc its bugs me. i do like the brightness of LCD over plasma
2) plasma deals with speed better. i am not worried about burn in as games bore me. i do however expect LCD to last longer than plasma but at the rate tech is advancing... i am not too sure i will care in 5 years. my new tv will likely be in the bedroom by then.

all the research i have done points to Panasonic 1080 plasma i am buying a 50" before xmas or just after. all the specs are thrown around so much... you need to visit a few stores and see for yourself make them set it up to show what you want to see. if they wont move the tv's around and input identical feeds then walk away. once you get all the info u need then go back and show them the money. u will be surprised how quickly they jump when the Visa is on its way back into your pocket. i have talked to a ton of "experts" and honestly... I already know more than they do. most people walk in and say wow .. big.. on sale!!! i want it.... i never do that.... sometimes i wish i could as..... when you are talking about 2-3000$ LCD or Plasama name brands.. they are all awsome and if you had it at home withn full HD you would just say WOW... SO my question is.... in Canada what HD service is best, least expensive and why are PVR's linked to the provider? i want my own hardware that is top notch even if i change my mind on providers... all they are doing is sending me electrons for cash... just send me lots of electrons for a low price and stop "packaging" hardware with connectivity... TIVO is now in Canada and if anyone would enlighten me on it i would appreciate it. at first glance it looks interesting....

cheetahtank2

I'd just like to point out all this talk on burn ins and what not is not an issue if you dont play for way to long or leave the game system and tv wrong which is bad for both i have lots of friends who own plasmas (a bit smaller mind u about 25 - 27 but i doubt that makes a dif) and their TVs are fine

telekinetic

If you don't have to hang it on the wall, get a Samsung DLP. LED driver unit to increase bulb life, and you should be able to get a 1080P in 50" or 56" if you shop around. Done and done.

/has the 50"

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Willravel

While initially I was very much impressed with Samsung, so much so I purchased one, I have recently come to the decision that Sony really is the best bang for your buck, even taking into account the price.

MontanaXVI

I can visit tis a year later and say my Sony has held up just wonderful the past year.

I am in a house now and went the DirecTV route and dumped Time Warner everything looks amazing still.

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josh10524

Since this has already been bumped back up, I'd like to say that the state of the HD union today seems to be that DirecTV has the best HD selection and signal quality after they started putting their new HD channel package online. Picture quality and compression equals that of Verizon FiOS fiber optic cable. This will change, it's a constant battle between the providers and soon enough somebody else will outdo them.

For the money, the Mitsubishi Diamond DLPs are doing some pretty amazing things. I have a 57 inch one and it exceeds the best characteristics of plasmas and LCDs twice the price - with the notable exception of thinness, of course. And always, don't listen to us people on the internet, go out and look at your options in person at a store that knows how to properly set up their display TVs, I.E. not best buy or circuit city.

Daemon1313

If you have the space, I would go with DLP. If you don't go with plasma.

As far as burn in goes, don't worry about it. As long as you don't do something stupid like leave a game paused on the screen for a week straight, it won't be an issue. I have had a plasma for 3 years and have no sign of burn in. And I will sit and play games for 12+ hours at a time. As far as brands go, I'm a fan of Panasonic plasmas.

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dirtyrascal7

We just upgraded our DirecTV service to HD on Saturday (as a Christmas present to my dad). We've had a Sony plasma in the living room for a couple years now, but my parents only had a 32" CRT Toshiba in their bedroom so we decided to upgrade that as well.

Their bed is up on a loft, so there isn't a lot of room or necessity for anything bigger than a 32". The Sony models definitely looked outstanding, but they were all at least $200 more expensive than any other brand. We ended up getting a Panasonic LCD which looked just as good as the Sony (both the Pana and Sony had 120 hz processors, which made all the difference in picture quality over the others). I'm very impressed with it... awesome contrast and brightness and super-smooth picture.

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Ustwo

Just got a Sony XBR4 52".

I'm stoked if poor. Still need to get the HDVR and upgrade the satellite service.

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aphex140

42" pioneer KURO out of this world for Film and game play wall mounted it is damn sexy

http://www.hdtv-news.co.uk/2007/08/2...sma-in-europe/

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zizdog69

I just bought the Sony 60" SXRD Projection tv (KDS-60A3000) and I love it. I'm a Sony person so take that into affect when reading my 2 cents.

I went from a Tube 32" Sony to this thing and I am amazed at the picture. The SXRD chip works like a DLP chip basically. The TV also has a motion engine that makes the picture seem like 3D to me. I play Playstation3 on it in HD as well as my media PC and HD cable box. It has three HDMI inputs, 2 component inputs, one VGA PC input, an S video and a few regular inputs as well. I like the fact that it has a HD converter in it so all I had to do was hook up a regular antenna to get the free HD channels. The thing weighs all of 90 lbs and is about 18" deep, which isn't bad. I was thinking of building a shelf on the wall to put it on instead of buying a stand but I didn't think of that until after I got it home.

Sony makes a 50" thats in your price range right now with the 10% off from Best Buy. I bought mine for less than $2000 at the sale price and couldn't be happier.

Also, I noticed when looking at these TV's in the stores, most of them are being fed the picture through the regular Coaxial cable so it doesn't show the best picture. The best picture comes through the HDMI cables so keep that in mind while giving the Sony's a consideration.

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Racnad

For Christmas we bought ourselves a 46" Sony Bravia LCD. We have basic cable only and the HD versions of ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS are fabulous.

Have other noticed that DVDs of HBO TV shows look fantastic? We've been watching Carnival and Sopranos on a plain old SD Progressive Scan DVD player, and they look so good that shelling out another $100-200 for an "up-converting" DVD player seems unnessisary. (We're holding off on Blu_Ray or HD-DVD until we know what we're buying won't become the next Betamax.)

Leto

I heard that TiVo requires a monthly subscription to use. Not sure why this is, but if you have rogers service (digital I think) their STB comes with a PVR, or atleast they sell a PVR that does not require a monthly subscription fee.

Question around LCD TV's:

I am poised to enter into the market with a Sony 40" or 42 " V3000 (KDL40V3000) which is 1080p. Best Buy has them on for $1499, or G&G electronics for $1450 (for the 40").

Does anybody know if the basic cable feed will look like crap on this set, or will this set interpret the video feed as being SD, and set down the resolution displayed?

Or am I stuck in having to purchase digital & HD cable (which will set me back over $80/month, almost double my current cable costs).

I want to take advantage of free HD broadcasts & enjoy DVDs in HD. Not to mention re-arrange my living room to accommodate the TV set.

MSD

Anything not broadcast in HD will look like SD. Half of what's broadcast in "HD" is not full resolution or is a compressed MPEG stream that macroblocks like crazy because the average consumer doesn't notice the difference and they can cram more channels in that way.

Solution: check a friend's HDTV with HD cable and see how it looks. If you don't know anyone with a similar TV and HD cable, suggest that one of your friends get a good TV and HD cable.

Leto

I like that idea.

I just noticed that some tv's advertise NTSC & ATSC tuners. Would this be so that they can handle the poorer quality SD, without displaying all of its imperfections? Most of the sets only offer ATSC.

The Sales Guy said that putting an SD cable feed through an HD set would be like playing a dusty vinyl record, all of the imperfections and pops & hisses would be evident.