THE CD PLAYER PLUS - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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LEDs at Samsung
did get our guided tour of the
huge Samsung “city” in Vegas,
but the company made it up to
us…by trundling their products up to
the Mont-Trembland ski resort, north
of Montreal. We got to see it all: DVD
players, cameras, refrigerators and
washing machines. Naturally it was
the TV sets that particularly held our
attention, especially since in fact we
have a Samsung plasma in our Kappa
reference system.
Gossip&News For logistical reasons we never
It was easy enough to confirm that
the Samsung plasmas remain among
the top plasmas available, even more so
with Pioneer pulling out of the race. The
main visual difference since we bought
ours in 2008 is the “Touch of Color”
feature, a subtle color strip (usually red,
80 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
though it can be other colors, including
grey), which had concerned us. When we
watch TV we’re not keen on the bezel
competing with the picture. Happily,
the color strip is subtle.
The other touch of color is green:
Samsung claims it has made its plasma
panels less hungry for energy, and at
the same time it has greatly increased
the dynamic range, making for even
blacker blacks. Well, we’re all for both
of those advantages, but how is it done?
It’s done by actually turning off parts of
the panel which should be
black. This may not be a
good thing. Our Samsung
plasma already offers what
is billed as a million-toone
luminance ratio, but
to get it you need to dial
in the appropriate settings,
and those aren’t settings
that will please anyone who
wants to forget that he or
she is watching a television
picture.
Of course you know that we favor
plasma among currently-available large
screen panel technologies. Nonetheless,
we must confess to being impressed by
a new LCD line from Samsung. Instead
of being backlit by a fluorescent bulb, it
is lit by an array of LEDs, light-emitting
diodes. Unlike fluorescents, LEDs
have a continuous spectrum, and can
produce a larger and better range of
colors. Certainly the sets we saw (which
Samsung refers to as “LED TV’s,”
though LEDs are only the light source)
were impressive. Fast motion was well
accommodated, without smearing or
trailing images. And the color range, as
nearly as we could tell on the material
used for demonstrations, was broader
than we can recall on an LCD panel.
Like the Samsung plasmas, by the
way, the LED sets love to show off reds.
Appropriately enough, a Ferrari kept
popping up in the demos.
What about the blacks? LCD’s are
not strong on those, because a liquid
crystal pixel can never be truly opaque,
The demo sets were set up in a brightlylit
room, and so it was difficult to tell.
There were new Samsung Blu-ray
players as well, including one that can
mount right in the wall next to your wallmounted
TV. We asked about reviewing
one, but none was made available in
time (we wound up reviewing
and indeed purchasing a Pioneer player
instead — you’ll find that review elsewhere
in this issue).
This not-so-little expo among the ski
hills was a reminder of how much stuff
Samsung makes: not just TVs and other
audiovisual gear, but also music players,
camcorders, still cameras, refrigerators,
and even washers and dryers. All these
products were trucked in and installed
for us to see.
Definitely worth the trip.