Sony WEGA KD-34XBR970 34-Inch FD Trinitron Digital HDTV
Excellent Set Especially Considering the Price
I've been looking at the previous two high end CRT sets that Sony made (the KD-34XBR960 and the KD-34XS955) for many months but had a hard time justifying the price ($1899 & $1699 respectively). <br /> <br /> Our local Sears still has a 960 set up so we were able to compare the pic quality to the new 970 which, quite frankly, I expected to pale in comparison. <br /> <br /> Boy, was I wrong! <br /> <br /> The image quality of the new 970 is so close to that of the previous top-of-the-line CRT that it's almost impossible to see any difference. By contrast, the KD-34XBR970 is a whopping $500-$700 less than either of the previous models! <br /> <br /> Now there are a few small differences in terms of features but frankly those extra features, such as PIP and cablecard, were of little interest to me and would certainly not be worth paying HALF AGAIN the price of the new set and as for the fact that the KD-34XBR970 has a lesser sound system...well, I plan on hooking the set up through my sound system when watching DVDs so it's a non issue ALTHOUGH the built-in speakers and sound is still pretty darn good. <br /> <br /> So for a huge difference in price with nearly identical picture quality and all of the same key features that I was interested in this set is my first choice.