Its been a little over a month since I initially set-up my new TV and AV Receiver as part of Operation TV Swap. This has given me plenty of time to test out settings and experience the new hardware with various media types (games, movies, sports, etc.). I will give my thoughts on each component of the upgrade below.
- The Sony Bravia OLED TV looks fantastic. It got really good reviews, although not quite as good as the LG, which consistently was mentioned as the best OLED. This was mostly because they are a bit brighter. But from my point of view, where this TV is in a basement not competing with much ambient light, and from being used to watching Plasma TVs that are not known for their brightness levels, this Sony is plenty bright. I've even at times turned down the brightness, but currently I have it on max brightness on game mode. Additionally, believe it or not, this is my first experience with 4K. I think the upgrade in image quality to 4K is the most noticeable upgrade for me on the new TV. It is especially noticeable for movies and PS5 games. I've always liked Sony TVs, and this is no exception. Before the Plasma era Sony was my TV of choice.
- I felt a bit like my arm was twisted into getting a new receiver to accommodate the video quality upgrades. This component was the one I was looking forward to the least. With that being said, I like the new receiver quite a bit. If nothing else, I appreciate having updated on-screen menus and options. My biggest complaint is that it is the quietest receiver I've ever owned. In the grand scheme of things, however, it doesn't really matter if you watch TV at a volume level of 45 instead of 35. It still gets plenty loud to do the job. I stayed with Onkyo for the receiver because I was happy with my previous Onkyo and since the same company owns Onkyo and Klipsch, they are optimized to work together, which I like. There were a handful of receivers that had the features I like in my price range, and I probably would've been happy with any of them.
- Technically the new Klipsch Reference bookshelf speakers were not part of Operation TV Swap, but due to delays, they arrived around the same time as the other upgrades so I will include a brief discussion here (they have their own post). I purchased these speakers to replace my previous bookshelves so that they would match all of my other Klipsch speakers. My previous Cerwin-Vega speakers were purchased 20+ years ago and so were quite old, despite never getting much use. While I wanted all of my speakers to match, I was not expecting the sound upgrade that I got. In my dedicated post to the speakers, I was a bit on the fence on the upgrade to sound quality. After spending a bit more time using them, I can safely say they sound better without a doubt. They're much louder than my previous speakers, which in my mind is an upgrade in quality. My previous speakers were so quiet it was often times hard to tell I was even using surround sound. That is not the case with these new speakers.
- I'm still unsure how much value adding a second sub provides to my setup as a whole. I put my new, larger sub in the front corner. I had to put my older sub in the back corner, which is not ideal. I think the whole setup would sound better if both subs were upfront, but I simply didn't have any space upfront to place a second sub. I have the second sub turned down quite a bit so that it doesn't blow you out of the room. I haven't encountered any negatives to having a second sub. If anything it is a minor improvement, but probably not a necessity. It was a free upgrade for me, so overall I'm happy with it.
- Besides upgrading the Basement Theater, the other big improvement that Operation TV Swap accomplished was upgrading my living room TV. After using my 42 inch Panasonic Plasma for 15 years, all of a sudden it seemed small. I was able to move my old 60 inch TV from the basement to my upstairs living room. Jumping from a 42 inch TV to a 60 inch TV is a massive increase in size, and it took me a couple of days to get used to the bigger TV in that space. After the short adjustment period, however, I quickly got used to the bigger TV and no question it is better to watch TV on a larger screen versus a smaller screen. I can now more easily see it from the sunroom as well, making a pseudo duel screen setup in the sunroom. The only negative of the whole situation is that now that I've experienced what a modern TV can do with OLED and 4K, it kind of makes me want to upgrade my upstairs living room TV to a newer model. More to come on that at some point I am sure.
Overall Operation TV Swap was a big success. No question it massively upgraded the Basement Theater, and improved TV viewing in the upstairs living room as well. However, it hasn't come without challenges and technical issues that I am still battling with. I will explore the bad and the ugly in Part 5 of this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment