That is, my B&O Eagle in the shape of the V1. I've discussed this TV at length here along with others, when it first came out, and my thoughts about it re a possible purchase. As I've mentioned in one or two recent threads relating to the V1, it has indeed arrived, and I thought I'd share my thoughts re a review of it now I own one and have it set up in my home. Please excuse the length, but I do like to be as accurate and balanced as possible in my comments.... I hope you enjoy the read...
It's been almost two weeks since my AV Eagle in the form of an 40" V1 in dark grey landed, and has been comfortably settled in it's nest in my lounge room.
It was accompanied by a low B&O cabinet in a jet black, matte and slightly rubberised finish; open underneath, with what looks like a drawer revealing itself to be a softly damped lid that conceals equipment housed within, and upon which cabinet the TV sits on it's slightly reclining stainless steel stand.
I'd requested the dealer to attend & assist with the installation, as fitting the stand is really a two person job, and care needs to be taken with the painted metal finish.
As B&O make to order all four boxes (cabinet, TV, Stand for TV, and remote) arrived palleted on the back of a large truck, direct by air from Denmark.
Unpacking revealed the care taken with custom packaging to be extreme, including paper the thickness of card stock placed around all hinged areas where the front and rear sections of the TV join to obviate any likelihood of damage through movement and friction in this area.
As I wanted to enjoy the setting up as much as possible myself, I was happy to bid the dealer adieu once the cabinet had been placed, and the TV assembled with it's stainless steel stand and placed upon said cabinet.
The remote is a work of engineering art, cast in zinc, and with a wonderful balance and tactile feel.
Switching on reveals some of the magic that I'm sure endears B&O to it's customers, similarly as Apple does to theirs; the screen remains black, but Bang & Olufsen in white text appears on the black screen on the lower right hand corner. Then, like in movie theatres of old, the screen 'parts' from the middle as black 'curtains' move from the centre out to the sides, revealing the picture behind, and the sound slowly ramps up to a preset level.
Similarly, when switching off, the same black 'curtains' slide across from the sides to meet at the centre and 'extinguish' the picture; similarly the sound fades down from whatever volume you were listening to, to zero as the screens close and the TV is 'off'.
It's a very theatrical touch, but one that reminds me of my first Mac, when I put it to sleep and saw the little pulsing white light, as if it were 'breathing' for which I named it 'Einstein'. Theatrical or not, it's a clever and thoughtful design touch which humanises technology, and endears it to one, rather than remaining some inanimate object there to do a task, which depending upon the device's abilities and human interface, may well please or annoy in equal measure.
Setup of the TV, re tuning in channels etc, is easy and intuitive, with classic white text on black background menus being well laid out aesthetically and commensurately easy to follow, and with an underlying intelligence to the script that shows the handiwork of the engineer rather than the marketing man appealing to the lowest common denominator.
In short, operation of the TV is a delight.
Over the past near two weeks, I've watched some TV - namely the Tour de France, and the F1 race at Hockenheim - both outside live broadcasts, and as good a judge of picture quality as any as regards broadcast TV, with natural colours found in real life such as grass, skin tones and sky, to judge picture quality by as regards a natural and accurate colour rendition. On such material, I did not find the picture quality as regards naturalness of colour wanting in any way.
The set has a number of pre-set picture modes; adaptive which adjusts ALL elements of picture quality to prevailing light; game - which gives a faster panel response - and movie, which gives colour temperature of 6,500 kelvin and 2.2 gamma and adjusts all other elements of picture reproduction to suit movie material.
Thus far, I find adaptive the best for general TV viewing both night and day, and movie mode for Bluray and DVD. Picture modes can also be associated with specific inputs for later automatic recall when selecting that input.
For each input, you can additionally custom configure all the picture settings if you so wish, and consign them to memory so they will be automatically selected with that input. Ditto sound modes, of which there are a quite a few. But again, the default in sound modes is 'adapative' which adjusts the setting automatically according to the material being played, and thus far I have found no reason to change that.
Digging a little deeper into the 'advanced' settings, we find controls to do with the surround sound processor; I note the use of a tone control done in DSP to mimic that of the original Quad amplifier - a tonal 'tilt' control. One can also preset the auto loudness (Adapative Bass linearisation) as regards the levels of boost, and whether it is on or off, again on an input by input case.
As far as the sound options are concerned, re the surround sound processor, it is state of the art, and offers some quite unique features not readily found elsewhere.
So after an initial period of digging in to the various menus, exploring, it was time to sit down to some HD material for which the set is arguably going to be in it's element - Bluray movies in full 1920 x 1080p HD.
First up was the Oliver Stone sweeping historical epic of 'Alexander revisited' - this with an extra 30 mins of material over the original theatrical release, and the directors cut which followed on DVD.
Fortified with Hommus and Pita Bread, a little Pate and a Glass of Wine, I sat through the movie, trying very hard - to use that hackneyed phrase, - to pick my jaw up off the floor.
The picture quality was utterly superb - there were times I found my thoughts drifting to that of thinking the picture was like a superb Hi Res photograph taken with a full frame sensor 35mm camera - the clarity, detail, naturalness of colour and out of focus (bokeh) effects superbly conveyed. At other times, I found the richness, and yet subtly graduated shades of colour reminiscent of an oil painting, and at others, I felt as if I could step through the picture frame and into real life.
Since that initial movie viewing, I have put around a dozen or so Bluray movies and a couple of DVD's through the TV, and have found my initial feelings and comments noted above to be consistent throughout.
In short, it would be no exaggeration to say I am thrilled to bits with the unit; it is everything I had hoped for and then some, by quite a margin as regards it's operation and performance on both picture and sound quality grounds.
I can also see that finally, I have a way forward re moving on from separates and into a very high quality, yet relatively affordable, integrated, fully active, AV system, with the inbuilt surround sound processor and active centre channel speaker incorporated into the set.
In the interests of fairness and balance, I've also looked hard to find weaknesses in performance, as all current TV technologies (CRT, Plasma and LCD) have virtues and vices re the technology in use.
One of my personal criticisms of LCD sets, is motion blur on movement, and so called dirty screen effects, where you see a lot of smeared background detail, due again, slow panel response times.
On full HD material, I have not observed this effect at all; however, there was one scene on Broadcast TV during the Tour de france, no doubt shot from the back of a motorbike in front of the moving riders, where there was a crash; I was quite close to the TV at the time - about 1.5 metres, and could see then some visible motion blur - but I would stress that I was deliberately looking for it, and was also sitting much closer to the set than would be recommended vis a vis the screen size and resolution of the material being broadcast.
In all other broadcast viewing situations (TV in Adapative picture mode, sitting approx. 2.8 metres away) I have not noticed this phenomena. This is of course not to say that it is not happening, it is just that it is at such a low level if it is happening, to not be noticeable. As the effect is a pet hate of mine re LCD's I am greatly pleased about this, as I did go out of my way to try and see it even before purchase, let alone the more intense testing that one can do in a home environment.
For HD Bluray movie watching, I prefer a fully darkened room, and here I was using the factory preset 'movie' mode, and the TV was coupled to my Sony Bluray player by a high quality HDMI lead (a sensible, not silly money audiophool cable) with the Bluray players picture presets set to 'Theatre room' - again giving the best picture balance/output for movies. Seating distance was again around the 2.5 - 2.8 metre mark viewing a 40" screen.
The other bugbear of Edge Light LED/LCD tv's in particular, is so called backlight bleed, or sometimes referred to as clouding, smokey screen, or even flashlight effects; it is in actuality a slight lack of homogeneity in the backlight illumination that shows through the screen in a fully dark, i.e. no signal, situation.
In my background research before buying this TV and it's associated technology, I came across an AV forum discussing said problems with edge lit Sony TV's - the thread ran to over 330 pages, with many owners changing out their TV's on warranty claims to try and fix the problem. Unfortunately, the problem is pretty much inherent to the technology, so if it truly disturbs one, then a plasma is probably the only solution. To make matters worse, it appears to differ on an example by example basis as well - perhaps something to do with production standards/tolerances etc.
However, technology does move on and things improve; in the FlatpanelsHD review of the B&O V1, they could find no significant issues with backlight bleed, and so it appears on my set.
In a fully blacked out room, and with zero signal, i.e. a fully black screen, I can just see some minor traces of clouding. However, in both normal TV viewing, and movies, I have not readily noticed it, despite looking for it, including the movie U571 which is mostly shot inside a supposed submarine, with very low levels of light, such as torches etc illuminating the faces of the actors, and where I found the black levels overall to be superb.
No doubt it will be there; it's the nature of edge light LCD's in particular - but with a measured light output re black levels of just 0.05cd/m2, a brightness level of 122cd/m2 to give a contrast ratio of 2440: 1 (figures published by FlatpanelsHD) this compares most favourably with arguably the top plasma out there - the Panasonic VT50 - which boasts 0.00 cd/m2, a brightness of 97cd/m2 (no contrast figures given) - again the figures published by FlatpanelsHD, - such that the black levels of the V1 whilst not quite at plasma level, (or a full LED backlight dynamic local dimming LCD) are such that real world differences in black levels are going to be very hard to distinguish.
In fact, I pixel peeped on all the test photos of the V1 v's the mainstream competition, and only the VT50 Panasonic truly compares IMHO.
So in summary, whilst nothing is perfect, and imperfections due technology can be found if one chooses to go looking for faults, either measured or viewable, they are at such a low level as to be of insignificance during normal viewing, on both TV and Blurays, and in both low illuminated, full daylight, and fully blacked out rooms, unless of course you are an OCD or personality obsessive who will likely find fault in everything, pleasure in nothing, and be eternally dissatisfied in life.
I do consider that with this TV, and importantly as the centrepiece of an high quality, exceptionally user friendly, stylish and very low box count AV system, this unit represents the future for me personally, and away from the clutter, angst and audiophool rhetoric of the audiophile scene.
Thanks for listening...
Best Regards
John... 😐
