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Has LED caught up to Plasma?

I know that the plasma tv's in the past were always considered to be better than the LED or LCD formats. I'm wondering if this is still the case. With improvements in technology, has the gap narrowed? I bought a 42" Panasonic Plasma over 8 years ago (and yes, it's still working...wished it would have died by now! lol) and am looking to upgrade to a new 55" tv. In all honestly, when I chose plasma back then, I thought the picture quality of both the plasmas and the LED/LCD models were both very good. Even though my plasmas has lasted all these past 8 years, my big concern is that they do heat up quite a bit....where LED's run much cooler. I'm thinking this might translate into a longer life with and LED tv instead of a plasma. What would you buy today if you were buying??? Plasma or LED?
calgarian5355

Showing 4 responses by lloydc

lloydc's avatar
lloydc
762 posts
 
The latest Pioneer backlit LED looks mighty fine. $8K.

I don't disagree with Unsound above; Pioneer's best plasmas were great. As in audio, there are advantages to each technology, and tastes vary.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
762 posts
 
Your premise is wrong. Plasma was surpassed by LED with the Sony Qualia 005 in 2004. You would have to see one to believe how good a tv can look when it reproduces the entire color spectrum. As far as I know, NO LCD tv reproduces the full NTSC broadcast spectrum.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
762 posts
 
Chadnliz, afaik, no one is saying LCD is best. LED is another matter. The color range of the best backlit LED's exceeds plasma and the colors look more naturalistic. It would be hard to argue against plasma for watching sports, though, where color is relatively unimportant and motion artifacts are very important. Relative value is a different argument.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
762 posts
 
Unsound, overall, I agree with you. My fondness for LED is based on my Sony Qualia 005. I haven't yet seen anything better. The Elite KURO Signature Series PRO monitors may be the industry reference now, and they may exceed the Qualia in some ways.

"best" and "value" are largely unrelated concepts. Fortunately, for video monitors, the two are not as far apart as they are in audiophile gear. I don't even know anyone who would consider a $250,000 speaker; a $7000 video monitor may be a conceivable purchase.
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