I mentioned in an earlier comment about the lack of furniture in my apartment. Ever since my old roommate moved into a new apartment and moved his stuff out, my place has been a little empty. And I definitely have plans to acquire replacement furniture at some point. Now, however, is not that time.Instead, inspired by a recent price drop, I've ordered a new TV (the Sony KDS-60A2000). At 60" diagonal with an integrated digital tuner and a Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) engine that can produce images at a beautiful 1080p format (that's 1920x1080 resolution with the 'p' meaning that every line of every frame is updated) I believe my eyeballs will be appropriately massaged in the future. For those of you who are wondering what process led to this eventual decision, keep reading.
I'd been wanting to get a new TV for a while, unfortunately my requirement for a 1080p set with HDMI (an all digital connection that is the wave of the future) and a significant screen size 50+" made this impossible.
Still, I knew the day would come, so I had my HDTV fund sitting there, carefully accumulating more and more dollars. Then, sometime last month, I noticed that the Sony set that I fell in love with last year had started dropping in price.
Continue on for the whole story ... In fact, the 50" had hit the fabled $2K price I'd set for myself. I went to go check the set out at a couple electronics stores and while it was OK, I actually felt like it was too small (just resume reading when you stop laughing at the ridiculousness of that statement). I saw it sitting next to different 55" and 60" TV's and those really looked like the size I wanted.
So I hit up Amazon.com and the other models were a little bit more than I wanted to spend. Still, after much reflection, I decided I'd just go with the 55" at that price ($2200). Anyone who knows me will be able to describe the AGONIZING process I go through before purchasing anything. However, about a week and a half ago, I was about 90% sure that I was just going to say "screw it" and buy the TV.
Luckily for me this time (and in stark contrast to my purchase of airline tickets) the price actually dropped in the 3 days I was siting there thinking about it. As a result, the 60" that had been far too expensive before was now available for a mere $2180. The amount that I'd mentally prepared myself for paying for the 55".While this price drop did help cement my intention of buying it wasn't enough to get me to pull the trigger immediately. Instead, I was going to wait until my rapidly approaching next credit card statement so as to minimize the chance I'd have to take money out of my savings account to pay for it (the hassle of setting up the internet-only savings account is a post all on its own that I will get to someday).
Still, another day or two of reflection later, I realized that this pricing may simply be pre-Super Bowl pricing and that waiting another week for the end of my statement period could result in the price actually increasing back to its historical level. I knew if that situation arose, my spendthrift nature would prohibit me from purchasing the TV at the increased price and I'd have to just sit around for X months waiting for it to drop again. All the while unable to enjoy it's 1080p goodness.
So Wednesday of last week I pulled the trigger and placed the order at Amazon.com (using my Amazon.com card--3% back in store credit!) and it's now slowly winding its way here via some strange freight service.
Supposedly, by the end of the week the monolith will have arrived. And on that joyous day there will hopefully be some posting of impressions and info about the TV and much marveling at its crystal clear image and dazzling array of video inputs.
For me, the usual compulsive shipment tracking has returned and I feel the need to check its status regularly. I'm sure when I receive the call to schedule its delivery I will be crying and will probably repeatedly hug the delivery guys when they drop it off.
All that aside, I checked today and the price of the set had increased $120 to $2300 making me feel decidedly better about the choice to drop the money when I did.
posted by dontEATnachos @ 12:41 PM
