My First Day with my Sony A9 48"

topgazza

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Actually a day and a half but first impressions of a set I bought from a John Lewis store for £1189

I know this is not a new set but its new enough and is still the current model. Its size is important to me as I don't have a large lounge, I don't like big screens because they are dominant and its just a personal taste thing I guess. But the lack of bezels is a huge thing in terms for how the TV looks. It's low slung stand gives the whole thing a seamless, just a screen, effect.

Ridiculously easy to assembly and within 10 minutes I was up and running. I left the screen settings as factory but checked with some of the popular screen setting posts specifically Dennizio’s here and didn't change anything much. Just the odd tweak. I updated to the latest firmware as I have direct RJ45 connection to the TV it was simple. Set up Plex and adjusted the order of the apps to suit me and signed in on them all. Basically Netflix, Prime, YouTube and Plex. I don't watch anything else.

I had disconnected my Denon and 5.1 speakers as I was keen to try the screen audio. I'm not a huge fan of surround sound as I feel in a normal lounge it's somewhat wasted but I respect those that love it. My son being one of those in his house. I was more interested to see, hear, if it meant I could declutter my TV stand and corner.

Now, the two areas I was therefore very keen to experience were the picture and sound so I sampled some 4k trailers, some films via Plex and on Prime and Netflix including shows like Stargate Atlantis on my Plex server which has been OK on my HD TV but clearly a 720p DVD/BluRay burn.

The picture is stunning. Full screen and the quality appears to be at between 1080p and 4k level. The upscaling on the A9 is simply outstanding. Same for anything I watched. Clean, lifelike, crisp images with colours that are just perfect. Both myself and my wife were gobsmacked.

But the sound. I know people will have palpitations at the thought of not have a receiver and multiple speakers but as fan of the sound coming directly at me I was blown away. As my daughter said "its so balanced and clear". Dialogue is clear, background sounds are perfect and the atmosphere created is so good, for me, that I doubt I will go back to a surround sound system anytime soon. I know that's sacrilege to many but it was a real surprise how good it sounded. Plenty of volume and depth

So overall my still superb 40HX753 has served me well and I'll be looking to sell it on but the A9 is a real eye opener in every aspect. I am so pleased I bit the proverbial and went for it after a long time pondering
 
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