Computer Reviews

This monitor is the first flat screen monitor I ever owned. In the process of making the decision, I looked at over 300 reviews on monitors. The most influential were the user reviews on Amazon.com It was because of this that I bought this monitor.

The monitor has resolution and clarity that I never expected to see on the screen. It is truly a plug & play device, I just pulled it out of the box and booted up. MS-Windows then found it and seached automatically for the best driver.

The installation was practically seemless and the results were just phenomenal. I would highly recommend this as a first monitor for anyone who has yet to experience the glory of a flat screen monitor. The only problem left is what to do with all that desk space.

Attention:

The reason why I am asking your opinion on the above, is simply this:
I have a NEC MultiSync 3FGe 15" Color Monitor; I intend to purchase the DELL PRE610 Processor. Therefore, I am wondering if my monitor would be compatible with it?
Thank you.
Derryck Griffith
Manhattan. New York.

Unless you require digital input interface,which I would recommend Eizo Nanao's L365, NEC's 1550M is by far the best in terms of image quality for the price. Contrasts and brightness make this monitor stand out from the crowd. I found my Samsung panel at work lacks the brightness and contrasts that i demand, but this 1550M meets my highest expectation. The small premium over the others including NEC 1550V is worth every bit.

By the way, the 1550M's panel is identical to Nanao's L365, which explains why these two monitors manage to have such outstanding image quality. (Still a satisfed user even though my panel has one dead pixel)

This monitor is the first flat screen monitor I ever owned. In the process of making the decision, I looked at over 300 reviews on monitors. The most influential were the user reviews on Amazon.com It was because of this that I bought this monitor.

The monitor has resolution and clarity that I never expected to see on the screen. It is truly a plug & play device, I just pulled it out of the box and booted up. MS-Windows then found it and seached automatically for the best driver.

The installation was practically seemless and the results were just phenomenal. I would highly recommend this as a first monitor for anyone who has yet to experience the glory of a flat screen monitor. The only problem left is what to do with all that desk space.

Attention:

The reason why I am asking your opinion on the above, is simply this:
I have a NEC MultiSync 3FGe 15" Color Monitor; I intend to purchase the DELL PRE610 Processor. Therefore, I am wondering if my monitor would be compatible with it?
Thank you.
Derryck Griffith
Manhattan. New York.

Unless you require digital input interface,which I would recommend Eizo Nanao's L365, NEC's 1550M is by far the best in terms of image quality for the price. Contrasts and brightness make this monitor stand out from the crowd. I found my Samsung panel at work lacks the brightness and contrasts that i demand, but this 1550M meets my highest expectation. The small premium over the others including NEC 1550V is worth every bit.

By the way, the 1550M's panel is identical to Nanao's L365, which explains why these two monitors manage to have such outstanding image quality. (Still a satisfed user even though my panel has one dead pixel)

It's a great monitor, clear and crisp even with an analog input. I haven't noticed any motion blur when playing movies and games, and I can't see a single defective pixel on the entire screen. My only complaint is the menus, and the buttons that go with them. NEC was nice enough to label all the buttons, but did so by simply embossing the words into the buttons themselves. On a black button on a black monitor, they're practically invisible. The second problem is the menus themselves. They're poorly designed and arranged, which makes them hard to navigate with the already clunky controls.

You can bypass some of the frustration if you run Windows by installing the Naviset software, which will also let you display some preset patterns that the auto calibration can lock onto extremely well.

I did a lot of research before finally choosing this brand and model. Some hardware review websites will say that the DVI input is all hype, but i'll testify its worth the extra cost.

I've setup the monitor with both DVI and VGA inputs and i'll say, Digital is definitely the way to go. You can really tell the difference. Everything is just so crisp and clear.

I'm also an avid gamer so response times was definitely a factor. Get any monitor with a response time >20 ms and you will experience blurry graphics. The 1760NX has a 16ms response time so everythings looks great. Even at resolutions lower than 1280x1024 the pixellation is minimal.

There is a model that also has speakers, but i've heard that the only thing built in speakers are good for are word processing. (Beeps).

Here is a link with product specs.

http://www.necmitsubishi.com/products/home/ProductDetail.cfm?product_id=269&division=NEC

Conclusion: This monitor rocks!!! It has well exceeded my expectations.

I've had this monitor for a few months now and I don't have any complaints. It's very bright, very crisp. Counter-Strike and WarCraft 3 play great on it. I've never owned any other LCD monitors so I don't have anything to comapre it with really. However, I did buy this monitor after several days of research on the net... tomshardwareguide gives it a thumbs up, especially for gaming. Friends who own other LCD monitors say that changing their monitor input from analog to DVI makes a visible difference. I think in a few months I will upgrade my video card to a DVI connection. However, I can tell you that the analog input into this monitor has been very satisfactory so far. It is incredibly easy to use, I didn't have to adjust any of the setting on the monitor. I would also like to brag that I got this baby from the dell web site for a cool 360 bucks by stacking three coupons! schweet.

I am using this product almost exclusively for slide scanning, so my comments only apply to that aspect of this product.

If you are like me and wondering whether you should suffer through using a consumer level slide scanner or fork out the dough for this one, then the quality this produces when scanning dark slides should be enough to convince you alone. And that's just the beginning. I've used consumer level scanners before and no amount of tweaking or photoshop'ing can match the quality the Coolscan 5000 produces. For professionals, this is of course a no brainer, but for semi-professional folks like me, this is a major investment, and I needed some convincing that it would be worth it. I am now convinced.

Don't put too much stock into the scan times (and feed times for the sf-210 auto feeder). These times are without any Digital ICE, auto exposure, auto focus, etc. However, I have found if you do not use these features, you are wasting your time. After much tweaking to get all the settings such that the final result looked just like the original slide, I am looking at about 1 minute and 30 seconds per slide using the sf-210 (AMD 2.2 Ghz 1GB Ram, scanning at 2000 dpi)

I have found that without tweaking, you get a bluish hue (although a little less so for Kodachrome slides). I have turned red up +20 and blue down +20 (green at 0) and to me, this seems to give the best results (ymmv).

Use the digital ice features!!! They are simply amazing. The dust and scratch removal is phenomenal. The grain removal is also wonderful - and it keeps the picture sharp much more so than using a software filter like those found in Photoshop. Personally, I set the Digital ROC (color restoration and correction) to 0 because it is too unpredictable.

Lastly, use a bright, high quality LCD monitor! You would be amazed at the difference this can make when doing color matching, especially on dark pictures. I was astonished to see the difference.

When you take the above into consideration, this scanner is superb. Plan on spending a few hours getting your settings just right, but after that, sit back and enjoy. I've done 8x10 prints of my slides (scanned at 2000 dpi) that are just beautiful. It is near impossible to match the luminance and beauty of a projected slide, but the Coolscan 5000 does a darn good job.

First of all, let me say I am a neophyte when it comes to scanning. My mother passed away recently and I wanted to go through my father's 20,000 slides and scan the best ones before they, as many before them, disappeared into the hands of one of my 7 other siblings never to be found again.

After culling my father's slides I ended up with about 750 I wanted to scan. After culling my own slides I ended up with another 200 slides. And after that I decided to go through my color negative collection and scan the best of those as well. A daunting project! But honestly well worth the effort.

Most of my father's slides are Kodachrome. Much has been written about the inability of this scanner to scan Kodachrome slides and said about ICE4 not working with Kodachrome. Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The ICE4 does work, however, inconstantly with Kodachrome slides producing unacceptable artifacts in about 5 - 10 percent of the slides. It is a hit or miss proposition. I scanned with ICE (not ICE4) always on and then rescanned if I encountered unacceptable artifacts. I did notice that the scanner ICE feature was stumped by old Kodachrome slides where subjects were wearing shirts with stripes. Those stripes were really butchered by the ICE feature.

The GEM ROC and DEE (the other stalwarts of the ICE4 other than ICE itself) work on Kodachrome slides as well, but I found that the results were unpredictable and that I could achieve better results myself in Photoshop far more quickly. The GEM ROC and DEE features simply took too long and slowed down the scanning unacceptably. The results, for me, were not worth the additional scanning time.

The good news: The scanner is fast and does produce wonderful wonderful detailed scans, easily demonstrating the grain in the transparancies at 3000 and 4000 dpi. The Kodachrome slides were a challenge to the Dynamic Range of the scanner, but I believe that most of the detail in the shadows that is there was extracted. Unfortunately, Kodachrome, with all of its many attributes, does have substantial downsides including a very narrow exposure latitude and shadow detail is simply lacking. I think the scanner accurately reproduced the information including the colors on the Kodachrome slides, with perhaps a slight bluish cast noticed in some cases.

It wasn't until I was finished scanning all of the culled slides that I undertook to scan my select color negatives. And this scanner really came into its own scanning color negatives. Don't even TRY to scan color negatives without ICE because the results are unbelievably bad. Even pristine negatives have scratches and pit marks that magically are erased by the ICE feature. What a godsend. I only wish it had worked so flawlessly on the Kodachrome slides. The scanned color negatives were just beautiful with very accurate color rendition. But immediately I noticed much more grain in the color negatives (Royal Gold and Fuji Superia Gold) than in the scanned slides.

One note unrelated to the scanner itself. Until you've used a digital scanner to scan your color negatives you can't begin to realize how far superior Kodachrome, Provia, and Ektachrome slides are to color negatives insofar as capturing detail. Even the best color negatives have much more grain that Kodachrome. And the difference in color negatives is substantial too.

The included Nikon software worked fantastic for me. I downloaded a copy of VueScan which according to many reviews is superior to the Nikon software and found that for me the Nikon software was easier to work with and produced superior results.

The software did cause my computer to crash occasionally which was an aggravation, but a minor one when considered against its many attributes.

I can recommend this scanner without reservation. It is a phenomenal piece of equipment.

The previous generation (CS IV and CS 4000) were hard to top, but Nikon did it yet again. Scans are smooth and gorgeous, color accuracy (provided your monitor is calibrated) is unrivaled and the updated ICE4 including DEE are a blessing. In fact the scans are so good that I have started to prefer CS5000 scans from well exposed Fuji Provia 100F or Astia 100F slides than images from a 6MP DSLR. Hard to believe but thats true.

Did I mention scanning speed ? I timed a 4000 DPI scan with digital ICE turned off, on a P4 2.6Ghz with 1 GB ram and USB2. It took 17 seconds from begining to end (excluding autofocus and auto exposure). Thats right. Actually three seconds faster than Nikon's claim of 20 sec. Beat that Minolta.

IMO the next step up can only be a $50K HowTek drum scanner ;)

I just bought this receiver. I've had onkyo receivers for the past 10 years and I have always been pleased with their quality.
I bought this one to power our home theatre system which has 5 speakers capable of delivering 100W each. My Harmon Kardon avr20 receiver is not strong enough to power 5 speakers.

My first reaction was that the sound volume was too low, I had to turn up to 70/100 to hear it. Then I figured out that you can change your speaker levels, awesome feature. So I turned up my front speakers 10dB and instantly I got the result I wanted.

If you have the receiver hooked up to a TV, during the setup, the menu shows on screen, which makes it a lot easier to setup. It also lets you choose to your speaker distance in feet or meters of how far you are from the speakers and the receiver will adjust the speakers to you.

The sound is very crisp, and even when you turn on surround sound, the receiver is delivering plenty of power to all speakers. Not like the average surround sound systems, when you actually enable center speakers, you lose 30% of your volume.

The backside has all the connectors you could ever wish for, it does get a little jammed back there, but once it is all connected, you're set.

The remote is pretty handy, although it is way to big for my taste.

I trust this receiver will last me at least 10 years with superior sound quality. For $350 (amazon.com) and FREE shipping you can not beat the bang for the buck, anywhere. I would be willing to bet on it.

If you are the home uset that likes to have high quality hi-fi systems, but don't want to spend $1000 on a receiver, this one will blow you away, and you will have money over to buy a really nice pair of speakers. And if you are in to design, this version comes in silver as well.

Thumbs Up! Get it before it is too late.

Well, there is little I can add to Boomer0311's excellent and comprehensive review. I had an older, larger brother to the 601 (the 2002 Onkyo TXDS-797) so when I needed another 6.1 surround for a smaller room I had no hesitation about the 601. It is, as Boomer says, an outstanding value for the price (and you can do a bit better than Boomer if you search - I found it at a couple of places on the web for less than $375, brand new in a sealed carton).

The automatic smart switching of the audio mode depending on the type of input (Dolby, DTS surround or not) is a great feature, and the unit is solid and reliable, driving even speakers of modest efficiency (for example, our set of Encore Energy surrounds) to plenty of volume even for old, semi-deaf ex-rock and rollers like me. This is terrific bang for the buck. I don't think there's anything out there for close to the price that comes close to the 601 in features and quality.

Owning it for nearly a quarter-century (1981 vintage), the Onkyo TX-3000 stereo receiver's great sound and remarkable craftmanship has always impressed me. Even today, it continues to please. Were it not for the need to integrate collected video gear, forgetting not the surround sound factor, I'd have no need for change.

While doing some fairly extensive research on available HT receivers, those street-priced below my purchase ceiling of $400 (with tax), I soon realized that I would have to spend my limit in order to get a high-quality unit with all the wanted trimmings. Yes, I did see those $300 factory refurbished units at eCost, and wanted badly to pull the trigger on occasion, however, I thought if I could only reach a compromise between the asking price at a brick-n-mortar store vs. that of a factory
refurb unit advertised online, I'd be on it like a tick on a dog! Well, it happened!

With the bulk of research behind me, there were a handful of receivers I felt commanded my respect, while still sitting at or below my $400 ceiling. Honestly, I did pay additional consideration to the Denon and Onkyo units. In alpha-order, the receivers were:

Denon AVR-1804
Harman Kardon AVR-230
Onkyo TX-SR601
Yamaha RX-V740

I'd finally decided "research over", I'd make my purchase before the weekend. A visit to a local Tweeter store turned-up a $100-off ($399 to $299) sale on Denon's AVR-1604. A very nice unit, but feature-wise, a grade lower than I wanted. Could I possibly get the manager to drop the price of Denon's AVR-1804 from $499 to $399? Not today. Next stop, Best Buy. It was at Best Buy that I realized why my research was so important. OK, where to next? Let's try Circuit City (again). I remembered them having all the receivers on my list, except the Denon brand. Once there, I
immediately saw that they'd dropped the price on a new Onkyo TX-SR601 from $499 to $449. Hey, now we're getting warm! Nosing around a bit more, I noticed that they had two OPEN-BOX 601s for $429 each. That's when I went for broke! I prompted the sales clerk to tell his manager of my $400 drive-out offer on one of the OPEN-BOX 601s. Trying to steal a bit of whispered cross-talk between the two, I could not gather enough information to conclude if Yes or No. After about 5-minutes, the manager exited while the sales clerk pounded away on his POS register. A few moments more passed when the sales clerk finally asked me if $395 drive-out would be OK? Well..... I suppose.....

Heck Yea! Bring it out to the car, NOW!

Also, of the two OPEN-BOX 601s there, I got to pick the one I wanted! The one I picked just happened to be one that was put on the floor the previous day. It looked like it had just been unboxed, and not a finger-print on it! Of course, I had to take it naked (no box), but it came with every available
accessory and a full 2-year factory warranty. Keep the box and give me my $75-$80 savings!

MY TAKE ON ONKYO RECEIVERS IN GENERAL:

Well-known is Onkyo's long-sustained reputation for building affordable, high-quality receivers. To many, Onkyo receivers seem to have a purer sound over that of the competing brands. Reason? Well, I believe it's primarily the fact that Onkyo integrates superior low-noise, high-current amplifiers into
their receiver lineup. Whether driven at a whisper, or cranked to rated limits, Onkyo amps are up to the task. Even while driving a set of 4-ohm speakers (a real challenge for many receivers because the amps are driven harder), an Onkyo will kick-it-out effortlessly!

Delivering on that purer sound, an Onkyo tends to run hotter than most (Harman Kardon integrates a highly-regarded heat-generating amp set into their receiver lineup as well). Because of this, when compared to other receiver brands, Onkyo recommends nearly 4-5 additional inches of clearance above the receiver chassis. In summary, the Onkyo's upside is a clean sounding unit with power to spare, while the downside is unusual heat generation and the resulting additional real-estate required for proper dissipation.

MY TAKE ON THE TX-SR601:

While I could list many features I like about the 601, some would be superfluous in that those features are pretty-much the norm for receivers in this class. Instead, on the upside, I'll list those qualities I believe unique. The 601 does have some downside also, and I'll list whatever those items are as well.
All in all, though, the good far out-weighs the bad.

Upside:

- Subwoofer crossover can be adjusted from a low-end of 60Hz to
a high-end of 150Hz.
- Zone 2 line out (can simultaneously play differing source
material to two different locations).
- IntelliVolume feature allows switching of sources to arrive at
same or user adjusted volume levels.
- Ability to efficiently drive 4-ohm speakers.
- High-current amps provide additional headroom above power
rating.
- Color-coded rear panel layout sports I/O connections aplenty,
comfortably spaced apart.
- Long-standing reputation for reliability.

Downside:

- Unusual heat generation from receiver amps prompts additional
clearance requirement.
- Remote control requires multiple key presses when switching
sources; no back-lighting.
- No video conversion to component level (conversion is
Composite -> S-Video only).

** NOTE ON VIDEO CONVERSTION:
I've researched HT receivers in this price-class from A-Z, and
found none that will convert video to the component level.
That said, this feature is very desireable because it's use
would keep most cable-bulk away from the TV. Said differently,
one would not be required to compromise aesthetics (cable-
bulk) to gain component-level video quality from desired
source(s).

[Conclusion]:

After a full month of ownership, I can heartily recommend Onkyo's TX-SR601. From the hours put-in researching all possible candidates, I can say without reserve that IT IS the best HT receiver available today under $500 MSRP.

The monitor is dazzling. It has near perfect text focus and convergence in all corners even when stretched to the max. Unlike the sony cpd e540, it actually has sharp text at its recommended rez (1600x1200), though it's sharper at 75hz than at 85hz.

UNIFORMITY
It's purity is nearyly perfect, even though I have a huge non-shielded subwoofer about 2 feet from it. It's geometry was near perfect out of the box and is correctlable, if needed, with the multitudinous adjustments. It's text is clear everywhere. Moire is present only in very fine stripe patterns (like those in calibration screens). I don't adjust this unless I have to since text will get very slighlty fuzzy.

COLOR/BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST
Very good, though very slightly washed (especially blacks) out compared to sony at 1600X1200. At lower rez, it looks much brighter. The contrast/brightness can be increased by increasing the RGB colors (together will result in more white), though increasing it too much (~90) will result in color bleeding.

FLATNESS
Not as flat as sony, but not curved by any means, hence NF (natural flat).

STABILITY
Image stability is great. I've notice that with ANY aperature grill, when looking very close to the screen, a flicker or a moving moire like effect occurs. Shadow mask don't display this. This is just a general note about AG, not the dp2060u. Also, larger monitors show this more than smaller monitors. Perhaps, the filaments quiver ever so slightly. No dancing pixels are noticed at all.

CONTROL EASE
Too many buttons to navigate...but who cares? The image is everthing!

BOTTOM LINE
The best monitor I have owned. My only wish is an absolute flat screen, but no one notices but me. It's rated by displaymate as second only to the sony gdm f520 which costs twice as much!

BTW, I coating is the same type as sony's. If you touch it, it will show irridescent streaks.

I am extremely picky about my monitors. I looked at the fastest LCDs I could find (17 ns) before this screen, but with the dead pixels and lack of color accuracy, I was turned off. I found that LCDs always have a lot of color "pop" to their displays--sometimes so much that you have to squint to look at them--but with the current technology, they also have muddy dark tones which obscure the detail in the shadows of pictures.

When I fired up the Diamond Pro 2060u, I was not particularly impressed with the screen brilliance. Yes, the screen was color accurate and sharp throughout, but there was very little intensity. I had the contrast at 100%, the brightness at 35%, and the color temperature at 9300K. I could turn up the brightness and the light areas of the screen did become brighter, but the black level was then destroyed and blacks became dark greys. I was so upset that I nearly gave up.

I then stumbled on the RGB color controls that allow one to dramatically intensify the beams. Where the 9300K setting would set the RGB color sliders to around the 50% levels, I cranked them up to 90%. Suddenly, the monitor became a brilliant, beautiful display! It is PERFECT! It is brilliant, color-accurate, and extremely sharp with a perfect black level. Once adjusted, the convergence is perfect throughout and there are no noticeable moire patterns even given the worse dithering. Of the dozens of monitors I've looked at under 1K, this is by FAR the best.

There are two tiny flaws to the screen, both are side effects of the aperture grill and evident on all monitors using that type of mask: one is that there are two very faint horizontal gray lines crossing the screen at the 1/3rd and 2/3rd distance from the top/bottom edge. These are horizontal dampeners that stabilize the aperture grill's vertical elements. These faint lines don't bother me, and compared to LCD dead pixels, they are no big deal for certain. The second imperfection is a barely perceptible pixel shimmer throughout the screen. This is heat-of-expansion-derived kinetic energy transfered to the aperture grill via the electron beam as it passes by (most of the kinetic energy is eliminated by the dampeners already mentioned). The shimmering effect is extremely subtle and is actually difficult to see much less notice during regular use. I don't think anyone would find it distracting.

This is an awesome monitor! It's exquisite! Before I got it I bought the NEC FP1370. It was terrible (see my review on it). This monitor, although from the same company (NEC Mitsubishi), uses a different technology, DiamondTron, and in fact, the picture is diamond!

Text & Graphics:
I did some research before getting it because it seems that most 21"+ monitors have focus and geometry problems. I am very picky because I need lively graphics colors, correct geometry, and at the same time crisp text. Some people don't care about text because their main purpose is graphics design or playing games. I do that in addition to writing code and reading a lot. Most monitors in this class have some convergence problems, where text looks crisp in some parts and blurry in others, even if the dot pitch is uniform across the grill.

This monitor is ace both at text and graphics. It even has an option where you can optimize it for Text, Normal, or Graphics mode. Text is crystal clear in all areas of the screen, even at very high resolutions.

Configuration & Geometry:
This monitor has more configuration options than any nag-ass might ever want. You can get the geometry almost perfect. The geometry out of the box wasn't correct. The easiest way to fix it is to choose your ideal resolution and refresh rate, apply the auto-correct mode, and start adjusting from there. The screen surface is 100% flat; Mitsubishi calls it Natural Flat (NF), which means the optical image beam is corrected before it hits the screen surface.

Other nice features:
I was impressed with the screen coating. Other monitors, especially Sony, have a smudgy coating. This monitor has a "dry" coating, where you can clean the screen without creating "rainbow smears." It also has a built-in USB hub, and you connect the data cable vertically, so that you can flush the monitor to the wall. The monitor is also remarkably light and has a small footprint. It has almost the same weight as my old 19" Sony monitor. The visual area of the screen is 20", bigger than that of most other 22" or 21" monitors, which is 19.8".

Cons:
The On Screen Menu (OSD) controls are a bit more awkward than other monitors. It also doesn't have BNC connectors, which is a bummer for a monitor of this quality. But the data cable that comes with it is sturdy and isolates EM interference very well.

Conclusion:
If you're looking for a 21" or 22" monitor, with a perfectly flat screen, with a uniform .24mm dot pitch grill, with excellent text, graphics, and geometry, then you should seriously consider this monitor.

Bought the 1720M when the picture tube died on a 17" CRT.

Well. Colors are clean, pictures are great, text is sharp. There are no LCD peculiarities -- moving the cursor or dragging objects doesn't show any ghosting, for instance. It's flicker-free, and it feels noticeably bigger than a 17" CRT.

Once set up, it's bright, easy to view from any angle (basically, if you you can see the front of the monitor, you can read the screen). There are NO dead / bright / funny pixels.

Installation was a snap -- about 10 minutes from the time I opened the box, until it was worked perfectly with Win98. It came up in 1024x768 resolution, which I changed to the recommended 1280=1024, rebooted, pushed two buttons to get the monitor to adjust itself to the video input, and it was installed and working. The only other adjustment I needed was to use large fonts on the desktop, but that's my eyes not the monitor.

And of course it takes up less desktop space, you don't have to be a weight-lifter to move it, it uses much less electricity than the CRT ir replaces, and it's nice looking even turned off.

Finally, the price is right; 17" LCDs seem to be the sweet spot now, and this is a very good one at a really reasonable price (even more if it's on special -- it was when I bought mine).

So why four stars instead of five? The adjustment buttons are TINY (subtract 1/8 star) and on the black case, the impressed labels for them are almost invisible (another 1/8 star). Another 1/4 star in reserve because I did not try the built-in speakers, I haven't really exercised the hardware adjustments, and another 1/2 star because it hasn't been in use long enough to make any guesses about reliability.

Maybe not quite perfect, but HIGHLY reccommended.

Last time I bought a computer, I promised myself the next monitor I bought would be a flat-screen. It seems I waited just the right length of time because this wonderful monitor landed on offer right in my price range when I needed it.

Installation was about as simple as it gets: I plugged it into my computer and it worked perfectly out of the box. A cute touch is the automatic on-screen message telling you to set your screen to 1280x1024 - you can turn this off through the straightforward on-screen menus.

I immediately saw why everyone is converting to LCDs. The pixels are perfectly crisp and there's absolutely no flicker. This screen has wonderful vibrant colour, strong backlighting and a surprisingly wide viewing angle - about the widest I've seen on any LCD screen. 17" LCDs are a good inch or so larger than their CRT equivalents, since they use the full screen. This screen feels huge. The anti-reflection coating on the screen works superbly, giving it a rich matte finish even in bad light. Update is very zippy, enough to play most games without noticing any blurring.

The black casing is beautiful and simple - and so much smaller and lighter than a bulky tube! The only minor detractor is the slightly unnecessary branding. I know what model of monitor I bought, thank you! The base has a smooth, well-balanced rotation mechanism and the screen can be adjusted up and down easily enough.

Sound quality is nothing special, but if you're concerned about audio you're probably using seperate speakers anyway. The stereo effect is surprisingly good, however. A headphone socket is a welcome addition to the front of the case, saving a lot of scrambling behind the PC.

I'm very happy with my purchase and I'd recommend this monitor to anyone who plans on spending a lot of time at their screen. I've been using the screen at home for a few weeks and every time I go to work I wish I had it with me!

I had been looking for an LCD monitor for a little while and this one was in my Gold Box. I have had 4 other NEC monitors (CRT) and had been very pleased with this brand.
This one said it was white, but it is putty in color. Even better for me. The speakers are located at the bottom of the screen, good if you are looking for an LCD that does not take up a lot of room side to side. The speakers are tiny little ones, but work fine for normal use. I like that the headphone jack is right on the front of this monitor. No more digging to the back of my tower to plug in.
As for the viewing, the colors pop, I can clearly see everything, and fonts are smoothed slightly. This one replaced my last CRT display. What a joy to look at LCD screens all day! You will notice right away that your eyes will not be so tired. The absence of the screen flicker alone is completely and totally worth switiching to an LCD.
I would recommend this monitor for anyone thinking of purchasing a new LCD!

Bought the 1720M when the picture tube died on a 17" CRT.

Well. Colors are clean, pictures are great, text is sharp. There are no LCD peculiarities -- moving the cursor or dragging objects doesn't show any ghosting, for instance. It's flicker-free, and it feels noticeably bigger than a 17" CRT.

Once set up, it's bright, easy to view from any angle (basically, if you you can see the front of the monitor, you can read the screen). There are NO dead / bright / funny pixels.

Installation was a snap -- about 10 minutes from the time I opened the box, until it was worked perfectly with Win98. It came up in 1024x768 resolution, which I changed to the recommended 1280=1024, rebooted, pushed two buttons to get the monitor to adjust itself to the video input, and it was installed and working. The only other adjustment I needed was to use large fonts on the desktop, but that's my eyes not the monitor.

And of course it takes up less desktop space, you don't have to be a weight-lifter to move it, it uses much less electricity than the CRT ir replaces, and it's nice looking even turned off.

Finally, the price is right; 17" LCDs seem to be the sweet spot now, and this is a very good one at a really reasonable price (even more if it's on special -- it was when I bought mine).

So why four stars instead of five? The adjustment buttons are TINY (subtract 1/8 star) and on the black case, the impressed labels for them are almost invisible (another 1/8 star). Another 1/4 star in reserve because I did not try the built-in speakers, I haven't really exercised the hardware adjustments, and another 1/2 star because it hasn't been in use long enough to make any guesses about reliability.

Maybe not quite perfect, but HIGHLY reccommended.

Last time I bought a computer, I promised myself the next monitor I bought would be a flat-screen. It seems I waited just the right length of time because this wonderful monitor landed on offer right in my price range when I needed it.

Installation was about as simple as it gets: I plugged it into my computer and it worked perfectly out of the box. A cute touch is the automatic on-screen message telling you to set your screen to 1280x1024 - you can turn this off through the straightforward on-screen menus.

I immediately saw why everyone is converting to LCDs. The pixels are perfectly crisp and there's absolutely no flicker. This screen has wonderful vibrant colour, strong backlighting and a surprisingly wide viewing angle - about the widest I've seen on any LCD screen. 17" LCDs are a good inch or so larger than their CRT equivalents, since they use the full screen. This screen feels huge. The anti-reflection coating on the screen works superbly, giving it a rich matte finish even in bad light. Update is very zippy, enough to play most games without noticing any blurring.

The black casing is beautiful and simple - and so much smaller and lighter than a bulky tube! The only minor detractor is the slightly unnecessary branding. I know what model of monitor I bought, thank you! The base has a smooth, well-balanced rotation mechanism and the screen can be adjusted up and down easily enough.

Sound quality is nothing special, but if you're concerned about audio you're probably using seperate speakers anyway. The stereo effect is surprisingly good, however. A headphone socket is a welcome addition to the front of the case, saving a lot of scrambling behind the PC.

I'm very happy with my purchase and I'd recommend this monitor to anyone who plans on spending a lot of time at their screen. I've been using the screen at home for a few weeks and every time I go to work I wish I had it with me!

I had been looking for an LCD monitor for a little while and this one was in my Gold Box. I have had 4 other NEC monitors (CRT) and had been very pleased with this brand.
This one said it was white, but it is putty in color. Even better for me. The speakers are located at the bottom of the screen, good if you are looking for an LCD that does not take up a lot of room side to side. The speakers are tiny little ones, but work fine for normal use. I like that the headphone jack is right on the front of this monitor. No more digging to the back of my tower to plug in.
As for the viewing, the colors pop, I can clearly see everything, and fonts are smoothed slightly. This one replaced my last CRT display. What a joy to look at LCD screens all day! You will notice right away that your eyes will not be so tired. The absence of the screen flicker alone is completely and totally worth switiching to an LCD.
I would recommend this monitor for anyone thinking of purchasing a new LCD!

I shoot in the Civilian Marksmanship Program. The true test of a scope for me is if one can see a .223"-round at 100 yards (lighting conditions apply). The key thing here is the focus. To see a .223" hole in black paper with a black background can be very demanding on a scope... this scope will do it. I don't rank it as excellent (5 stars) because that would insinuate that this scope is as good as an equivilant aperature Kowa or Swarovski. Nevertheless, Nikon has produced an excellent product. If you're trying to get a good bargain at a budget price I recommend this scope.

I purchased this for my Dad for Father's Day, and he has not stopped raving about it. He can now look out his window in coastal Maine and read the names of sloops rounding islands far offshore. The price was so good, I hoped it wouldn't turn out to be cheaply made. Thankfully, the optics are powerful, and the housing is sturdily built for years of use. Note that a good tripod is included (not made clear on the product detail page). I'm VERY pleased with this purchase.

I just got back from a seaside resort on the Pacific Ocean.The hotel provided one of these scopes on our balcony for whale watching. I was incredibly impressed with the clarity, zoom ratio, and image width. In fact, I just bought one from Amazon. A bit pricey perhaps, but absolutely without question worth every penny.

The receiver and CD player are wonderful. The speakers, unfortunatelly not. They lack bass response and the imaging is just not there. The built quality of the speakers is lame -- it's obvious they just don't match the rest of the system.

It used to be different... Before there was PS-509 system (which I have been using for 3 years). It has the same receiver and CD changer units (just black, not silver, however later they introduced PS-510 which was silver). PS-509/PS-510 shipped with Polk RT-105 speakers that were quite good (actually, according to Polk Audio, they were made by Onkyo, Polk just helped them with the design and allowed to use Polk name for marketing). Apparently in order to cut costs they ended the joint-venture and started to bundle the system with their medicore speakers. PS-509 originally cost $500, MC35TECH is one hundred less (or even less than that).

That's too bad. My advice -- get the receiver and CD player (you can get refurbished ones cheaply) and get some better speakers. For less money you'll get a better system. That's what I am doing now as I want to get another set.

What else?

The remote is hard to use. But at least it lets you adjust bass & treble settings (not possible without remove; some other functions are also available only thru the remote).

The wake-up timer is very lame. It just turns the unit on without adjusting volume, so if you use the sleep timer to fall asleep with the music, you can't really use the wake-up timer. Also if you use CD for the timer, it will just play the last CD that was played with track 1. The bottom line is the wake-up timer is pretty much useless.

Also, there is no balance adjustment, but the acoustic presence makes up for that reasonably well.

But, what's most important: the sound quality is unbeliveable. Superior to all those overpriced Denon and Yamaha snobish boxes. I love my Onkyo with Polk/Onkyo speakers...

I cannot imagine there is a better sounding component system on the market today in the $400 price range. Excellent sound, quality and looks in a small package. Not powerful enough to compete with my home audio system, but plenty of power for the office. And while I agree with the other reviewers on sound and quality, the main selling point for me was all the extra audio input and output options. This was the one area I found lacking on every other unit I researched. Besides having a very nice FM radio and the extra playing time of a 3 CD changer, I have attached the audio outputs of my notebook (for internet radio streams) and Nomad JB3 MP3 player to 2 of the 5 possible audio inputs and my headphone amplifier to the tape output. That is pretty darn flexible for a micro system!

I purchased this after comparing to the comperably priced Denon and Yamaha systems ($399). The Onkyo had better sound, more inputs and outputs, and a 3 disc changer (as opposed to single), plus it looked sharp. The sound is great across many music types (classical, jazz, electronica) and has the power to fill a good sized living room with rich music. If you are partial to low end bass, get a subwoofer (I did) since the system includes a sub output. For such a small component system, I am very impressed.