Bang & Olufsen Beovision 6

at approx £8,000 for a basic TV it is not worth the money. There are lots of much cheaper LCD TV's around the £1,500 mark which give equal quality. B&O develop the same technical issues as other brands and therefore are not worth the money. You are paying a lot for the 'name'

In my opinion Bang & Olufsen Beovision 6 not worth all that money.

In the mythical city of El Dorado, street kids played footie with golden balls and used precious gems for tiddlywinks; adults stayed indoors and watched Grandstand on their Beovision 6-26s. For the Bang & Olufsen Beovision 6 TV, if it can be reduced to something so base and functional, drips with exquisite gorgeousness. Even before switching it on, the set screams Danish fastidiousness. B&O created a special machine to brush the vertical metal surround in the same direction as the horizontal. They crafted the remote from Zinc so that it doesn't sweat in the hand. The glass has the same anti-reflective coating as fighter cockpits; and the motorised base is honed from a single solid piece of aluminium.

When you finally deign to switch it on, a silent motor propels the screen to a pre-programmed position, then, and only then, gently activates the picture. The first thing you notice as you gaze over your caviar and Kobe beef is that the picture has more depth, contrast and vitality than any conventional LCD. Colours are subtle but exact: black is black, white is Jacko white, and there is a beautiful lustre to the image. This is all thanks to a clever piece of software called Vision Clear, which meters light levels and adjusts brightness and contrast as conditions change. This makes for a picture fully visible in the brightest and darkest conditions. And it looks wonderful.

The sound too is a notch or three above the best LCD's out there. Using a combination of active speakers and bass port, sound is deep and resonant. There is no distortion - music is lively, and films eminently watchable without a full surround-sound set-up.

I could highlight the technical flaws: no High Definition as standard, compatibility with only the older type cable set-top boxes and so on. Indeed, there are a few gripes if you evaluate any Beovision on a purely technical or price level. But that would be missing the point. This is a piece of art, an ornament. And quite frankly, I don't care about the rest.

I came to the B&O in a roundabout way. The space I had available was limited and I wanted a black TV, the current trend of sparkly silver being perfectly hideous in my opinion. As it turned out, the B&O was the perfect size being having an unusual 22" panel. In my local B&O showroom, the 6 displayed none of the weaknesses apparent in other LCDs, ie limited viewing angle, poor contrast and motion smearing. So I upped my credit limit and got one. I am delighted with this TV, its hooked up to RGB inputs from DVD and Sky as well as conventional RF analogue feed. Picture in all cases is exceptional with no perceptable background noise and very good low level detail. This is particularly noticeable in comparison to my JVC LCD TV which loses a good amount of detail in dark scenes. This one characteristic is a major issue and you should check it out carefully when considering an LCD TV. Picture quality is outstanding, B&O have applied their contrast screen principle to the 6 and whilst peak brightness is not as high as some competitors, the payback is in low level detail as I have said. Sound comes from two rather ordinary full range drivers underneath the screen but the quality of the sound is excellent, smooth with a nice bass response and means the TV could also be used as a perfectly acceptable music source in smaller rooms. So with an exemplary performance in the picture and sound departments, the 6 frustrates slightly in its user interface. In an attempt to simplify things, B&O sometimes throws the baby out with the bathwater and sends you running to the user manual for guidance. Control over the aspect ratio is an example, you get 3 options and that's it. There is no 4:3 setting so these pictures will always be slightly cropped and accessing the 3 choices requires several prods of the beautiful remote. Having said that, most of the time, the auto function works fine. Picture controls are also fairly limited which is fine as the picture is so damn good anyway but can leave the compulsive button twiddlers among us a little frustrated. On the input side, RGB scart is present but no component input. There is DVI though and as soon as a DVD player hits the market in the UK with a DVI option, I'll get one and revel in the all digital transfer process (maybe). RGB Scart pictures are superb and whether the DVI option will improve this substantially remains an unanswerable question at the moment. To sum up, I am absolutely delighted with the 6, it is stunning to look at and delightful to watch and own. Friendly and knowledgable service from my local B&O dealer in Chichester completes the ownership experience.

The picture and sound of the Bang & Olufsen Beovision 6 are simply the best that you can get from a LCD at present (IMHO).

You don't have to stare at it dead on to get great pictures. Blacks are black, no 'smearing' of movement like cheaper offerings.

Only downside is that you pay for the engineering and also for the looks and name. I think this will look great in 2, 5, 10 years - their designs just seems to age really well.