Pioneer Kuro 6010FD & Peerless PLA60 Articulation Mount Review: Finally a reason to never leave the house again.

Pioneer Kuro 6010FD & Peerless PLA60 Articulation Mount Review: Finally a reason to never leave the house again.

Remember the early days of the Sony Wega Trinitron televisions? Sure you do, they were beastly and nearly broke your back and bank account but oh the resolution, color and deep blacks. The Sony Wega representedan evolution of television in which many say was the last time true blacks were ever produced by with such detail and definition. Fast forward to 2008 and the evolution of plasma and LCD and the growing mass marketpenetration of both technologies. Even with the growing popularity of either technology, they are still comparedby many to the old CRT when referring to black levels and proper gray scale and in some cases, the lack of it.

Well I am happy to say that there’s a new sheriff in town….. well at least one in training to take over where the CRT left off.

I recently had the pleasure of having the Pioneer Kuro 6010FD installed in my along with a Peerless articulation mount. The Kuro and mount were installed just in time for the Superbowl and certainly would be a showcase to see the Patriots make history….. Well at least the Kuro performed as expected.

First, lets focus on the Peerless mount that is available in black and silver and accommodates up to a 60 inch flat panel. Installation couldn’t be more easier if you tried and while I always suggest professional installation, anyone handy with tools and the proper equipment can tackle this install. The mount allows you to bring the panel out almost 32 inches from the wall, 180 degree pivot, +10/-5 tilt and retracts to 5 inches from the wall. If you thought an articulating mount was a waste of time I assure you the cool factor will stay with you (and your friends) for years to come. In fact, the “skybox” ,which is what my friends named the TV viewing area where the Kuro and Peerlesswere installed made the disappointing lossby the Patriots seem a little more palpable.

Now onto the star of the show, the Kuro, which means black in Japanese. There have been a number of reviews on the net about this panel so I wont retrace much of what they have said. Instead, I will focus on the principal selling point to this panel which is how much a difference in contract and black levels are apparent in all programming.

The first indicator that this panel is special is when it’s on but with no picture as they screen is almost completely black. Try that with any other panel and you are likely to see more of gray screen or as I like to call it “light black” With any source on this flat panel, it wont take you long to start seeing a significant difference in how your viewing habits change. You will start to search out the darkest scenes possible and go where many panels fear. While I wouldn’t say inky blacks are quite within the realm of this panel, they are pretty close and I can imagine with time, Pioneer will inch closer to that holy grail of CRT like blacks. An offshoot of these tremendous panels is how much more of the “HD” pop comes back that maybe some of us who havebeen spoiled by HD in the last few years have been missing.

Now I must profess that this panel isn’t without some drawbacks which comes mostly when you are viewing in daytime environments. I would suspect though that most owners will be deep in their cave, remote in hand and searching out for the crease in