Today and tomorrow (ends 12/9 per the sticker below the TV ... don't know when the sale price began, but I saw it today and it said through 12/9), the Circuit City in Lewisville, Texas has the KF-50XBR800 (GWII) for $3519.98 ... and I think the 60" is $42 hundred something. The salesman says the local competition from Ultimate Electronics, Tweeter, and Best Buy means they sometimes tag things lower than CC's in other parts of Texas.
Make them an offer ... or use it to price-match at Tweeter, which has a 5-year extended warranty for less than CC's 4-year extended warranty (which was one of the two reasons I bought mine at Tweeter -- the other reason was that CC didn't have them in stock yet, nor did the Tweeter across the street in Lewisville, so I went to the Tweeter in town that DID have one on the floor -- and bought it).
I bought mine at the Tweeter at Southlake, TX (past Grapevine, off of 114, toward Roanoke), my salesman's name is Tom Justin, and he has been very good re: working with me on testing the TV in the store (he's pretty knowledgeable, too, but appreciated the knowledge I brought to the store with me), and getting the replacement TV (not in the warehouse yet, though), due to the green circle of bad pixels I recently noticed. He told me per my phone call from CC that he's going to knock $80 off my Tweeter bill (I paid $3599), per their 60-day low price guarantee, to match today's CC price.
If you go to the Southlake, TX, Tweeter, ask for Tom and tell him Eric Weiss sent you.
The GWII was the hands-down winner for out-of-the-box brightness and sharpness compared to the other RPTVs near it: a Hitachi UWX, last year's Sony 57HW40, this year's Sony whatever-the-number is, and an RCA. I compensated for the smaller XBR size by standing further away from the other TVs, but it was obvious that the XBR was sharper and more detailed on HDNet (crystal-clear lettering) and the ICE AGE DVD (progressive input) they were playing. Yes, it fell short when it came to the cave scenes with low contrast -- that grayish haziness/lack of contrast -- but in the outdoor snow scenes of ICE AGE the XBR's picture jumped off the screen in comparison to the others -- this TV did better in the bright store lights than these other TVs' (anti)glare screens.
I am sure that if CC had had the Samsung 507, it would have looked great, too. But they don't/didn't.
Make them an offer ... or use it to price-match at Tweeter, which has a 5-year extended warranty for less than CC's 4-year extended warranty (which was one of the two reasons I bought mine at Tweeter -- the other reason was that CC didn't have them in stock yet, nor did the Tweeter across the street in Lewisville, so I went to the Tweeter in town that DID have one on the floor -- and bought it).
I bought mine at the Tweeter at Southlake, TX (past Grapevine, off of 114, toward Roanoke), my salesman's name is Tom Justin, and he has been very good re: working with me on testing the TV in the store (he's pretty knowledgeable, too, but appreciated the knowledge I brought to the store with me), and getting the replacement TV (not in the warehouse yet, though), due to the green circle of bad pixels I recently noticed. He told me per my phone call from CC that he's going to knock $80 off my Tweeter bill (I paid $3599), per their 60-day low price guarantee, to match today's CC price.
If you go to the Southlake, TX, Tweeter, ask for Tom and tell him Eric Weiss sent you.
The GWII was the hands-down winner for out-of-the-box brightness and sharpness compared to the other RPTVs near it: a Hitachi UWX, last year's Sony 57HW40, this year's Sony whatever-the-number is, and an RCA. I compensated for the smaller XBR size by standing further away from the other TVs, but it was obvious that the XBR was sharper and more detailed on HDNet (crystal-clear lettering) and the ICE AGE DVD (progressive input) they were playing. Yes, it fell short when it came to the cave scenes with low contrast -- that grayish haziness/lack of contrast -- but in the outdoor snow scenes of ICE AGE the XBR's picture jumped off the screen in comparison to the others -- this TV did better in the bright store lights than these other TVs' (anti)glare screens.
I am sure that if CC had had the Samsung 507, it would have looked great, too. But they don't/didn't.
