I honestly wasn’t sure that it would ever happen, but Panasonic finally returned to the U.S. television market this fall and I was — perhaps excessively — excited. Even though Panasonic TVs have been available in Europe for a while (and selling very well), it’s been more than 10 years since they’ve graced this side of the pond after the company ended production of its plasma TV line. For us videophiles who loved those Panasonic plasmas of old, it’s been long time coming, but the company is back with both the Z95A OLED and the W95A mini-LED. And they’re already on sale during Cyber Week for up to 33% off.
Panasonic has a long pedigree in the world of TVs. Not only did it produce the best plasmas the planet Earth has seen — even better than the Pioneer Kuro, according to many of us — but a string of excellent CRT displays before that. It stood alongside the likes of Sony Trinitron, Toshiba, and ProScan (a premium sub-brand of RCA). It’s a lot to live up to, but so far it’s delivered.
Even right out of the box, the Panasonic W95A has extremely accurate, natural color in Filmmaker mode. HDR hits around 1,300 nits peak brightness — not a groundbreaking feat, but enough to hold up in most bright viewing situations. A close competitor, the Sony Bravia 7, gets about 500 nits brighter, but even during Cyber Week sales, it’s also a couple hundred dollars more expensive.
It’s fantastic to see Panasonic back in the U.S. market, and with a sale on such a great-performing set. As Caleb Denison said in his review of the W95A: “This TV is straight-up beautiful. If you appreciate the finer things in life — if you see movies as art as much as you do entertainment — I think the W95A delivers the goods.” And for a $1,200, 65-inch TV, that’s a pretty strong statement.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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