Product Reviews

Sony MFM-HT75W Monitor-TV

We think you’ll be impressed as we were with the performance and clarity of the Sony MFM-HT75W TV/Monitor. This 17”-diagonal widescreen monitor does double duty as a television as well. With a very affordable price of $539 it wins our Best In Class Award for performance and price.

The widescreen display has a native resolution of 1280x760 and will take up about 15-inches side-to-side on your computer desk. With a built-in NTSC TV tuner you'll be able to watch your favorite programs but you'll need to purchase an HDTV tuner to take advantage of that mode. If you like watching television while working on the comput- er, you love the PIP (picture-in-picture) feature of the MFM-HT75W. The 800:1 contrast ratio and Sony’s XBRITE tech-

nology produces an extremely impressive image in both modes.

The monitor provides SRS WOW audio with two 3-watt side speakers and a 5-watt subwoofer. Inputs for the system include VGA, composite, S-Video and component RGB while you can use the headphone jack for private listening. When you consider the price of the Sony MFM-HT75W for both TV viewing and computer operations, we think you’ll be pleased with the monitor’s per- formance. More information on the system is available at www.sonystyle.com.

Tivoli Audio iPAL

First impressions are not always the best ones. When we took the Tivoli Audio iPAL out of its box, we thought that it was simply a mono speaker for our iPod. Until we actually plugged it in and began to play music did we finally realize what a rich and vibrant sound the iPal produced. It’s still in mono but when you’re not directly in front of the speaker it sounds better than many high-priced stereo systems we’ve heard and wins our Editor’s Choice Award for quality and uniqueness.

The $129 iPal does a great job for other devices like a notebook or another brand of MP3 player in addition to the AM-FM receiver for local radio station reception. The unit is around 6-inches high and 4-

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inches deep with a width of 3.75-inches. It only comes in white to match the color of the iPod. The iPal comes with an AC adapter as well as a NiMH battery, which gave us a life of

12 hours of continuous play before a recharge was necessary. You can also purchase another battery, as backup, from the company’s web site for just $20.00

We think you’ll be as impressed by the sound of the Tivoli Audio iPAL as we were. More information on this product and others are available at www.tivoliaudio.com.

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