I'm James :D
I'm a music producer. I've got loads of exciting projects lined up this year!
I l...
I'm James :D
I'm a music producer. I've got loads of exciting projects lined up this year!
I love music, friends & driving!
www.myspace.com/ja mesmargetts
Jx
Member since:09.11.2005
Reviews:31
Members who trust:16
Something came to my attention today after reading a review by a fellow Ciao member. He mentioned he'd spent months comparing Plasma TV models, as had I with LCD monitors, trawling through 'response times' and 'contrast ratios' and better and better resolutions.
In the end, he simply gave up, headed down to the shops and picked the one he judged looked best in the showroom. I thought this was so refreshing, as all too often we get hung up on specifications and comparisons and you end up swimming round in a descending whirlpool of irrelevant facts and figures.
I am merely lucky that the latter worked out ok for me :D
Indeed, after many weeks of deliberation and intense fund saving (being on a uni loan isn't easy!), I saved enough to purchase two of these babies, which was ideal for my work in music production. I now have two giant screens to work on - one for
arranging and one for mixing - perfect!
So, what made me choose this monitor over the competition? Well, the Apple Cinema Displays are widely regarded as having the best picture quality, unfortunately they are simply way too far out of my price range. The 20" model is almost £600, double the price of this one. It's specs are stunning, however, and I made it a base for comparison, my benchmark that other choices should aspire to. I looked at many different models: ASUS, Dell, NEC, Philips, you name it, I checked it out! Then I found Belinea.
A division of German based, MAXDATA, Belinea wasn't a natural lead to uncover in the flatpanel monitor market. Although they are apparently "market leaders" in their home Germany, I have only ever seen the brand on old, defunkt and small CRT monitors. However, the look of the unit, made me willing enough to look further. To my astonishment, the spec really stacked up against the Cinema displays and on closer inspection actually performs better. While the 102035W only matches the 1680 x 1050 optimal resolution of the Cinema display, it betters it in every other important detail!
I paid a little over £300 for each of the Belinea monitors, whereas the Cinema Displays would have set me back £570 each! At this point it was an easy choice...
While the Cinema Display looks a little more "at one" with itself - being all in brushed aluminium, I'm not shallow enough to spend almost £300 extra, only for that, when it doesn't serve its purpose as well as something half the price. Besides the 102035W is a gorgeous looking monitor anyway! The mounting stand is made of solid metal and is sturdy and heavy enough to support the monitor's weight. The monitor itself is framed in an attractive slim-line black housing, with a silver underframe. The main power on button is a beautiful blue glowing crescent-shape! The whole thing has an air of quality about it.
The four-port USB hub is also extremely useful! With two, I've effectively got an 8-port powered hub, which is priceless these days in the age of digital cameras, audio interfaces, external hard drives, pen drives and so on.
After the monitors were delivered, I unpacked them and was impressed with all the accessories provided. Whilst DVI connectors weren't included which I was a little disappointed about, each monitor package contained:
1x Power Cable 1x Analogue D-SUB connector about 2meters in length 1x Mounting Base with 2x Screws 1x mini-jack Stereo Audio Cable for the monitors built-in speakers 1x Detailed Instruction Manual 1x Driver, Software and Electronic Manual CD
Anyway, what's the picture quality like? In a word - stunning! It simply is stunning. Previously I was using a 17" CRT and the difference is huge. Everything is so sharp, especially using the DVI port instead of the traditional analogue connection. There's no evidence of dead pixels or dark spots. The whole panel is still as bright and vivid as the day I first used it on both monitors!
If you're looking to purchase a large monitor for your professional needs: music production like me, gaming, video editing, anything, I thoroughly recommend these monitors. By normal standards these are expensive, but professionaly they're a steal - and using two has really enhanced my workflow.
If you're unsure, I'd recommend visiting a retailer who stocks these and seeing for yourself! A thoroughly good purchase and even after spending over £600 on two of them, I feel as though I've had great value for money!
Well done Belinea!
PS - I've added some pictures below, but my poor photography skills really don't do these monitors justice!
Pictures of Belinea 10 20 35W
Belinea 102535W Shot1
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