lionel@orphan.DEC (Steve Lionel) (12/24/84)
Wayne Miller recently made the comment that the Sony SL-2710 would "soon be replaced" by the SL-HF300. Not quite - while the SL-2710 is one of Sony's older models, Sony still has nothing announced that would be better than the 2710 or 2700. The closest to the SL-2710 you can come is the SL-HFR90 plus HFP-100 adapter. You will get most every feature of the 2710, but you won't get 2X with sound, nor some of the input flexibility. Sony's current catalog describes the 2710 and 2700 right along with the newer models, so I doubt they're on their way out soon. However, I did note a magazine report from the Japan Audio Show (or whatever it was called) where Sony showed a "SL-HF77" with a converted price of about $1250. There were no details, but at a price like that it could well be a replacement for the SL-2700. Wayne also made the comment that all the Beta Hi-Fi VCRs sounded alike. This is, for most people's purposes, correct, but if you look at test results you can see some differences, with the 2700 and 2710 showing a bit better than the other models. The main difference is the rolloff in frequency response above 15KHz; the 2700 is fairly flat all the way across, while the test of the SL-HFR30+HFP-100 adapter I saw showed noticeable (in the chart) rolloff after 15KHz. As I suggested, most people wouldn't notice this at all. These comments don't necessarily apply to other brands - the Sanyo and NEC models don't test quite as well as the Sony models do. Steve Lionel