My 19” LaCie Electron Blue IV is in need of repair. Before spending money on repair, however, maybe I should consider a new monitor instead.

Are there any LCD monitors available in the $500 or under price range that will perform as well as my LaCie (when it was working properly) and can be calibrated with my Eye One 2?

I made a modest effort to find a good, low cost LCD replacement for my rapidly fading Electron IV. Looked at every monitor I could find in BestBuy, CircuitCity, etc. Most suffered from moderate to severe directional issues, and they all were too bright, and fiddling with the controls suggested I could not expect really good calibration. Wound up with a NEC2690, which serves me fine. It looks better than the Electron IV ever did for most of the years I owned it. Took a little getting used to, and I had to boost the ambient light in my work area to make the screen a good predictor of what prints would be like.

BTW couldn't find anybody who could work on the Electron IV, a couple shops said it was impossible to even get a service manual. One guy was kind enough to "see what he could do" but he deferred after a few minutes of poking at the menu keys...apparently there is some special service mode that can be invoked from the front panel controls. He couldn't find it. The Big Box service centers just gave me a flat No.

How old is it?

For a CRT, the life span is about 3 years, so I read. After that, calibration can be a problem.

Regarding LCDs, I wouldn't go for the bargain basement.

Maybe check out refurbished cinema displays. Just be careful you don't get a very old one.

20" cinema display 500$

23" 750$

refurbished.

Ask which generation they are.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...lm=CertifiedMac

I recently replaced my ~4-year-old LaCie Electron Blue with a new NEC LCD monitor (out of your price range, though, I'm afraid). Side by side, I found that the old LaCie was producing a *much* fuzzier image than the new LCD. I don't know whether it was worse to begin with, or, more likely, something in it had gotten slowly out of alignment over the years.

Given my experience, if your CRT is of similar age to mine, I'd recommend ditching the old CRT and getting a new monitor. Unless you don't mind looking at fuzzy images... Or at least see if you can compare it side-by-side with a new monitor and see if you have the same problem.

Lisa

Most budget LCD monitors will not equal the quality of your Lacie CRT. It's time to step up. Besides, you don't want to sit in front of all that radiation anymore now that you don't have to.

I'd forgotten it, but that was exactly my experience when I replaced my beloved old 21" Trinitron with the NEC 2090uxi. It was so striking that I marveled that I hadn't gone blind peering at that old CRT.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Same here. I have an older LaCie Electron blue 22 CRT and I just got a new LaCie 324 LCD to work with the new Mac. When I turned the new one on I was amazed at how crisp and clean it looked next to my old CRT. That's when I realized the old one was wearing out. Talk about dull and fuzzy!! (The CRT, not me! )

Now I have to get another 324 for my other computer. Damn!

Hi,

There is more to monitors than just sharpness. LCDs are always sharper than CRTs but they may or may not have better color. Cheap CRTs are normally employing TN displays. Common wisdom says that IPS or MVA displays would be a better choice.

Best regards
Erik

Well, as for that, for serious color work it's hard to beat the NEC xx90 series monitors on a price-performance basis. But as Lisa mentioned, they're out of the stated price range.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Isn't 1990SX/SXi priced exactly 499$ in US???

Thanks for the helpful replies. Based on this advice, I decided to have my LaCie repaired locally by a television repair shop. I couldn’t find anyone within a couple hundred miles that repairs CRT monitors. My TV repair shop said that they can repair the most serious problem, where occasionally the screen goes blank except for a very thin, very bright white line horizontally across the center of the screen. They can’t do anything about the inability of my monitor to use high resolution and refresh rates, however.

So, for about $100, I’m hopeful that my LaCie will be usable again. I think $100 is a good investment, but it would not be worth much more, which precluded shipping my monitor to another repair facility.

If it turns out that my LaCie isn’t repaired adequately, or when it dies, then I’ll investigate recommendations for a replacement. The NEC xx90 series of monitors appears to be a very good place to start.

Once again, thank you for the helpful advice.

It should be, but on a very quick search recently I was unable to find one that was not the SV version (more expensive, includes calibration puck and Spectraview software).

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net