I promised awhile ago I would review some monitors, I figured I should use this thread as a place to put some of my thoughts. Since all of my monitors in my gameroom now, are brand new out of box or as close to new as possible...I think I can inform anyone with questions on quality as far as the models I have.
Nanao:
As most of you know Nanao makes an all around amazing monitor. Everything about them is as close to perfect as I have seen, in my gameroom or any arcade I have ever been to.
I have a nanao ms9 low rez model and an nanao tri-sync.
The tri-sync does vga better than a damn computer monitor, the colors are very rich and bright, the geometry is perfect, there is ZERO blooming even when the brightness is turned all the way up. All the controls for the monitor are doen digitally almost like a pc monitor, which is a very nice bonus (much better that turning pots all day). As far as I know these monitors only come in blast cities. Unfortunately they are no longer in production. If you EVER get a chance to get one of these (without burn in) I would go for it no matter what the cost, this is the best arcade monitor ever made.
The nanao ms9 low rez is another fantastic monitor, it was used in tons of japanese cabs, mine is currently in one of my astros. Like its more advanced tri-sync brother it does colors and geometry perfectly, it actually out performs the tri-sync in low rez mode. Again, this monitor is no longer in production.
Neo-Tec:
I own two neo-tec low rez 25" monitors, both of them are flawless as far as low rez goes. The colors are actually a little richer than even the nanao's, however they do bloom just a bit if the contrast is all the way up (higher than anyone would set it for confortable viewing). Both of the monitors have perfect geometry. Really probably the best american monitor I have played on, actually prefer it greatly over the wells and gardner low rez models. You can have these monitors shipped to your door from their website, which is always a plus.
Makvision:
I just recently purchased a makvision 27'' tri-sync tru-flat monitor for one of my astros. The picture tube is seriously completely flat, which looks awesome sitting in an astro. It is equipped with a wei-ya chassis, and an Phillips tube. I greatly prefer its high rez vga mode over the low rez performance. There are some noticeable geometry issues on my monitor, which is most likely a result of the completely flat tube. This is frustrating to me because these monitors are not cheap, and having any noticeable issues from a brand new monitor is unacceptable. I was able to tweak most of it out but I had to make adjustments on the chassis itself. Overall its great for ikaruga and under defeat in vga, but its low rez leaves a little to be desired. I actually am not interested in most of the newer japanese cabinets because most of them started using the wei-ya monitors...I don't think they make a product that is worthy of the newer cabs prices.
One monitor I can strongly recommend not buying is 8-liners:
I do not recommend these monitors. I purchased one of their 25'' standard rez monitors and the overall quality was very low. Plus their was a very annoying interference issue which I was never able to get rid of. The colors bloomed even at very low brightness and the geometry was pretty bad. The price may be tempting but its not worth it, trust me.
