19" monitor prefs why do you love your G07s?

PrairieDillo

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So I typically have worked with K7000 19" monitors as well as the 25" variants.
As long as the tube is strong I can usually get it looking really nice and tuned to perfection with all of the adjustments that come with them.

I just started working on a few GO7's and I find that they seem to have much less adjustments so it's very hard to get them perfectly aligned and the black levels as perfect. The do seem to have less problems and are built like tanks.

EZ-20s look really nice but they are a pain in the ass to cap with the funky cage and way more caps than the other 19"

What are your preferences on 19" monitors? Once one is working 100% fine do you think one has a significantly better picture than others? I'm curious about the merits of different monitors. Andrew just showed me the differences between the Amp and the 6100 recently and that was very educational.
 
Sure I have a perfectly Zero Burn K7201 that's just been capped and looks perfect.

Price?

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My money's on the G07. Easy to work on, good looking picture. Sturdy. Takes a tube swap nicely.

I've been swapping out tubes on those like crazy lately. Building up my army or burn free G07's. You know, because the guy with the most at the end wins.
 
I did a crapload of tube swapping/generic replacement chassis testing/yoke swapping about 6 years ago. I came to the following conclusions (your results may be completely different so take with a grain of salt) Ordered by my perceived picture quality.


1) Sanyo 20EZ: Really great sharp picture with just enough blending to not be grainy, no strange blooming/warping/color changes as the video signal changes == great power supply. Biggest pain to remove/cap. Hard to diagnose issues. Requires high impedence yoke/10 pin makes it hard to do a off-the-street picture tube w/yoke swap.

2) K7xxx series: Really good image, some issues with power supply. Easiest to swap off-the-street newer (1990s+) tubes with attached yokes, same connector, drop in and go! (low impedence, 8 pin) Small compact boards with every image control imaginable.

3) Hantarex MTC900e: Really good image, every image control, tons of caps :( noisy flybacks, stupid proprietary connectors. Super easy to swap off-the-street older (1980's Emerson/Orion) tubes with attached yokes. Swap the yoke connector, drop in and go. (10 pin/low impedence)

4) JennShin low impedence replacement chassis (once sold by 8liners about 7 years ago, no longer available except in bulk from China). Every image control, really good image, Super easy to drop in off the street tubes matching a MTC900e chassis. Non standard input connector but standard yoke. Does have some small power supply issues like screen dimming with too bright a picture during a transition, but nowhere near as bad as the WeiYa's

5) K4900: Acceptable image, fair image control, standard yoke connector. Hard to find tubes w/attached yokes as is 10 pin/semi-high impedence (49 vs. 56 ohms) and had 2 different yoke variations, therefore hard to find it in a off-the-street TV set. Tend to be really affected by temperature causing loss of HSync.

6) K4600: Sharp but almost too sharp image--no 'blending' of pixels so seems grainy vs. sharp. Really low impedence (8 ohm) means hard to find off the street tubes w/attached yokes to drop in, but uses standard yoke connector. VERY limited controls to adjust image. A pain to get in and out with the daughter cards and clamp--especially in 13" K4700 version.

7) G07: Softer image, usually geometic issues even after the capacitor fixes (trapezoidal or keystone bends). Limited controls. Non standard yoke connector. Hard to find replacement tubes with yokes due to high impedence yoke. Easy to re-cap. A pain to replace the fuse.

8) WeiYa low impedence replacement chassis (now sold by 8liners and a few other suppliers). Every image control, Acceptable image (more issues with power supply bending image, changing color based on screen content), harder to find geometically clean tubes it can work with without geo issues, Super easy to drop in off the street tubes matching a MTC900e chassis. Non standard input connector but standard yoke.


As you can see, I only like chassis that I don't have to attempt swapping yokes on. I've come close to good pictures but no matter what I can't get everything converged on the edge right, so I'd rather deal with chassis that I can pop in a new tube with yoke and be on my way since I hate burn in.
 
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FYI 4600 does NOT have a standard yoke connector.

I think K7000s are the best so far. Ive seen a few Retrace and (whatever you call C38) go bad..and when they go they take the fly and hot in one gut wrenching pop.


G07s are ok. I do like that the dag wire ISNT soldered to the neckboard. For the older generation, I find the 4900s to be the most reliable.. Ive only had one dead 4900, and I think I broke it. 4600s I just dont like. I have two dead flybacks. What a mess of connectors and cards, and a pain to take apart. Sanyos are decent but kinda a pain to take apart too, and the whole 100v non-standard video,etc.
 
Personally,
I like the K7000 series the best. I like jamma games and I figure if you need to learn how to cap one monitor well, it might as well be one that is found on 19 and 25" games. But they do have their own challenges. Bad flybacks lead to bad HOT and the pots often break on you when you are working on them. And they should have the connectors reflowed since I've heard that the soldering at the time was substandard. But once they are right, the picture is usually pretty nice assuming the tube isn't shot.

ON the flip side, the G07 is a great monitor that seems to hold up for years, but the screen burn of an original one is usually horrible. But I'm not sure if you could ask for a simpler design. If your board isn't suffering from charred marks where its gotten hot over the years, your in like Flynn.

The Sanyo 20EZ is a great monitor. I think it was the first monitor I ever capped. And once you cap one, the picture usually comes to life and looks great. Seems like a very solid monitor all around. But the extra work to to get to the boards is a real pain in the arse.

The K4900s are pretty nice, straightforward, simple, and fairly durable, but can be temperamental much like the G07. All can give you a nice picture if you are willing to cap.

But if you have external problems like a shorted tube going bad, poor convergence, or a pcb connector not making connecition, your never going to get a good pic until you fix the real problem.
 
I think it depends on the game really. As far as the classics go nothing beats a G07. They have the brightest and sharpest picture IMO and the colors also usually seem better (although that could be the tube). Yeah it can be a pain to get it centered but I'm willing to make that sacrifice. Only thing I've noticed with G07's is that I have a few that don't like sitting in certain directions in my basement, they get purity issues and degaussing does nothing for it.

20EZ's are easy to cap, half the time is spent removing it from the monitor, which isnt bad if the monitor is out of the game.
 
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I've had really good success with rebuilding dead G07s and having them come back to life. I think they put out a pretty damn good picture more so than say a 4900. I like working on K7000s too and the 6100 is not even too bad now that I've got a few under my belt. I don't like working on Sanyo type monitors just because of how much of a pain they are to get apart.
 
I put this in general cause I thought it would be less technical and more about what/why people prefer one tube vs another. People covet their GO7's but I don't see that great of a picture difference. A newish K7000 can produce such a nice picture using the contrast and both brightness knobs that I really love tuning a picture on a K7000 vs a G07.
 
the one true thing I've noticed is that I have not seen any completely dead GO7 as apposed to K7000's which commonly just die.
 
I pretty much agree with what others have already stated.

G07's are the easiest to work on, and the most dependable.

The 31 year old G07 in my Galaga cocktail looks like it just was just installed a week ago. The picture is crisp, and zero burn in.
 
Matushita TM-202 look great when they are working. Funky, funky chassis though, and a tube with a different neck connector than anything else.
 
My only complaints are with the 4600 and 4900. The 4600 tubes like to green short, especially when in a cocktail table. The sub boards are a PITA. The 4900 has a hard to find flyback, unless someone has found a suitable replacement for this somewhere. Last I checked, there wasn't one.
 
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