My RCA XL-100 19" set, which I purchased new over four years ago, can go from no picture to one so bright it could damage the CRT (if not buckle or otherwise distort the shadow mask), or blow a fuse, if not ruin the power supply. The set has the CTC-185 chassis. Have had no problems whatsoever with the circuitry. Picture is absolutely beautiful on cable, and the sound isn't bad either. Someone said in this forum, or perhaps it was in a post to one of the Google repair forums, that the CTC185 may have been the last chassis RCA manufactured in this country, when RCA's main plant was in Indianapolis, Indiana. If this is true (and even if it isn't), I will keep my set indefinitely, as long as it works as well as it does now.
I am very sorry to read of all the problems some of you have been having with Sony Wega sets. To read the advertising pitches being made for these sets, one would think Wega was one of the best CRT-based TV sets on the market. After reading some of the complaints being lodged against Wegas here, however, I am inclined to disagree. If I should get another TV (after the extended warranty on my RCA expires), believe me, it won't be a Sony Wega, at least not until the problems with these sets are identified and resolved. I don't want a TV with a picture I cannot watch and with poor sound (as at least one of you said you had).
I was all but amazed to read in one of the posts to this thread that some recent Sony TVs have Gold Star CRTs. I thought "Zenith" was the only company (?) whose TVs, which are made by GS these days, had GS CRTs in them! What next? Which of the remaining Japanese TV makers will be the next one to put off-brand CRTs in their sets?
One poster here said he had a Sony XBR, the CRT in which was "slowly dying" after 14 years. I'd say that was a very long life for a modern CRT. Many of today's sets go only a few years before the tube goes West (Gold Star-built "Zeniths" are notorious for this; the CRTs in these sets will short or otherwise become defective after only a year or two). Moreover, I recently heard of one RCA 27" set, purchased new in the late '90s, that blew a CRT after only two years. Given these examples, I'd say, again, that any CRT made in the last 15 years that is just now starting to go bad has had a very long life. The tube in that XBR must be really well-made, like the CRTs in older B&W and color sets. Time was when it wasn't at all uncommon to hear of a CRT (b&w or color) going strong after 20 years. Unfortunately, however, we may never see those days again.
