The Sencore CR7000 CRT tester/restorer...

[drh4683]

I've gone in a CRT tester craze. I thought I'd be good enough with just a Sencore CR70 that I recently bought. While that is an excellent device, I decided to add another toy to the TV test equipment collection by going right to the top of the food chain. Thats where the Sencore CR7000 comes in. Ive known about these for a long time but they were never affordable as I clearly remember seeing these sell for well over $1000 up until about a couple years ago on ebay. Now that CRT's are considered dead/obsolete technology it goes without saying that essentially all electronic products that require some sort of display now use LCD over CRT's. That change seemed to have taken place quite rapidly and it was about Christmas of 2007 when I realized CRT's were basically dead.
With all that said, Sencore last marketed their final CRT tester/analyzer in 2009, the CR7000 which was originally introduced in 1997. Throughout the 13 year production run, Sencore was selling these for a steep $1999.95. Sencore obviously stopped making them for a reason: Nobody was servicing CRT's anymore, no need to keep building CRT related equipment...
So now the prices for these on ebay have fallen significantly. While still expensive, you can get one of these in nice shape with all the adapters, manuals etc. in mint condition on ebay for around $300-$400.
I've heard nothing but good things about this instrument and the set up manual shows virtually every CRT ever made, so a 21FJP22 for example can be tested on this tester using the wire lead/universal clip adapter (just like the older CR70).
Set up is also a snap from what I can tell and they are very effective on restoring even the worst condition CRT's with basically the touch of a button. Everything is automatic. Being Sencore, its a very high quality rugged instrument. An added plus is that its also made in the USA, but most if not all Sencore products still are which is very nice to see.
The runner up to the CR7000 is the B&K 490B which uses three analog meters, where as this Sencore uses three individual LED bar scales.
Anyone else have one of these or have tried one? Im looking forward to trying this thing out.