Picture tubes--rate them...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by andy

I've never been a fan of the low focus voltage CRTs that were popular in many of the early color portables. A really strong tube looks decent (still not as good as a normal CRT), but they lose focus very early in life. Sets using them usually don't even have a focus control. There were usually 3 voltage taps that you could plug a jumper into. The settings were blurry, less blurry, and more blurry. Fortunately, they stopped making them by the mid 70's. Even the late model Portacolors switched to a high focus voltage CRT with a voltage divider connected to the anode.

I like the way you described the focus settings.
I owned an early model CTC22, that was only a few months old, when I got it and was amazed, with the picture. It was razor sharp!
I never was impressed with the picture on the CTC36, or the CTC53.
As said before, When the CRT's aged, it was harder to get sharper focus.