Is the Trinitron an upgrade?

[Exhuminator]

I ended up getting a 2004 24ish inch Sylvania that turned out to be so noticeably better for SD video that I moved my PS2 over from the Sony WEGA

Funny you should say that. My current retro game center has a Sylvania flat screen CRT that has one hellulva comb filter. Over s-video it looks super crisp and sharp, surprising really. I bought this one as a stop gap back in 2007 and was surprised to see how good the picture was. I had planned on getting a Trinitron but the Sylvania looks so nice I just decided to stick with it. (It does have crappy built in speakers though, but who uses those anyway.)

[CRTGAMER]

My current retro game center has a Sylvania flat screen CRT that has one hellulva comb filter. Over s-video it looks super crisp and sharp, surprising really. I bought this one as a stop gap back in 2007 and was surprised to see how good the picture was. I had planned on getting a Trinitron but the Sylvania looks so nice I just decided to stick with it.

(It does have crappy built in speakers though, but who uses those anyway.)

Many of the last generation CRTs (especially HD CRTs) have decent speakers and even an extra surround sound speaker built in, only possible due to internal space of a CRT TV shell. I supplement my CRTs with an external amp and speakers at the back on both sides where I sit. Keep the internal speakers with surround turned on, a very nice all the way around the room affect. No sound bars blasting from just the front or tiny surround speakers in the back, I want the sound emanating from all corners of the room.

On a side note, how long do people expect their WEGA CRTs to last? I get the impression that the people I got mine from left theirs on 24/7 in the background since they got it back in like, 2004.

The WEGA do have an issue with the power detection chips, there are other models that have a similar issue. This adds to the annoyance that the last of the CRTs with nice flat glass on the tube (especially the HD tubes) also have the dumb "smart chips" that fail due to the power curve just a little off when the Degauss kicks at the startup.

I recently had my SD 32 Phillips fail, but it might be either a fuse or an easy resister desolder and resolder of a replacement. Same principle, the component is marginal and eventually fails at the degauss. As in the Wega twenty dollar repair, I'll post info if my fix works.

The Phillips is fixed, so simple a solder repair. Guide forthcoming.

[Exhuminator]

No way a built in CRT set of speakers can compete with a legit high end 5.1 surround system. "Yeah it's not supposed to." Then don't settle for less.