Not really asking question here, just want to share some of my experience.
I recently got a Beijing-Matsushita A68LZU185X in pretty good shape, absolutely no burn, not a slightest shadow, the yoke looks like new, only down side is it has small scratches on the right, but can only be seen at certain angles. The scratches might be fixable, I will talk it later.
The main and noticeable difference between these two tubes I think it's the coating.
Toshiba tubes usually comes with some dark-purple-red coating, it looks pretty dark when off, sometimes red under certain angles and lights. The tube itself looks light-grey-yellow without coating.
The Matsushita I believe has transparent coating. The tube itself looks dark-grey-yellow when off.
The dark costing gives Toshiba more contrast (black is more black), and the color temp is on cool side, while Matsushita color temp is on warm side.
Although Toshiba tubes has more contrast, the dark-purple-red coating kinda gives color a dark tint, all color is on the dark or cool side, some colors on Toshiba looks less rich or natural than on Matsushita, especially green and yellow (which is contrary to red and purple). For viewing feeling, Toshiba gives more sharp feeling because of sharp and cool colors, while Matsushita is more soft and gentle (compare to Toshiba) with less contrast.
One more thing about coating, most scratches on tube are usually on coating not to tube itself. If you got noticeable scratches on Toshiba tubes, boom, it's done, either get rid of the whole coating or just ignore it. Because of the dark-purple-red coating, removing or polishing part of the coating will look pretty ugly (noticeable difference when off), and there might be color difference between areas with and without coating when gaming.
To Matsushita tube, from what I can tell, it has transparent coating, its main purpose is protecting the tube, I believe, removing or polishing coating makes unnoticeable difference, which means if you got light scratches on the tube, you can safely remove it by polishing the coating. I already removed some very light scratches (like those scratches leave shadow on the tube when you shine flashlight to it) by using some scratch removal wax. The scratches I mentioned earlier need more time to polish (by hand with care, no tools), I believe it's fixable eventually, since removing the transparent coating makes no difference, unlike the dark-purple-red coating on Toshiba serves as an important character for color and image.
Edited:
since it's bumped, so I make some correction here, on Matsushita it's not coating, it's actually a piece of transparent film glued on the tube.
The Beijing-Matsushita A68LZU185X
I do actually have a question here, what's the potentiometer on the yoke for?
I recently got a Beijing-Matsushita A68LZU185X in pretty good shape, absolutely no burn, not a slightest shadow, the yoke looks like new, only down side is it has small scratches on the right, but can only be seen at certain angles. The scratches might be fixable, I will talk it later.
The main and noticeable difference between these two tubes I think it's the coating.
Toshiba tubes usually comes with some dark-purple-red coating, it looks pretty dark when off, sometimes red under certain angles and lights. The tube itself looks light-grey-yellow without coating.
The Matsushita I believe has transparent coating. The tube itself looks dark-grey-yellow when off.
The dark costing gives Toshiba more contrast (black is more black), and the color temp is on cool side, while Matsushita color temp is on warm side.
Although Toshiba tubes has more contrast, the dark-purple-red coating kinda gives color a dark tint, all color is on the dark or cool side, some colors on Toshiba looks less rich or natural than on Matsushita, especially green and yellow (which is contrary to red and purple). For viewing feeling, Toshiba gives more sharp feeling because of sharp and cool colors, while Matsushita is more soft and gentle (compare to Toshiba) with less contrast.
One more thing about coating, most scratches on tube are usually on coating not to tube itself. If you got noticeable scratches on Toshiba tubes, boom, it's done, either get rid of the whole coating or just ignore it. Because of the dark-purple-red coating, removing or polishing part of the coating will look pretty ugly (noticeable difference when off), and there might be color difference between areas with and without coating when gaming.
To Matsushita tube, from what I can tell, it has transparent coating, its main purpose is protecting the tube, I believe, removing or polishing coating makes unnoticeable difference, which means if you got light scratches on the tube, you can safely remove it by polishing the coating. I already removed some very light scratches (like those scratches leave shadow on the tube when you shine flashlight to it) by using some scratch removal wax. The scratches I mentioned earlier need more time to polish (by hand with care, no tools), I believe it's fixable eventually, since removing the transparent coating makes no difference, unlike the dark-purple-red coating on Toshiba serves as an important character for color and image.
Edited:
since it's bumped, so I make some correction here, on Matsushita it's not coating, it's actually a piece of transparent film glued on the tube.
The Beijing-Matsushita A68LZU185X
I do actually have a question here, what's the potentiometer on the yoke for?
Last edited:
