CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[timeo]

I have a dilemma here. I currently own a 9500LC Ultra with little to no wear on the tubes. This machine runs great but I have the option of picking up a G90 with no wear for about $1700. The G90 is a newer machine but obviously harder to get repaired and find parts for. Any opinions on how the G90 compares to the 9500, would there be any noticeable difference by switching to the Sony? Also, any ideas on what a G90 and a 9500LC Ultra are going for today, I have not tracked prices since I bought my 9500 for $5,000 back in 2004.

Thx

[secstate]

[Spanky Ham]

Sec,
The pricing bottom happens every summer. Enthusiasts tend to do other things during the summer. When fall comes everyone gets back to watching TV and movies. That is when the prices return back to normal. Of course that being said, if Curt offered me $10k for my four Barcos and one G90, then I might be tempted.

[Curt Palme]

[Curt Palme]

[secstate]

[secstate]

[Elaine Benes]

Having seen, setup, and used both a G90 and a 9500LC, the G90 is easily and noticeably better. You will definitely see an improved image, sharper, and brighter, it is IMHO, quite an upgrade.

However, at this late stage of the CRT projector game, you'll be fairly lucky to find someone willing to pay you $1700. for your Marquee...

One caveat, the Marquee 9500LC's I've had have all been non-Ultra's, if the Ultra chassis is a HUGE improvement over the regular, perhaps they are closer to the G90's stunning performance, but I'd be pretty surprised. The G90's electronic astig/focus ability alone enough *for me* to rate it as superior to any other projector I've had...

I'm not normally a Sony fan, but the G90 is simply superb in every aspect of image performance.

[ecrabb]

If the Marquee isn't color-filtered, the color-filtering alone on the G90 would be a significant upgrade.

SC

[CIR Engineering]

Comparing stock projectors performance and setup ability between the 9500LC Ultra and G90, the G90 wins hands down in every category. The G90 has a much better menu system, lenses, flapping, magnetics, bandwidth, and everything else. The G90 does not usually even need to be opened to do a full setup and the Marquee does. Actually, you will need to spend hours with the Marquee open to do the magnetics properly and to adjsut the flapping and set the width coils. You also should use a special plastic wrench to set the width coils on the marquee (though I use an alan wrench wrapped with electric tape).

The G90 is very well built and when you open it up on the ceiling everything stays in. Wires are neatly tied up and well thought out in their placement. The Marquees are rigged together and when you work on them on the ceiling you need to use straps or tape to secure the boards otherwise the deflection and other boards will fall out of the projector while you are working on it. The Marquee has wires running every which way all over the place and it is generally poorly laid out The high voltage block is in the way of everything and you have to let it hang down in your face whenever you need to get into the front of the Marquee.

A stock G90 has better focus (especially in the corners and sides), bandwidth, gamma, brightness, and oeverall a much better image with a few exceptions. The G90 does have a little streaking though and a good condition Marquee 9500 Ultra does not streak. Other than that, the G90 has better performance all the way around in every category.

However, if you are a serious tweaker and you heavily modify a 9500 Ultra you can actually get better bandwidth out of the Marquee than a G90 at this point. Mike Parker's newest VIM and VNB's really up the performance to a new level on the Marquee. The problem is that he may never release the VNB's to the public and the VIM is yet unavailable so the performance is theoretical for the most part now. I have seen Mike's mods running at his place and have a set of his boards installed on one of my client's Marquee's. The upgrades make me wonder which projector I would rather have in my home right now... On the Marquee you also need to swap lenses with lenses from a G90 for best focus, and the focus on the sides and corners of a Marquee will still never be as good as the G90.

The Marquees fail more often than the G90's and usually require more frequent repairs. However, Marquee parts are easily available through Curt or VDC and are not usually too expensive. G90's rarely fail, but if IC421 goes out on the YA board you can't get the part. As posted earlier, the only option is to find a parts G90 and get a new YA board. I usually sell YA boards for between $1000 ~ $1500 and try and keep them in stock, but I don't always have them. That being said, I think the problem is over stated on the G90's as I have never had one of my own client's 421 fail and I service a lot of G90's regularly.

I work with Marquee and Sony projectors often and I strongly prefer the G90 in terms of performance and setup.

craigr

[CIR Engineering]

[perisoft]

[secstate]

[Nashou66]

The Vision Ones and Madigrals I do think came with both Red and Green as did a few other boutique Clones. To truly get the G90 better colors you need a green C from a Marquee or the 1292.

Athanasios

[CIR Engineering]

The G90 only has a partially filtered green and the red is always filtered. G90 used a lighter green that doesn't make Rec709, but gets it closer than clear does. You can change out the G90 light green c-element with the darker one though and then all is well. Or just leave it alone for a brighter picture which is why Sony did that in the first place. I recommend changing to the dark green filter though.

craigr

[CIR Engineering]

[timeo]

Thanks for all the information, tough decision for me as I am not sure it is worth another $700 - $1,000 to switch out the 9500. My 9500 has the GT17 lenses which I thought were the best ones, what lenses does the Sony come with?

[Nashou66]

[dvh99]

stick with your marquee do some mods and it will be just as good as the g90 if not better.
i have never seen a g90 in action but i cannot imagine the g90 to be superior.

[Nashou66]

[Elaine Benes]