It's been a long journey, lots of bad monitors/tubes later I was able to source a no-burn, perfect Nanao MS9-SU monitor for my New Astro City.
I originally got this NAC as a bit of a junker from my group buy last summer. I took the hit on this cabinet because I was trying to make sure everyone had at least something decent. This poor NAC monitor had some serious burn-in as well as deep gouges to the anti-glare coating. I figured I could eventually replace it. A couple months later I posted a WTB thread on KLOV asking for a no-burn MS9, found in most mid-late Sega games (Harley Davidson, Lost World, Sega Super GT, Daytona 2, etc.)
I eventually had a guy contact me saying he had what I wanted...however he was in Michigan. He said it had no-burn and it had a nice bright picture. The photos he sent me were hard to tell if it actually had burn, but since he's an Arcade OP I figured he knew what he was talking about (/sigh). So I drove up there. Once I arrived I soon realized the monitor had a shit ton of burn-in. Also he didn't have it powered up as well! I wasted a lot of time and gas. I still ended up purchasing it (at a big discount) and another one he had too. His second MS9 had been dropped on concrete and there were a ton of gouges in the top coat and glass. The only thing I wanted from those monitors were the chassis/remote boards. The tubes were essentially shot.
At that point I had 3 monitors, including the one in the NAC. Ya...not what I wanted.
Anyway skip to last Wednesday where I revived my thread on KLOV looking for a no-burn MS9-29SU monitor. I was lucky to get a hit from an Arcade OP based out of Louisville. He said he had what I wanted. I was skeptical. I didn't want to get..."burned" again. ;P
He sent me some pictures of the monitor, with image on the screen. The image however was hella blurry. I asked him a ton of questions about it before I left...I didn't want to waste any more time on this. He said it was perfect and that his technician will have it up and running before I pay. I was cool with that.
Well...I bought it. It is perfect....
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The MS9-29SU is more or less a drop-in replacement for most candy cabs and they can be relatively easy to source. The main thing I was looking for was one without any burn! The 29SU (Hitachi tube) is also slightly flatter than the original MS9-29S (Toshiba tube), so there will be a slight gap in the top center of the display bezel. It's minimal and imo, the monitor is as good as the Toshiba JP original spec monitor.
I'm super pumped to finally get around to turning my junker NAC into a diamond.
Ya...good times.