I'm shopping for a new monitor since my main one blew a transformer... thought I'd go for a flat-screen CRT this time, but I still have a choice of aperture grill or shadow mask tube. I've only used shadow mask monitors in the past.

Every review or article I've ever read claims that aperture grill tubes (Trinitron & Diamondtron) are brighter, but looking at them in stores it seems just the opposite to me, regardless of brand (contrast, brightness & color temp tweaked to the same relative values).

I finally found some Viewsonic specs that may explain this... Light Transmission for their shadow mask monitors is listed as 50% while the aperture grill models are about 40%. I'm thinking this may have to do with the anti-glare treatments on the tubes.

Still doesn't explain all those contrary opinions I've read, though. I'm puzzled.
Anybody care to chime in on this?