I am using Viewsonic 19" CRT Monitor (UltraBrite E90f+) and I am very happy with it.
The images are real clear and the Ultrabrite feature can make the things look more clear if you use them.
Samsung monitors are real good too. I purchased Viewsonic for 4 reasons.
1. The monitor was 3000 buks lesser than Samsung.
2. The monitor has additional 1 ultrabirte mode than samsung.
3. It's body was dual tone and had perfect square corners unlike the samsung's round edged corners.
4. According to the comments by lot of users, it seems they liked this Viewsonic more than the Samsung.
Regarding LCD's I have been multimedia designer/programmer and have noticed that images created using LCD monitors sometime will be looking like a bleeding image in CRT. The reason for that is that LCD's give more rich image.
Even though the contrast of 15-LCD is better it can't give the higher resolution of 17-inch CRT and we should give importance to resolution and refresh rate than the contrast.
One more thing I have my SONY home theater woofer (front channel 8-inch)

(Not shielded) near (3-inch) my view sonic and the monitor has no color variation at all.
You can find more about my Sony Home theater in this thread
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19620