Akai CFT2726

You may get the impression from me that I somehow hate later era consumer CRTs..... I don't. I just genuinely believe most companies did NOT have the consumer's interest in mind when making these "end of the CRTs" era sets BUT sometimes you find a gem. This Akai? Ignore the "off brand" sounding name and Chinese vibes and you really have a sleeper here. No hype. No reputation. No one gives a crap. The CFT2726. Very generic on paper but my goodness I was blown away by this tube.

Apparently these aren't too common as I've never even heard of this brand. My expectations were VERY low, the timeline of events was something like this. I wiped off a light layer of dust, hooked up a Gamecube over Component and…“Alright let’s see how bad this is…” 

From the moment the power on degauss hit I was genuinely blown away, because the tube is in fantastic condition. This thing was barely used. You can feel it instantly. GameCube just made sense to me. That Mario Sunshine shot says everything. Colors aren’t doing anything weird, no ugly tint, no overcooked saturation. It just looks right. Slightly sharper than older curved sets, but not in that gross “edge-enhanced” way. It still blends enough to feel like a CRT. Scanlines are there, but they’re chill. Not PVM territory, and she's not trying to be. Just a nice, soft consumer look that doesn’t fight the image. 

It’s still a flat tube… You’re not escaping that. If you go hunting for problems, you’ll find them. Geometry isn’t perfect. It’s not razor sharp. Build quality is… fine. Like, you’re not picking this thing up and going “damn this is a tank.”
The biggest problem this CRT has is nobody will ever take it seriously. It says Akai on the front. That alone makes people mentally put it in the “whatever” category. I ALMOST DID. 
This Akai has no business being as good as it is, this is one of those TVs that makes you realize how many good sets got ignored just because of the badge on the front. “gIvE Me MuH TrInItRoN!” 

I chose to list her on facebook Marketplace for $100. I don't regret it but I definitely think about this tube often.
While she was listed I had someone who goes by “SegaSaturn94” message me. He was very curious about the set. He asked for a few photos so he could list it on the CRT DATABASE. See his listing here: https://crtdatabase.com/crts/akai/akai-cft2726

If you stumble into one of these for cheap, you shouldn't overthink it. You GO, TEST, and GRAB IT. If I didn't already have a 27inch tube that fits my needs I probably would have implemented this girl into my collection. Overall? I rate her a 6.3/10. Certified sleeper.