Remember that most monitor default settings (until you get up into the upper $ pro bracket ones) are pre-set to look good in a very highly lit showroom floor. If you operate under that much fluorescent (or mercury vapour - ugh) light then the settings might be right for you :-) Ditto the colour temperature - 9500K is desert sun equivalent. But note if you set your monitor to a reasonable 6500K (lowest settings of 5000K equates to tungsten light bulbs), then anything done at 9500K is going to look "dark." Then there is gamma (even tougher subject), but be aware than Mac runs at different default gamma than PC, so anything created on Mac is going to look "darker" on a PC monitor (assuming both still at default settings). Finally the brighter the CRT the quicker the phosphors burn out - although these days something else may well fail before the phosphors get too dark t use the monitor. But 3 years is not unknown for a heavily used monitor set to max bright. The above is true for CRT type TVs too. There have been many postings about this aspect in the past.