BC has been very pro-active about customer support in my case. I often hear from them and have had lengthy conversations on many subjects. I know of no other media manufacturer that has anywhere near that level of support. They are genuinely interested in their products.
Crystalline is a very colorful, glossy canvas that yields exceptionally rich looking prints not just for a canvas for any type of media. It's gorgeous in the right light.
But I personally do not like the strongly polarized canvas surface weave (which is typical of most current canvas products) because of certain esoteric issues with surface reflections that affect my on-the-wall competitiveness in certain galleries using certain lighting arrangements. That particular weave makes the canvas very stretch-friendly, at a cost in surface issues. But many people like it. It is theoretically possible to display it without glazing, coating, or any surface protection as long as that occurs in relatively benign environments. But for hotels, public areas, and any place where there exist maids with Windex bottles and rags, survival on the wall will be very brief. The tiniest drop of Windex or almost any cleanser will drill a millimeter-wide white hole in the unprotected emulsion. Back in the day when the surface texture and lower thickness were more to my liking I used a lot of it, with coating applied, and to this day I am impressed by how good those older pieces look on display.
As for printing, I found it necessary to advance and cut and discard about 6 to 8 inches of media before printing when my 8300 printer had been idle for more than about 15 minutes, otherwise the curl that would develop in that the beginning of the print might cause head swipes. Also, there was always small to sometimes large problem with head swipes along the edges due to edge curl-up that would develop over short idle periods. My strategy was to print as much as possible per session, with minimum delay between prints, to avoid those problems which only occur at the very beginning of each printing session. As long as the printer keeps going, those initial swipes will not occur.
These days I mostly stick with thinner media that exhibit little or none of the problems mentioned. "Hand feel" is of zero interest to me, as I only sell framed pieces. The extra hassles generated by thick, curl-prone media have no payoff for me. I don't know exactly the cause, but since switching to more manageable media (and also upgrading to the latest firmware) my printheads have now reached impressive old age while still going strong, and in spite of heavy, almost daily printing my current maintenance tank has been in place for over a year, auto head cleanings are rare, and print quality is everything it was over 1000 days ago. When the time comes there is a special place reserved in the highest rungs of heaven for that printer.