Thanks Wayne,
Thank you for sharing your first hand experience. Do you think the Apple 24" LED would be "passable" as your primary editing station?? I would also be using the i1Pro and ColorMatch with the Epson Exhibition Fiber paper. May I ask how you like the results for printing b&w AND colour? I will be using the Epson 3800. Have you had success with other papers and this combination??
mmmm ... want me to go out on the limb a little here
Let me answer it this way. While the 24" is not my primary editing station, when I am using it I work on the image to completion and printing. When I decide to work on an image at my office, I will complete the edits and output the final print on my Epson 7900 unless I need something larger than the 24" machine. I still do more of this at my home than I do at the office, especially projects that require a lot of computer horsepower, where I print to my 11880. But I don't check my final versions from my office on my home display. So from a quality perspective I don't think the 24" loses anything to my 30" Apple Cinema Display. In fact, the gloss screen seems to match the look of the papers I choose to use (Exhibition Fiber and Hahnemuhle FAB) ... to my eyes anyway.
I printed 2 24x30 portraits today from images of a very skilled studio photographer. He does much of his own printing on Epson printers so the files were really good. The images looked terrific on my Apple 24" LED Cinema display, and matched the output from my 7900 on the FAB paper extremely well. (Love it when the photographer knows what he's doing and uses good color management). One was a terrific black and white of a girl wearing a black dress. Detail of the black bow against the black dress was very subtle .. but screen matched the print very closely.
That aside, I do very little black and white work so this is about the extent of my experience with this particular monitor and black and white.
For me I'm happy. Again, I've used a glossy powerbook for a long time (my new 15" MacBook Pro is my 4th MacBook with a glossy screen) and I prefer them over the matt screen, but that means I'm also used to dealing with reflections.
I've never used a really high end monitor ... perhaps "ignorance is bliss". I do know I've been more than satisfied with the 30" ACD for what I do, and I don't regret trading it for the Apple 24" LED display at the office. One of these days I'll try an Eizo just to see what I might be missing.