now, back to the post subject at hand. it seems that almost every one who has lumatek are happy with their purchase as are the galaxy and the quantum consumers. as for me, i have all lumatek (42 1000w setups, FYI air cooled hoods are the ONLY way to go to control temp in your room within reason). i am putting in another 16 setups in and have had no problems with any of my ballasts even when used with hortilux bulbs (i currently use plantmax and i have not tried, nor do i care to try, those "fancy" bulbs or any dual spectrum bulbs). so my predisposition is to stick with lumatek. they are powerful, quiet, reliable, cool, and although i do not change the output they are dimmable but it doesn't really matter to me. (just a little more FYI, my electrician has told me that even when you dim the ballast, you need to change the bulb/lamp to the wattage output of the ballast or you will burn up your ballast. so guys, if you are using a 1000w ballast and bulb/lamp and you decide you would like to tone it down a bit to the 600w output, you will need to let your bulb/lamp cool and switch the bulb to a 600w bulb/lamp so as to prevent any damage to you equipment). so i guess i'm looking for any input from the quantum or galaxy users to sway my decision.
also, just to get something off my chest. i have seen several posts on the subject of sticking with magnetic ballasts instead of "e". you probably watch vhs still and listen to 8trck don't you. keep your dinosaur feedback to yourself, this thread is obviously about newer better technology for people who after efficiency and large quality yields. as for the "fixing things yourself"... when you are a running warehouse, that task is on the bottom of the to-do list along with fixing the sink for my wife.
peace