Display color issues

Maybe I am missing something here.....using an external calibration package such Spyder Elite software and sensor you calibrate each monitor, including the Macbook screen. You calibrate it screen according to the color gamut, i.e. sRGB, Adobe RGB, it is made to handle. The software will adjust the colors and brightness and create a custom color profile for each screen.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyder5elite/

 

I got a Datacolor Spyder5 Express to improve the colors and match of my 2 Dell monitors. The Spyder 5 Express is an entry-level device but the basic sensor hardware is the same as on the 2 higher-end Spyder5 models which have better software. I was considering before the X-Rite i1Display Pro but it is overkill for me and twice as expensive. The X-Rite Colormunki Smile is a bit less expensive but not as recent a design as the Spyder5 series which was released a year ago.

I had previously adjusted the monitors with a manual calibration (by eye) using the procedure in System Preferences / Displays / Color / Calibrate and got an improvement in color and match but I wanted to get it better. After the Spyder 5 Express calibration using the maker's software, which takes less than 10 minutes per monitor, the color is definitely better and the match is almost perfect. My monitors are inexpensive but I really like the image quality they give, they have a gamut of 72 to 82%.

I also calibrated an older LCD monitor I sometimes use and got a good match with the Dells. Next I will calibrate an older Windows notebook display and a 40" TV I sometimes hook up to the Mac Mini.

If I had premium quality monitors and a good camera and wanted to print lots of photos I would consider the X-Rite i1. Currently the Spyder5 Express is a good choice for me, and it works better than I expected.

I am trying to see if I can do an even better calibration using the public domain DisplayCAL software - previously called DispCalGui - which is said to produce great results, however I'm having problems getting it to run properly. It takes at least 30 minutes per monitor and some people like to set it to run a few hours to get the best calibration possible.