The 1942 is better than the 1940. I've seen the 1942 in action and it's really not that bad, definitely a little nicer than the similarly-cased Korean 1084's. The 1960 was the best, most expensive and probably had a better tube.
A 14" or 20" Sony broadcast CRT is the absolute pinnacle for games - blows away those old monitors, or any other CRT, and (at 14") will keep the screen size authentic. Personally, I don't like blowing up old low-res games on big LCDs, so I hear ya there.
Another idea would be to run Workbench using a graphics card on a CRT or LCD (something quality, like an Eizo, older Iiyama, etc), with a 14" Sony PVM/BVM plugged into the RGB port. Best of both worlds.
If you want an original C= monitor, don't want to upgrade the machine much over stock, and have one monitor for everything, hold out for a 1960.