Dell and Samsung are two excellent companies but once again...it all depends on if you really need that perfect contrast ratio. Some people like me don't care that much anyway.
I just bought a new monitor last month. From what I've seen, 700:1 is like the average contrast ratio. Also try to get something that is 8ms or lower.
As for the "best" LCD monitor company...there simply isn't one. Pretty much all the companies that everyone stated in the previous posts are good companies to look into.