It seems that many reels are problematic.
Sl30SH (and the 20) have a common problem that regularly causes failure and yet they are still popular and often recommended.
Abu quality has gone downhill; presumably the result of a concerted effort to increase profit margins which can rarely be done without sacrificing build quality.
Penn reels, from what I understand, appear to live in the "Made in the USA" camp, in which case they tend to be highly thought of, or the "not made in the USA" camp.
I often hear 'cheap crap made in China' or similar comments, which is a little baffling since some excellent stuff comes out of that country. Some junk comes out as well, granted, but ironically my SL30SH reels (one of which blew up spectacularly mid-cast 2 months into ownership from new) are made in Thailand according to the stamp on the reel foot and they have a very serious design flaw which has absolutely nothing to do with country of origin. Does Thailand instill greater end product confidence than China ?
Akios have their work cut out for them since they are competing with big players who have the market more or less sewn up. They offer seriously good products at very aggressive prices but loads of folks won't go near anything unless it has Penn, Diawa or Abu stamped all over it. They took a great base product and built it tougher, which is all Abu had to do in the first place. The minute they started trying to shove higher retrieve ratios out there without building stringer gearing they were doomed (just my opinion).
I think perception and bias has a lot to do with things these days. If enough folks say that item X is great, it becomes great, whether it is or not. The same can be said if enough people say something is crap.
I love my Akios reels and will be buying more of them. I hate my SL30SH reels, but even if I loved them I would still be highly unimpressed with one failing just a few weeks from new, which would swing my perception and I would tell everyone I know, and if enough people repeat it...
The bottom line as far as I can see is that there are more people out there prepared to spend £150 on a reel than there are who will (or who can) spend £300 on one, so manufacturers have to come up with methods of building products down to an acceptable price to the consumer.
Would all the SL30SH fans out there be willing to pay double or triple for their reel if it arrived in a single piece machined aircraft aluminium cage ?
For everyone who says they'd pay for quality, loads of others expect it built into their kit regardless of its price or country of origin and you simply can't make and sell something for £150 that costs the same to build as a £300 item.
By and large the above manufacturers make and sell a lot of their respective end product(s) and the failure rate is probably very low; well within typically manufacturing tolerances I would imagine. The internet, being what it is, fosters an environment where horror stories spread quickly and it doesn't take long before all reels in a particular model range or even all reels from a particular manufacturer are branded as crap. Refer back to "if enough people repeat it, it becomes fact".
I'm not excusing or condoning manufacturers who produce poor products, but I think that realistically there will be far more satisfied than dissatisfied customers out there of current products from Abu, Penn, Daiwa et al
You can't survive if your products consistently fail at a high rate. I just think today's technology allows everyone to hear about the failures more easily and, as we all know, every story grows with the telling.
A mate of mine has a brand spanking Abu and he absolutely loves it. Another mate gave me a Made in Sweden mag high speed reel that he couldn't get along with after someone 'tuned' it to the point where it nested every cast (all brake blocks removed and all but two of the magnets removed). As a result, he won't touch Abu reels with a barge pole and refused to try it even after I'd replaced the brake blocks and magnets. It now casts beautifully, but his perception has been altered by a bad experience and nothing anyone can do will change that now. In fact, this perception extends beyond the manufacturer and his entire attitude towards multipliers in general has gone downhill.
There's nowt queerer than folk...
Just thinking out loud here - none of this is directed at anyone, or at any particular product.
I'll shut up now and get my coat...
