ABU is overpriced

I didn't receive it yet, but i expect to pay, yea. Probably around $20.

In Canada as well, and outside of small stuff, nothing is worth buying here in stores. I ordered a 24 met dc in new condition from Japan (off of an auction, not a store) for about $305cad plus $25cad shipping. Here, the reel is $730cad and $840cad with taxes. Like are you kidding me right now? Approaching $1000 for a Metanium. Yea right...

You have a choice of an SLX for $100 from Japan or some $140 Lews. What are you buying🤢 Coming from someone who feels that smoothness leads to weakness. I will seek help, but you're already in line, so right after you.

I can't even tell if you're being serious with this kind of comments. Complete insanity to say the least. As for the Lews comment. If Daiwa and Shimano exists, and their reels can be had for the same price or cheaper (when purchased from Japan), what is the point of a Lews reel? What was the last decade this company has even innovated? As i see it, Lews existance serves only one purpose, and that's selling sub $150 fishing gear to normies/kids/teenagers. In other words, its a brand that survives on selling fishing rods and reels to somebody that doesn't know any better, or doesn't care what they're using. This is Lews for you, and this is why those who care about quality are mostly ignoring the brand, and this will never change in the future. All in all, its not an overlooked brand, but a pointless brand to most enthusiats.

Years ago at this point. Almost all their rods are made in china as well. Years ago, they used to proudly have Made In Japan written on lure packages. Then, when they moved to Vietnam, it was mentioned in tiny leters on the back of the packaging. Now, from the few megabass lures i've purchased this year, its not even mentioned where they are made lol.

Don't you think that when manufacturing moves from a country such as Japan to China, the price should be lowered?

Lets say that Daiwa and Shimano began bitchin' about price of labor, and their weak sauce yen, and moved all their manufacturing to China. You would see that hot Made In China print on the foot of a conquest, a steez, a metanium, etc. Lets assume that the quality control stays the same (if Megabass didn't downgrade their baits quality after moving to Vietnam/China from Japan, i am sure Daiwa and Shimano can do the same, even though it'll be more difficult with reels, obviously), but the price would also stay the same, meaning that a 2024 Steez that costs $750 in the States, would be made in China. Would that bother you?

Well, to me, smoother and longer lasting gear sets is pretty much a priority, especially at the price they're selling these, it ain't no more $20 for a gear set like in the mid 2000 models. When it comes to weight, comfort, etc, they're so samey that there isn't enough of a difference. But yes, different brakes and swappable spools with Daiwa is also a big difference.

If you're saying that this was sarcasm, implying that this is what i've done when comparing the two brands, then that's nothing but stupidity. Just at this moment, i own two 2015 met dc's, 2 met mg dc, aldebaran mgl and have ordered the new met dc 3-4 days ago, which still hasn't arrived. I actually compare the higher end between the two brands instead of sticking to one, and blindly defend it because ShIMaNo Iz BeTTeR.

Kinda, but i don't see why its wrong to mention their strengths and weaknesses, and compare the two. So without ever even trying one, Shimano is automatically smoother and furthest casting of any of your Daiwas. And i am the one trolling here lol. This is the kind of posts i see on reddit all the time, tho, so nothing new.

Yes, but when you add "i got rid of all of my X because of Y", that's nothing but adding fake weight to your argument, just to make it sound like the other brand is so far inferior that its not worth anybodies time. If he had one daiwa, and got rid of it, that's perfectly fine, but if he had ten or more, and you sold em at a bargain because "Shimano is better", he wouldn't have bought them to begin with if this was the case. Literally the two biggest brands. You don't need to pit anything. They're in direct competition trying to out-do each other. As far as i remember, and i only had gen 2 and gen 3 revos, their gear sets are pretty big, so the wear on them being slow does make sense.

The same sarcasm could be applied to expensive reels, but we all have em😱

Nothing, its opinion against opinion. But, to anybody that has tried a newish daiwa reel with their new large teeth gear cut, has most likely noticed the glassy smoothness and the longevity of the gear set itself. These reels have been around for long enough that i would assume most have at least tried them. I also believe that if there was a way to measure smoothness (i believe i've seen a Japanese guy that had a tool that measured vibration felt through the knobs), daiwa would easily win against shimano, and the only two reels that could compete is the anteres and the conquest.

Did you buy all your Daiwas used, in super worn condition, or something? There is no chance that you could use a zillion, jdm or not, and say that a Metanium is smoother. I've had every metanium made (excluding the ones that were made on older platforms than the chronarch d) and the 24 Met DC, and its not even close. They're not rough, but you feel the raspiness, and they're not glassy like all the steezes, zillion, alphas, the new ss air, etc. Feels to me that you've added the "all my daiwas sold off" just to add some weight to your argument, and in reality, you never even had em lol.

As someone who has been using both (more daiwas than Shimanos), i've noticed something in the last five or so years. Back in the 2000s and 2010s, you had a few reels from Daiwa that were universally considered as super smooth. Those reels were the OG Zillion, PX68/SPR, and the Z2020 to name a couple, but in general, most Daiwa reels were considered as "more connected"/"more geary" than almost everything offered by Shimano. Be it the Curado E, Chronarch D, any of the Conquest reels, any of the calais/anteres, any older metaniums, etc. Shimano was the "buttery smooth" retreive reels while daiwa, in most cases, couldn't get to its smoothness, especially when some resistance is applied on the line. This has changed in 2016 when the Steez TW came out with that new style of gearing cut that was introduced into the Daiwa lineup. Since barely any reels back then used the "bigger teeth" style of gearing, 2016 was still a win for Shimano i'd say. But when the Steez CT, and then the Alphas, Zillion, etc were released, this is where i feel like Daiwa has completely won the Smoothest Reel award. The conquest and the anteres line are super smooth, and can easily compete with Daiwa smoothest reels around, but literally nothing else from Shimano can (in my opinion, obviously). The bantams, the metaniums, the aldebarans, the scorpions, they all have this raspy vibration, while even a $150 Alphas feels like glass, with or without tension on the line. My best guess is that this new gearing Daiwa uses is a real game changer, and its what deserves most praise from the company, not t-wing, or some other gimmick like SV Boost. Do you agree, or disagree?

An SLX can do everything a metanium can, so that's not a reason not to release a new chronarch. A chronarch is Made In Japan, and many care about that. Make an aluminum frame & handle side plate reel, that is low profile, comes with an mgl spool, and its guaranteed to be popular. But then again, it'd be competing with the Zillion, and because shimano still uses their crappy micro module gearing, it would lose to a zillion with anyone that is "in the know". I am not a fan of SV either. Literally sold all my SV spools, and are using faster mag v/mag z spools instead.

Meh who needs to sort it out, just have a secondary business selling gear sets😎

I got the 7' MH Daiwa Black Label in 5pc.

As the title says, i just don't get it. From the introduction of the Chronarch ci4+ ages ago, the popularity of this platform dropped like a rock, but with the MGL version, this reel was completely forgotten. This could be a nice reel to compete with the Zillion, but instead, its a completely forgotten platform. Its as if Shimano doesn't want to make it great again because they're worried of it erroding the aldebaran and metanium sales.

I lost an OG slide swimmer 175 in perfect condition on a submerged tree like 3 days ago. Still traumatized😭

I am not sure what this has anything to do with the cast control knob. My 2006 Steez with the OG cast control cap works flawlessly like something that came out in 2024. My 2004 Pixy with the older style non clicking cast control cap works as good as anything released in the last few years, and i even prefer it over the likes of the 21 zillion, which i am big fanboy off of. A clicking cap doesn't make the reel better or worse, its just much better looking because they're more detailed, have a bunch of different designs, and they click.

You have to disassemble the whole thing to get to them, so i wouldn't say that its easy, but its a fishing reel, just take a pic after you've removed each part (or film it), and you'll be fine, there isn't that many parts inside a reel.

Get the HD. Also welcome to the best baitcaster currently in production.😎

MH is fine, but i would not want a fast tip. I've used the Megabass Triza StymPalides, which Megabass considers as a Heavy action rod (which i certainly wouldn't agree. way more of a MH rod than a H one) with a moderate fast taper, and really really loved it for jerkbaits. Just make sure the handle isn't long or its just annoying to work a jerkbait with a long handle.

I think that the only reason the zero adjuster (outside of marketing) was invented was because its much easier to produce than the older cast control caps they used to have, which were clicking and looked awesome. Nothing but a massive downgrade to me.