Picked up a Daiwa SV TW last year cheap. Needed a drive gear and only took a few months to find one. Never again.

I love my E series Chronarch's but I got burnt with the Curado I, just a lousy iteration of the Curado. I have only bought Daiwa since. The Tatula's are just great reels for the money, from the CT up through the SV. Easy to clean and maintain myself and rock solid reliability.

Shimano: nothing under 300. Daiwa is good to great according to how much you spend. I have 2 alderbarin mgls and 2 zillions and love them both. Everything Shimano I have ever bought has broken under 250 bucks

[quote=MagFluker]I love my E series Chronarch's but I got burnt with the Curado I

The E series Shimano's i really liked. The I's were constantly noisy right from the start. Sold both of the ones I had.
Out of the current Shimano's I like the SLX

Exactly

I’m a Shimano guy but have a couple mid level Diawas and they are ok. I probably won’t buy anymore simply because I like Shimano better.

man its a tough choice i have a bunch of both brands. i would probably give the nod to shimano right now. no other brand can hang with these two in terms of quality and longevity

Can’t go wrong with either, but you really need to look at the Lews Pro TI. I service all my own reels, and Lews are the easiest to maintain and go farther between needing to be serviced, Shimano comes in second, and Diawas to me need more maintenance more often.

I'll say it the new shimano reels will never be the E series reels...

For bait casters, I use Shimano. I have everything from vintage Curado 100D's and 300 EJ's and 200 DSV's, to Anteres and Metanium. For spinning, none makes a better reel that Daiwa. Here I employ Ballistics, vintage Fuego's, and Aird's. The few times I tried Lews I was quickly disappointed.

If the reader was not taking preference into account, this topic doesn’t have one answer. Almost like picking out the best brand of line. I am no help, but am looking at buying a new reel this year.

Im not concerned with what people are saying about parts for the Daiwa because none of mine have failed or needed a part and neither have my E series Shimano's ...Now I did have a couple of the I series Shimano's and got rid of them pretty quickly. They were just too noisy right out of the box. Also had a couple of K's that I got rid of, so for me my Daiwas and Lews have performed way better than my Shimano's that were newer than the E series. The Shimano B and D series were fantastic reels also back then. Currently the only Shimano reels that I have since the E series are 1 Metanium, 1 SLX, and 1 Curado DC. and those rarely make it into the boat. It is filled with Daiwas, Lews reels instead.

I started fishing in the 70's and bought Garcia Reels; then to Daiwa for a few years; then to low end Shimano Spinning Reels. For the last 20 Years I have been loyal to Shimano. The Curado I's were the first disappointment. The Stradic Ci4 Spinning Reels are the best
I have ever owned (7of them) upgrade from Sahara. Still have all 10 of my Curados most are 5 years old and older and still function well. I just wished I had more of the old Greenies!

Back in the day I used quite a few Diawa's and really didn't like them so I bought my first Shimano Greenie and never looked back... Dan

Shimano Metanium and Bantam and never look back.