Best Brands in Everything!

Hi guys. I have an idea that requires participation from majority of the membership to work. So I hope you contribute .

The idea is this. What are the top-3 brands in products that we may be interest in? If I wanted to build a fish tank, what the top brands in pumps? What are the top brands in binoculars? Golf? Skiing? Appliances?

The idea is not to make the list definitive but rather, provide rather safe choices that are one of the best. Take cars. I think we can all agree that BMW and Mercedes would be two such brands. If someone knew nothing about cars whatsoever and had just inherited a pile of cash, those would be the two brands they should look at if they don't want to spend ton of time researching the field.

Let's take major kitchen appliances. There I would say Subzero is a safe choice in high-end fridges. Miele and Bosch are top premium brands in dishwashers.

For smartphones, that would be Apple and Samsung. Yes there are lots and lots of other brands but if you want to know the safest choices without doing your own homework, those are it.

I have had this problem as I jump into new hobbies. It is hard to know what are the well-knowns and well-respected manufacturers where if money was not the issue, they would have high chance of satisfying their needs.

It would be fantastic to have a library of such brands for each product area. I am happy to organize and maintain the list. Everyone is free to pick a new area and propose their top brands. We can then have a discussion from people who are knowledgeable in that area and we agree on the top-3 brands.

This idea has been in my mind for quite a while but I could not resolve one critical flaw in it: that is, what are those three brands for audio? I am confident we could not get consensus on that. So my solution it to punt that . Let's focus on other areas first and make quick progress so that I know which lawnmower, power washer, toaster oven, boat, etc. I should look at before resolving that.

So what do you think guys? Can you pick one of your other hobbies and quickly give the top brands in them? I see that zz post such a list in the tree pruners thread:

zztop7 said:

Bahco - Great
Felco - Great
Silky Saws - Great
All trimmers need proper cleaning & oiling after use.
I also keep the cheaper units around for trimming near dirt [sheetrock saw, etc.].

zz.

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I had not heard of any of these brands as I never researched that area and rather go by recommendations like this than spending a ton of time researching for something that I need just now and that may be it.

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Here are the nominations so far. Thanks for everyone who contributed:


Binoculars: Swarovski, Zeiss and Leica

bicycles:
Racing:Eduardo Bianchi.

Cars: Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Bentley

Clarinets
Rossi by Louis Rossi
Fox by Steven Fox
Buffet

Fish Tank Pumps:
Eheim, Fluval and Marineland

Golf Clubs: Ping, Nike, Taylor Made


Irons

1. Fourteen 930 and 777
2. Tourstage X-Blade (By Bridgestone - manufactures for Nike)
3. Titleist CB and AP2

Putters

1. Bettinardi B8
2. Scotty Cameron TC Newport II
3. Taylormade Ghost

Drivers

1. Titleist 913 D2
2. Taylormade Jet Speed
3. Fourteen G Long D

Balls

1. Titleist Pro V1x
2. Titleist Pro V1
3. Callaway Hex

Shafts

1. Tour AD YS Series
2. Fujikura Speeder Series
3. Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki Series

Piano's: Bosendorfer, Steinway, Bechstein, Fazioli
Smartphones: Samsung, Apple, (no #3)
Watches: Breguet, Blancpain, Patek Philippe

Whisky
If I have to hit a label "blind"
- Springbank (10, 15 but especially the 18 and 21)
- Ardberg (Supernova)
- Lagavulin 16, 21
- Macallan (18, 30)...a bit too many commercialized bottles now
- Yoichi (20)
- Sazerac 18-yr Rye (Bourbon made of rye...18-yr is particularly stunning)

Rum
- Diplomatico (Reserva 12)
- Demerara Rums (older vintages...1975 insanely good)

Vokda
- Kaufmann Pvt Reserve
- Konik's Tail
- Russian Standard Platinum
- the first two are like clear nectar, no burn, slightly thick and you can drink it with a straw. Its that good...like nothing in vodka ever
- The first is stupidly expensive...but I would take the Konik's Tail over anything I have ever tried up to the Kauffman Pvt Reserve price point.

Thanks Masterchief and Bob. I do appreciate the complexity of making such recommendations.

Maybe the way to make this easier is to think of what brands people should know about that are top of the food chain. Research can start there.

Let me give you a funny story about fishing. In Puget Sound a favorite way to fish for Salmon is with a downrigger. That is a device that is kind of like a fishing spool and line except that the line is usually steel and super strong. You hang a big weight to it and then your real fishing line to its line. You then send the big weight down to the depth you want. Without it, your lure/line would be too light and would not go down straight so you wouldn't know how deep you have gone. I wanted to get one and the "top" brand seemed to be Cannon. Why Cannon? Well, they advertised a lot and sounded like my Canon camera so I thought it must one of the best. Turns out the best was from another company called Scotty. And that is what I eventually bought but not until I did a lot of research, read the reviews, the construction details, etc. If someone had told me to look at Scotty the way I just did, it would have saved me a ton of work and steered me away from a worse choice.

Speaking of fishing, that is probably like audio where there are so many ways to fish that there is no one brand stands out. I would think though that when it comes to Reels, Shimano would be one of the three?

Speaking of Shimano, are they still in bike gearing/transmission business? If so, are they tops there or are there other brands? How about the top brands in the typical bike categories?

Kayaks anyone?

Excellent guys. Keep it coming.

And any ideas as to how to organize them? Right now I am just capturing them all. I could keep them in a pdf enclosure that I update. Or we could have threads for each category.

garylkoh said:

For fish tank pumps it would be Eheim, Fluval and Marineland.

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Thanks Gary. How about food items? Best soy sauce?