I'm a published author of fishing books and have put my fair share of time on many reels. I do a lot of offshore grouper and snapper digging and own all the sizes. These reels just flat out perform and crank effortlessly. They are butter smooth! A buddy just bought a penn 2 speed and I tried it out, and all I can say it wow, these reels perform so much better. The biggest area of like is when cranking up big 20-25 gags from 130ft, and 12 pound mangrove snapper from the same, as the reel never locks up on crank like many others do. I pulled in a 24 pound gag and never stopped cranking in line, and it never felt close to locking up to where I had to pump the rod. I prefer to just crank rather than pumping the rod, and this reel feels like a winch on low speed. I tried the high speed on a 8ish pound ARS and it was jerky like the penn on low speed, but that was accidental as I forgot to engage low speed after a bait change. Great reel...thank me later! In use for 6 months to date, so I'll update after I get more time on them.great reel at solid price. thank you.Great reel, using it mostly for shoreline, surf castingReels function great. They look nice too. We are a busy charterboat and they are great light tackle offshore reels. But the paint bubbles off and Shimano has a bum warranty department and hard to deal with.This is my go to for bottom fishing and have had my fair share of some big grouper , mutton snapper, and some kings and wahoo. Definitely recommend you get itAs with the Talica and others the finish just won’t last.I service 1000 reels a year and have seen them all. Still much better than any Penn USA or Penn China made reelsI already owned the 12 and just got the 25. These reels are very smooth and reliable. They pull fish with no effort. They cost half of a talica and just as good. If you can find one for msrp. Get it!!! Won’t be sorry.