Whichever board you start with tends to stay with you for around 3 or 4 years,in that period of time you have gotten used to the way it sounds, plays and this is how your opinion is judged,now if a newer version comes out, a lot of the old stays with the new, similar sounds or voices operating or whatever, so what you buy has some similarities,now when you crossover to a different manufacturer ,everything is NEW ,sometimes better sometimes not depending what you had before. So i agree that people tend to say great things about the improvements they have noticed,maybe they should say what the last board they had before , bear one thing in mind, the top 4/5 manufacturers are different, all good , but still different, and unless some one crosses over and says great things about a new board then you certainly listen to what has been said,but still try before you buy,mike