A high end mod is one that feels like the rest of your arm, you can't imagine putting it down. It's top quality; reliable; has noticeably bigger/better/faster/stronger/smoother form, fit and function than its competition; is beautifully designed for the intended purpose without a lot of extra bells and whistles and faux gold leaf; works first-time-every-time without a lot of finicky adjustments; lies somewhere between attractive to look at and stunningly beautiful; uses materials as close to perfect for the job (and which are chosen to to bolster other desirable characteristics when materials selection does not enhance function) as possible, regardless of what they are or what they cost; and, regardless of production method, is treated as an individual product by its maker.
That's a lot to take in, of course, and I don't really disagree with much of what I have seen posted here.
*A high end mod does not have to be expensive, but it usually is due to the nature of the manner it was made and/or the materials it was made from. High price does not define quality, but high quality often drives high price. Caring for any product as a one-off individual always costs more than high volume work,
*Reliability and suitability for the purpose are paramount. Nothing can be high end if you have to constantly fiddle with it to make it work. Neither has there ever been a high end fingernail clipper with a boat anchor welded to it.
*A high end mod stands head and shoulders above its competitors in terms of form, fit and function. Nothing is loose and rickety, there isn't any sloppy engraving or thread fitting, no loose burrs, buttons push smoothly and crisply, threads seem to want to run themselves up without help, not a lot of gaps for "tolerance," nothing is uneven or unsightly.
*Materials selection is part of the process: a box mod designed for minimum voltage loss-- all of them hoping to be high end should be, even ones intended for lower power use-- will use a C110 Copper or 92% Sterling Silver current path; intermittent contact parts will be plated with Rhodium; battery sleds will try to avoid springs in the current path. A mod doesn't have to be made of gold to be high end. In fact it shouldn't be, as gold is too soft to make a good mechanical casing and is not as good a conductor as silver. If you want it gold plated (Vape Trump?) that's your choice, but it should be made of something more useful. Stainless steel is an excellent choice for a tube mod, or a casing that holds side panels, and is not particularly expensive or "high end," but use 316 instead of 304. If you want indestructible, move up to titanium. Rough, tough, water-and-dust proof? Think vacuum formed ABS plastic. There's no reason you can't select materials for appearance or intrinsic value if you like-- gold, carbon fiber, Stabwood, Play-Doh, diamond studded lasagna noodles, whatever floats your boat-- but such things can't
detract from form, fit or function and it still be high end.
*Construction method can vary. A artisan-made, hand crafted mod can be high end... or not, depending on the craftsman involved. But being made on CNC equipment, or by modern, high-volume production methods, doesn't mean a thing can't be high end. It's really about the care taken with each individual product. Nothing high end rolls off the end of the production line, falls into a box, and gets shipped without human intervention. But something rolling off the end of the production line and onto the bench of a master craftsman to be peaked and tweaked can be. I have, for example, a design for a wood cased tube mech in my mind that can only be produced in less than a year's time on CNC gear because it has a complex external topology; but if I ever get a CNC router to build it, it will be as high end as I can make it. It could be built solely by hand, but I'll never start because that's a lifetime project, and means a dozen or more false starts and scrapping partially completed work until you get a good one. Sometimes using modern production means can result in a better product, and when this is true such methods should be used. Custom luthiers, and custom shops in production companies, are now using CNC vertical machining centers to cut fretboards and tuning pegs and bridges for their instruments. This doesn't detract from the "hand made" aura of their product: a CNC/VMC can do a better and
far more accurate job than any human hand can for those parts. The instrument is still assembled and tuned by hand, and that's where the tone comes from. I own some high-end gear from Smith & Wesson's Performance Shop, and high end it most certainly is. They start with a regular old production grade piece right off the assembly line, but it is then breathed on by a master gunsmith. The action is stoned, the piece is dehorned, cylinders honed to the pin and chamfered, etc.
So there's some thoughts on it. But the bottom line is pretty simple: I know high end when I see it
