I'll probably be trying out all sorts of stuff from now on - this guy at the local shop, trust me, he's the guy. I couldn't have met anyone better. Great guy, he really was.
Just to explain my journey - to me, there's a certain standard in vaping. There's a low point, a mid-point, and a high-point. In common sense terms, and with experience, one would think the normal experience is for CE4's to possibly taste a little wicky or metallic, for many bottom-coil devices to taste this way too, for disposables and carto-tanks to taste a little cleaner, and for high-end things like Cisco's atties and RDA'ing to be the cream of the crop. With experience, I could come to terms with that.
What I do not approximate with though is the hell point. Where everything you vape tastes like you used a dirty sock as a wick. I've gotten that from Protank heads, Smoktech heads, countless disposable devices, didn't get it with the EVOD samples, got it with multiple off-brand 510 drippers, didn't get it with the Cisco, didn't get it with dude's RDA, and these carto tanks, I'm currently reviewing them and so far, the review is mid-point at best, they're not holding up so particular well with some real vaping going on, nor is the flavor even really decent in terms of what juice can do.
I've just had a curse in the vaping world, and I dunno what it is. If I can sit there and vape EVOD's til the cows come home and get a "decent" result, or the same with any shop's cheaper samplers, then I'm not the one with a draw problem... it has to be a manufacturing issue.
And the Aspire is in a category all on it's own, that device is just bizarre. It's the voodoo of vaping. I can't even properly explain why that device gave me the flavors it did, but that device was insane. I'm particularly emotional toward the Aspire because the Aspire produces a softer vapor, more vapor, and thicker vapor than any product on the market right now, but the flavors it produced, they were the strangest sensations I've probably gotten. VCV's Caramel Swirl tasted just like sea salt in it, it was soft and smooth, but salty tasting.
I emailed them and there's not supposed to be any salt layer to the caramel! Mystery vaping. Other than that, if someone could sort out why the Aspire makes juices taste like they're from alien planets or other parts of our ecosystem, then that device would be the best product on the market. By all other tests, that device is golden. The flavors it indeed gave me were even some of the best I had up until that point. But I'd rather not vape salt. I need a caramel juice to taste like caramel!
Whatever kink the Aspire has, Cisco has figured it out. The Aspire heads and the Cisco atties are like direct cousins. They're related by %75. Even the flavors are just as "strong". Yet, in the Aspire, things taste strong, yet wack, and in the Cisco, they taste heavenly. Both devices though produce that silky, moist, nimbus cloud of vapor that I love too, and geez, I just want Aspire to get their mess straight! They'd have such a great set of devices for our community if so! If Aspire would just fix the kinds, I'd honestly say a lot of REO'ers and RDA'ers would be impressed. It's a cloud machine! Just, for whatever reason, the flavor on that thing is wack.
Oh, sorry about Aspire ramble, but geez, I want the Aspire to work. Aspire would literally be the king of disposable devices if they didn't taste like a mystery meat Thursday. It just tee's me! It's as annoying as being attracted to someone who doesn't like you back! I see the potential in their heads and they do have something solved that Kanger heads never figured out, just, they need to work on their product badly IMO.
.... guess I could always wait a couple months and try their heads again. I do trust Phil and I think he did get a great result out the Aspire, and I'm hoping whoever runs Aspire will eventually run out of the initial production heads and have to make some more that actually work.