What's the deal with high-end mods (HEM)?

[Chemical Bromance]

Pardon this n00b question, but what are high-end mods about?
I mean apart from the obvious eye-catching and luxury appeal, do these mods offer any other features?
I'm guessing that the answer is no and that they use the same internals as other mods.
Is it all just down to materials and status?

Sent from the road.

 

[Karstine]

Basically the difference between a Nike bag and a prada bag. Both have the same function. One just looks nicer and is more expensive. Hahaha

 

[smokyribs]

It's just a waste of money. But if you've got the spare cash why not.

A VT200 will do a much better than than 100% of the HEM's available out there.

 

[sonicbomb]

In an ideal world and dependent on which mod, a hand made device with a relatively high price tag would be made with more care and attention, and potentially higher quality control than a factory made $20 Chinese device. Also materials like stabilized wood, mother of pearl and granite or marble do just cost more to make than plastic. Having said that are many over-priced, yes. Do they offer value for money, that's entirely subjective.
I have a bunch of Chinese boxes and they are what they are, workhorses, a way of delivering power to an atomizer. I have one high end mod, the fit finish and build quality is immaculate, it looks beautiful and I really like using it. It's not a status symbol, it doesn't leave the house. Do I feel I got value for money, yes. Do I need twenty of them, no. Apart from playing guitar, vaping is my hobby so I don't mind investing in a high end piece of equipment, I have certainly spent more on guitars.

M17 by Axisvapes

 

[chia]

Now THAT's a nice piece of work! Pride of ownership..

 

[Cumulo Vapus]

High end mods hurt you more when they get confiscated.

 

[smokyribs]

This is high end for me.

 

[Imperialchugger]

Some ppl dont mind paying more for custom job. it doesn't necessary mean the functions and tech are buck for buck. I mean some of the finishes are really good.

 

[Chemical Bromance]

Some ppl dont mind paying more for custom job. it doesn't necessary mean the functions and tech are buck for buck. I mean some of the finishes are really good.

Yeah, I've noticed that. The tech really doesn't get elevated and it all does seem to be cosmetic. Not that there's anything wrong with cosmetic.
But when I'm faced with a mod that runs into the hundreds of dollars, I have to ask... Hmmmm, what's the value? Personally, unless I was in the mood to splurge, I'd want more value than just "it looks pretty".

To place these discussions into a better context, I'm not asking these questions from the perspective of a consumer trying to decide if I should buy a new mod.
Instead, I'm asking from the perspective of a designer (which I am) to understand the issues a vaper will consider when buying a high-end mod, "If I was designing a killer mod, what would make it a game changer? How would I make an iPhone (when iPhones were new and desirable) of a mod?"

Sent from the road.

 

[smokyribs]

What I've observed for high end mods....

1. Made in small quantities.
2. Has a high price tag making it less accessible to the general public
3. Made "exotic" materials...(Tbh, stabwood isn't exotic but let's leave that for another discussion)
4. Sold on closed/secret groups
5. Are often hyped by certain vaping groups driving their market value sky high
6. Can be sold with any chip since High End Vapers tootie-puff/flavor chase.

I could go on but it's late...

 

[Karstine]

This is high end for me.

SX Mini is the highest end I would go to. I mean it's quite affordable and the quality is top notch!

 

[chia]

The Q class is nice too

 

[errolng]

had the sx and it was pretty well built.
highest i've went was the provari.
now i don't even feel like paying for anything over 50 bucks lol

 

[Vaslovik]

The highest end mods I have are my Poldiacs, and by the standards of high end mods I don't think they are all that high end, they just plain work really well, and they look pretty darn good doing it. Something like the Glas mod has absolutely no appeal to me because it's all about pretense at conspicuous consumption and I'm not interested in that. How much it costs doesn't improve my vaping enjoyment over the Poldiac one bit. Sadly the Poldiac isn't made anymore, but but I have a raft of spare parts, and how long will the other "high end" mods be made, and how long can you get parts for those? I'm betting parts to keep them going long term are going to be an issue, and pretty spendy given the prices for some of those. How long will you be able to get a spare sapphire button for your glass mod? I note that one of the batteries Glas recommends is Efest. Excuse me?

 

[Ongeslepen]

I'm in this dutch vaping group and we got a few individuals who are into this. One of them bought some kind of exotic mod for around 500+ euro's. I forgot the name of the mod couldn't care less since it doesn't shoot lasers or has a build in porn library or whatever over the top piece of technology, i was mainly shocked about the price really.

Waste of money IMO. But hey! It ain't my money, so again, don't care

 

[smokyribs]

SX Mini is the highest end I would go to. I mean it's quite affordable and the quality is top notch!

Yeah, the build quality on Yihi mods are pretty much top notch. Most importantly, Yihi being Yihi does the best wiring jobs for their SX chips. A lot of HEM modders imo are just out there trying to make a quick buck or two and poor grounding or wiring job leaves a lot to be desired. Horrible voltage drops causes the low battery voltage protection to kick in and that imo, sucks bad.

I'm in this dutch vaping group and we got a few individuals who are into this. One of them bought some kind of exotic mod for around 500+ euro's. I forgot the name of the mod couldn't care less since it doesn't shoot lasers or has a build in porn library or whatever over the top piece of technology, i was mainly shocked about the price really.

Waste of money IMO. But hey! It ain't my money, so again, don't care

Scarily enough, 500 Euros is on the really low spectrum of pricing as far as High End Mods go. The flip/2nd hand market or the raffle markets are where things get serious. Gepettos, S.L.A.G's, SLGT's, Lochness, CC Alpha's, CC Gamma's, etc... have all seen much higher prices from $4000 USD up to $10,000 USD or more.

To be honest, it's a debatable issue whether HEM's are a waste of money because like any other hobbies (such as watch collecting, car collecting, knife collecting, etc etc....) acts of compulsive spending on material goods put u right into the hobbyist category.

The important issue to take note is that as long as we spend within our means and gain some form of satisfaction out of whatever hobby we might have, everything should be fine.

 

[Chemical Bromance]

So I was Googling high-end box mods, and most of them seem to be manual mods... Here's what I don't figure... Given the price that they sell at, why can't they incorporate regulator chipsets? Seriously... is it part of the "scene" to use only monuals? Like it's an "advanced user" thing?

 

[smokyribs]

So I was Googling high-end box mods, and most of them seem to be manual mods... Here's what I don't figure... Given the price that they sell at, why can't they incorporate regulator chipsets? Seriously... is it part of the "scene" to use only monuals? Like it's an "advanced user" thing?

High end regulated box mods are aplenty. They're just a tad bit more obscure which is why googling wouldn't yield good results. In fact, the current HEM market is flooded with regulated mods of all shapes and sizes and powered by a great number of chips.

Here's a list of chips that are currently being used in the HEM regulated world....

YIHI SX350
YIHI SX350J
YIHI SX350J-V2
EVOLV DNA40
EVOLV DNA75
EVOLV DNA200
DICODES
STARPLAT
AULUS

From left to right:
STARPLAT, SX350, SX350, SX350J

SX350J-V2

DNA200

DNA40

AULUS

 

[Karstine]

High end regulated box mods are aplenty. They're just a tad bit more obscure which is why googling wouldn't yield good results. In fact, the current HEM market is flooded with regulated mods of all shapes and sizes and powered by a great number of chips.

Here's a list of chips that are currently being used in the HEM regulated world....

YIHI SX350
YIHI SX350J
YIHI SX350J-V2
EVOLV DNA40
EVOLV DNA75
EVOLV DNA200
DICODES
STARPLAT
AULUS

From left to right:
STARPLAT, SX350, SX350, SX350J

SX350J-V2

DNA200

DNA40

AULUS

I just jizzed. Wait, how does a cat ..... My head hurts.

 

[chia]

Just like custom knifes.. Sky's the limit