I like Mathews because they invented where we are with bows today. Much of what we have is a reaction to what they did. But as with all successes, people adapt and you can get a lot of stuff they do for less, or possibly with different feature one might prefer, elsewhere. Back when they were the underdog, they did a bunch of things right that you couldn't get on other bows, and they were mid priced. Now they are upper priced, so what, its like a couple of tanks of gas.

The list of firsts in the market in a big way include:

Machined aluminum risers (right quadraflex and others, just not Bear PSE or Hoyt)

Short bows. (several others, but grip placement, also not original drove this)

Light bows

Below center grip placement

Solo cam (don't waste my time talking about Dynabow)

Carbon cable guards

VFT/parallel limb

Wood grips (they were aftermarket on most other bows at the time)

Now that all these feature are available on every bow, Mathews is a snore. But they were first to market, and once you find a bow you can shoot, why change it?

Grip sucks, but since everyone makes accesories for them, there are lots of options. One used to be able to modify them in about 10 minutes, not sure if there is enough meat on the low factory though.

The other big problem with mathews is that they are starting to loose the leadership positon they once had. All their recent technology is old, and begs for a faster bow. Obviously if bows like the legacy can be effectively silenced by their "stolen/adapted vibe tech", then why aren't they faster. If speed/vibe/noise are changing from a vicious circle to a virtuous one, what are they doing about speed?

I used to buy at least a new Mathews every year, sometimes two, counting a target bow. I haven't seen anything compeling from them in quite a few years, and I haven't switched out my Ultralite, C2, or signature.