I bought 5 of them last May, kept two for myself and used and abused them all year. Best upper mid-sized long distance plugging reel I have ever owned.
One rides on a CTS S8 11'-6" and another rides on a CTS 12' Parabolic.
Tons of fish on them with zero trouble. Biggest fish was a 67" Brown Shark; a dozen bass over 40" and many, many big blues to 17lbs.
I pretty much have only used JDM reels for the last 30+ years starting with Daiwa Tournament Whisker SS9000 and SS3000 back in the 80's.
The Albrid has sister reels that are identical; in Japan it is the Spin Joy and in the UK the reel is called the Ultegra XTB "Baby Pit". They use metal and the "old" Shimano Carbon fiber in the frame and rotor and weigh about 2.5oz more than the CI4 version.
Here is the Albrid next to the Spinjoy:
For size here is the Albrid between my 27 year old SS3000 and a Sustain 8000.
Another size comparison shot; Spin Joy surrounded by (clockwise from 12:00, Penn Slammer 560, Daiwa SS3000, old Emblem Z 4500 and Daiwa SS2600:
Blond Terror
Linear Mode
