Most every company on the market today makes a quality reel. Those that aren't top quality, can be "tuned" most of the time to be a decent quality reel, granted the frame doesn't flex.
I've never seen an Ardent in person... but if I can get my hands on one, I'll make sure I tear it apart and disect it.
As Toxic stated - "Reels are not only a personal preference but some just work better with your casting style." That is about the most truthful thing anyone can say about reels. What is junk in one persons hands may be the shiznit of all reels in another persons hands. :lol:
What I look for in a reel:
Frame, frame, frame. If it's got a graphite frame on it, and it doesn't have the words "Shimano" printed on it, I'm probably not going to tournament fish with it. Fun fish? OK.... Tournament fish? Never. In my opinion, Shimano is the only reel company ever to make a graphite frame reel that was tournament grade. The Curado (old version) was the only graphite frame reel that I would ever consider tournament fishing with.... and I'm not a Shimano guy. I fish with all aluminum framed reels (or magnesium in a few cases)
Bearing placement and quality - not overall bearing count. Bearings in a baitcaster serve two purposes - allow the spool to flow smoothly on the cast / retrieve, and strengthen the components that ride on them. There are 5 major places that bearings absolutely belong in my opinion (reverse for lefties of course):
1) left side of the spool
2) right side of the spool
3) right side of the reel, where the spool shaft extends to the tension knob
4) underneath the nub on the bottom of the main shaft
5) the anti-reverse roller bearing
Other companies also add them here:
6) opposite side of the anti-reverse roller bearing - to add strength and smoothness to the shaft as it exits the handle side of the frame. Daiwa does this a lot.
7) on one or both sides of the worm gear
8) underneath the clutch cam that is underneath the main gear - adds strength
9) in 2 to 4 places in the handle - most put two per handle grip
Any place there is NOT a bearing, a bushing will be substituted. Bushings may be made of teflon, delrin, nylon or some other form of plastic. I've replaced bushings on some reels with quality bearings and turned an "ok" reel into an "awesome" reel. Remember - just because it's got 10 bearings does not make it quality. I'd take a 5 bearing reel that had ABEC 5 or ABEC 7 bearings in it over a 10 bearing reel with cheap Chinese bearings that wouldn't rate on an ABEC scale.
Speaking of the ABEC scale... The bearing quality is just as important. Looking at them, you probably won't be able to tell easily unless you know what you are looking for. However, some are easily identified as junk.
If you can see the balls in bearings, you have "Open" bearings. As long as they aren't primary bearings that could be exposed to the elements, these are ok, but if you have open bearings on a spool support - you're dealing with inferior quality. If they have a polymer cover between the inner and outer races, then you have a "Sealed" ball bearing. Decent to have on spool support and anything that could be exposed to the elements - even temporarily, but not the best. Metallic shields between the inner and outer races keep most everything out - these are the best to have on key areas. They are mostly called "Double Shielded".
The drag - of course. The more disks, the better - most of the time. Of course, cheap stacks aren't worth anything. I'd rather have a three disk quality drag than a 6 disk cheap POS. However, given the choice, I'd pick more disks. Stacks of disks are normally stainless and teflon, carbon fiber, or some grease impregnated material. If the drag isn't to my liking... I write to these people (who, for a price, will custom make you some ultra-smooth drag washers): h