I've recently been fortunate enough to get my hands on a new Meucci. Upon opening the case it was delivered in, I nearly melted at the sight of its simple beauty; it's wrapless and stained by a uniform gray marbling, with a wooden 12.5mm low deflection shaft that could poke the eye out of a growling bear and shoot it straight into a corner pocket with its layered medium tip.

It's what I expected it to be, that's for sure, and hopefully it's also an investment that will last me many, many years. But it's also my first high-performance cue, and because of that, I couldn't help but wonder about the community's thoughts on other cues made by manufacturers far and wide while turning it over in my hand.

In your opinion, which manufacturer makes the highest quality high-performance playing cues, and (if you can) please elaborate on which cue in your collection brought you to that conclusion.