My experiences:
Samick Greg Bennetts - awful awful
Crafters - look fab, play well, sound synthetic & thin
Corts - can look good, some sound good, some even sound individual
Arias - not found a good one
Fender - the one I had suffered from an elastic neck
Giannini - Brazilian, '80s,hard to find, junkstore might have one, I got one in solid brazilian rosewood for $40, nice
Lamaq - on ebay, uber-cheap & nice for the money

Axe of choice - a Tanglewood Ovangkol DLX TW15, cost about $650, couldn't find anything to equal it for 3x that amount. Guitar snobs show no interest in the headstock but come running when they hear it.
Why listen to me? Serial guitar buyer, worked in a guitar shop for 5 yrs, could have anything but stick with that last one ( till I commission a handmade personalised luxury etc!)