I own a Taylor 814ce, but before that I tried every martin I could find, and they just sounded flat. The workmanship seemed OK at fisrt glance, but just not precise enough, and the action is way to high for me on most Martins. So, I had basically given up on martins as a high end guitar purchase...until I played a Tom Petty signature model at Guitar center. AWESOME guitar...I am in the process of putting my musicman silhouette down as payment to put it on lay away, its worth it. In my opinion, you want precision and playabilty, go with Taylor. Martin is great, but you REALLY have to look for something special because they are really inconsistent.