Yep, appreciate the reply. Some really good stuff you are posting.
Question: Your tach is reading 13900+ but the manual states WOT @12600-13200. I assume you were able to get that reading without defeating the limiter tabs since you are pretty much running stock? The limiter tabs let you adjust to that RPM?
Still impresses me how well your saw pulls that 27" bar in stock form. You know, seems like saw snobs only care about two things: The weight of the saw and the HP/speed. Echo has been bashed as long as I can remember on those two things. Just about everyone agrees they have always produced well built machines but have leaned towards being heavy and slow.
Your thread has backed up what a lot of us have known for years...paper is paper and real world is real world. I believe, early on, Echo focused more on torque and building a quality machine. The disaster for Echo (from a market share stand point) was that they did a horrible job communicating that to the US market. Those that used their saws knew it but a huge number of guys would never give their saws a chance based on speed and weight ratings.
I like to compare this subject to my Dodge Cummins. When you want to move a load and do serious work, torque is king. They make fancy trucks with more HP but I blow by them with ease pulling my 20,000+lb. load going up a 7% grade. The weight of a saw is a legitimate consideration but I care more about how the saw performs in the cut (where it matters).