Irex's history reminds me of Plextor. In the last 15 years I bought a lot of devices from them. The CD-Readers from Plextor were a legend. They gave you the best quality. The same was true for CD- and (partially) DVD-Burners.
They were always a little bit more expensive than the average device but you got really good quality.
Now they are getting the hardware from another companies. They still optimize the hardware but it would never be the same.
An Irex reader will never be something for the average e-book reader who just want to buy their 'Romance novels' and never be bothered with more options and functions.
