Florian: A well-respected dealer I know in Ohio, USA, who has been in the drum business for over 20 years told me about personally witnessing a customer's new SQ2 kit arriving at his shop and the kit had scratches over the lacquer finish on a few of the drums. Given his past experience selling Desingers and the like, he was utterly shocked--not something he had ever seen with a high-end, German-made Sonor kit. He had nothing but praise for the Designer kits he had sold in the past, and he was shocked to witness at least two instances (I think) of SQ2 kits arriving at his shop with flaws.
I've also talked to some folks at a jazz drum shop in NYC who mentioned to me that the vibe they've received from long-standing jazz Sonor players is that the SQ2's were greeted well but not at all with the same kind of immaculate praise that the Designers and Hilites and Phonics had back in the day.
So, one example is documented--and I trust the dealer in Ohio. He's looking out for his customers, I've bought from him, I've known him for years--he's total quality. The second example is more hearsay, but the folks at the jazz shop service big jazz players in the NYC region, so I trust, to a degree, the anecdote they shared with me. It's not documented, and they still think the SQ2 kits are very good, but they just mentioned** that the SQ2 kits haven't been wholly greeted by players and fans in the same way that old Phonics or Designers were, which is, I think, generally interesting given that the SQ2 line was supposed to replace the Designers. (I mean, if the Designers were Cloud 9, why mess with that success??)
**Regarding other stories, I just talked to an acquaintance today, who's a Berkelee graduate and jazz player, who owns two Sonor kits: an old Hilite kit and a newer SQ2 kit. He told me that he ordered the SQ2 kit to the exact specs of his old Hilite kit. The SQ2 kit arrived in perfect order, and he likes the sound of it and gigs with the kit, but he also said that the SQ2 kit still cannot touch his original Hilite, despite the specs being identical. He said the bite of the drums and tone of the Hilites are just better than his SQ2's. Again, subjective impression, but not the first time I've heard experienced Sonor players say this.
So, in the end, what I've heard is a mixture of actual flaws, like what Avery unfortunately experienced, and just subjective impressions of folks who know high-end Sonor kits well and have played them for a long set of years and love them.
It is not shenanigans; I'm not trying to bad mouth Sonor SQ2's at all--I think they are still beautiful drums, personally. I was just sharing what I had heard because it chimed with Avery's experience, that's all. And as a fellow drummer who loves to play drums and just admire the beauty of drums, I took an interest in the somewhat bizarre reaction some folks have had to the SQ2 kits because Sonor for years earned a reputation for amazing drum quality.