Awesome glass

I am very happy with my Maven B.5. After comparing different brands in this magnification and reading tons of reviews, I took a chance and purchased the Maven B.5 18X56. These binoculars are very clear, and are very comfortable to look through for extended time. The only thing I would do differently is buy the package that comes with a tripod. These binoculars would be difficult to stabilize without a tripod. I do not suggest 18 power binoculars to carry in a chest harness. While hunting elk in Montana with a few friends, we were all comparing several spotting scopes to the Maven B.5 18X56 and all agreed that the high power binoculars are far more comfortable and have better clarity than the various spotting scopes we had. As for optical clarity and build quality the only brand that might be a little nicer is Swarovski, but for almost double the cost you are only getting 1% improvements in overall quality, in my opinion.
If you are in the market for great class and want to save some money you can't go wrong with Maven. I wouldn't consider it a compromise from other more expensive brands.