I love my stradics and they hold up awesome.
But before I bought any high end gear I started with the cheapest walmart combos, moved to middle range, then to high end gear.
To be honest, I prefer rods like the Clarus etc, $70-100 range.
For reels I buy one gem I found 5 years ago and with a cleaning each season they hold up and are just awesome cheap reels. The Okuma Avenger in the 20 and 30 series. Very durable and great smooth drags. No ploblems even handling big stugeon. There on all my kids rods, a few of mine and all my ice rods. I own probably 10 of them and none have had an issue. Can't beat the $40 price tag either?