The quality of the bearings used in deng headsets seem to vary. They're all cheap chinese-made units, but from what I've seen, there are some good and bad batches (perhaps?) The old Echo headsets (I'm talking 3-4 years ago maybe) were uniformly shite. However, although there have definitely been some really poor deng headsets recently too, a few people I know run them now with no problems whatsoever. I think whether you get a good one or not is pretty much luck of the draw. Personally, I just bought a Ritchey WCS headset from chainreaction for £29.99, reduce from £52 I believe. Looks like a nice unit, and I've never experienced problems with Ritchey headsets in the past. Without a doubt, the best headset I have ever used is a hope. I bought it new in 2004 for my xc bike. It never needed servicing and was still in perfect condition when I sold it last year. I think it must have been fitted in 7 frames in that period, including two bmxs and 3 trials bikes.