I have a couple of Lacie items here at work -- cd-r/rw and firewire hdd. I would say that they are just barely "medium-quality" compared to the more reputable brands. IMO, they are like Albertsons, re-packaging and marketing stuff that was made by mediocre companies that could never make it on their own.
But alas, sometimes even the "reputable" brands are selling out to the cheap market. NEC used to make the best monitors, now they are barely adequate, the new one we got here at work is barely holding together after UPS got their hands on it, I mean, the parts that hold an item of that weight together should be metal and not plastic!. (On the home front I had to return two NEC's to the warehouse, finally opted for a Sony Trinitron <-- a really top quality monitor! theyz still ok.)
