Of course, once upon a time, a Performance Center gun was as close as you could get to a guarantee the gun was perfect, right out of the box, in the world of over-the-counter firearms. These days, I've even heard the (admittedly rare) complaint about PC guns. I was looking at an L-Comp recently, and the fit & finish were no better than that on my '83-vintage 586. The trigger on the seven shot L's and eight shot N's is usually nice, yes, but that's partly due to the shorter throw of cylinder rotation and partly the lesser mass of the cylinder (the same reason .45 ACP N-frames have such juicy triggers).
However, all this talk about Performance Center guns misses the point; I darn well hope that a semi-handmade gun with nosebleed price tags is adequate out of the box.
The point is, that the average gun has fallen in quality; I've been working behind gun shop counters for a while, and seen it firsthand. Yeah, there are occasional exceptions where a particular new gun is better than a particular old one, but the overall trend is down, and it saddens me considerably. My 296Ti had a rough star and a seriously out of spec hand, a customer's 337 broke a trigger, a 686 had toolmarks all over it, a Model 640 had the barrel screwed in crooked, a 342 came back from the factory with buggered sideplate screws. This kind of stuff is the occasional flub you expect from a Rossi or Taurus, not the Standard Of The World In Revolver Manufacturing (and certainly not at 1.5x, 2x or even 3x the price of a Taurus or Rossi).
No Colt fan would get mad if you suggest that a 1991A1 isn't quite as nice as your average Pre-Series 70, but some wheelgun fans want me to believe that a MIM-parts flat-hammer 686 is every bit as good as a Registered Magnum. Odd.
(P.S. Speaking of "The Standard Of The World", I'm feeling parallels with a certain other American industry that got stomped by lower-priced imports because they expected customer loyalty to "keep 'em buying" no matter what.)
My new S&W Performance Center revolver was received with a skeptical eye because of recent reports concerning alleged poor S&W quality read about here on the Firingline. I went over its construction, finish, and action. I had it inspected by my local S&W gunsmith and other wizened and graying range revolver junkies. My Performance Center revolver is a quality custom revolver and it came that way out-of-the-box. My revolver doesn't need any additional trigger work. However, I believe that S&W should extend this level of quality throughout its entire product line if it hopes to remain in business against its competitors. Whether my good luck is an example of a blind hog finding an acorn every once in awhile--well, who knows? I paid the premium for a Performance Center Revolver and I am happy with the transaction. 