What would be the reason that one would purchase this unit over the S9? Reliability is much better or so I have read, but power consumption is not. Would it be the fact that bitmain is not months behind and paying the scalper prices on ebay is absurd? Not trying to start anything here. Just attempting to confirm what I believe the reasons are based on my research. All in all given the retail pricing of both units wouldn't the S9 be the better machine 9 (not considering reliability).
Bitmain's been ahead but they have horrible customer support and warranty that exists but also sucks. I remember having to ship miners back to China for repairs, etc. Bitmainwarranty in Colorado does repairs now too but they are paid IIRC. Reliability really is a killer for the S9. Avalon units are rock-solid as well and you're paying for a quality product instead of one from a company that is trying to destroy Bitcoin for their own profits (see S2X, Bitcoin Cash). The A7 is also available for cheaper and actually in stock in some places, Parallelminer has the A7 in stock for ~$1800 which isn't a horrible deal the way things are right now.