In fact, most report that Meade's current optical performance is consistently very good. One thing that can greatly affect optical performance is collomation. Learn how to collimate your telescope and check it often. When I focus my LX200, the image shifts from one side to the other. Since the mirror slides on the central baffle tube, it can sometimes rock from side to side.
Sales continue to be strong and on the increase.
While this cannot be totally eliminated, it can be reduced significantly by the use of exotic glasses and careful design. The extra element in the Starfire further reduces the secondary color aberrations beyond that of a doublet telescope. The result is the Starfire will show practically no false color visually or photographically, while the Meade ED's will show a slight blue color on bright stars and planets. They also show small blue halos around very bright stars in photographs, although, as you can see from the images on my web site they are noticeable only on very bright stars. The extra color correction of the Starfire comes at a price, around 2X what the Meade costs.