They are cheaper but a decent gun for a decent price, I shoot my own Endeavor which is a premium quality gun but a bit over priced and I helped one of our club members tune up his Optima Elite. They are both good guns and both can be tuned up to minute of angle, I fell the Encore has some advantages in the quality of the mechanism and recoil absorbing.
The thing here is there is a noticeable difference in price so it depends on just how much quality you can afford. No one in the group here has had any service problems with either company. It might even be wise to wait a bit and see what may be showing up about Aug. Lee