I guess he would since he sells them
, AFR has been around for a long time and they are pretty respected in the brand X arena, not to mention they have some very nice (read high quality) pieces. IMO in most cases you get what you pay for. Trickflow has always had some good heads, but they seem to be better suited for use as raw material. It's interesting to note that when I was thinking about a speed shop and mailed off to 80 or so companies and got some info back from TFS they required that any potential dealer be both a speed shop and machine shop. One or the other could not sell their parts.
To me this means that the 400 bucks you save would then be spent on proper machinework and parts? Also my engine builder has built more than a few sets. He's never been satisfied with the "as-is" conditon of the heads. Having to port match or some other such operation.