Well I'll give you my input and let it be that, cause I really dont want to get into a filter debate.
I hear people all the time say this filter is better than the other, I wouldnt use this one to save my life, etc. When I started venturing into tweaking cars, doing my own maintenance and such I wanted to know why one filter was supposedly better than the other, so I asked the people that made such statements, thinking they would know why. Want to know what the most common response was? Because Ive never had any trouble with it, and its what Ive always used.
Well that obviously is no testament to the filters quality. There are a lot of things in life you can do or use that you may never have any trouble with, it doesnt mean its the best.
So to get to the nitty gritty you have to be able to compare filters apples to apples. To do that you have to know the results of the ISO 4548-12 multi-pass filter efficiency test. That test is done on all filters, but not all publish their results. What you commonly see on the box or advertised is that this filter is 98.7% efficient (known as absolute efficiency in the industry). Well okay, thats wonderful, but they are leaving out critical information. The particle size that that filter is 98.7% efficient. It can be anything because they dont post that information.
That efficiency could be a 10 microns or it could be at 60 microns, you dont know because most wont tell you and without that piece of information, comparing filters together is impossible. What you dont realize, is that they all are tested and that information is known, just not always published.
The construction of a filter is another aspect that you can compare if you are willing to do the work. I service a lot of vehicles and I always cut open the filters to check for any signs of internal engine damage and the construction of some filters is down right scary. But filter failure due to poor construction is not terribly common. You suffer more long term effects from poor filtering ability than construction quality.
So in choosing a filter, find the ones that will give you the efficiency results along WITH the particle size they reach that efficiency at. Otherwise, there is no point to trying to compare them.
Just because one company has one filter that is perceived as being a good one and makes others does not mean they are made to the same standards or to the same filtering ability.