are all concentrates pretty much equal?

Coming from dry herbal vaporizing, no. I have found some concentrates are more "Full spectrum" than other concentrates.

A lot of it comes down to how it's extracted from the plant. Temperature and pressure can alter what gets extracted into the concentrate.

Personally I equate most concentrates to junk food - yes they taste great, but they don't give you the full nutritional content of a healthy salad.

Same with dry herbal vaporizing - it lets you extract everything you want from the plant, directly. Yes it's not as concentrated and for a dabber they probably won't get much enjoyment from dry vaporizing since it's a slower extraction. But after having "dabbled" with a bunch of different concentrates myself over the years, I'm perfectly content with dry herbal vaporizing.

Just my $0.02

The lungs can only absorb so much good stuff at a time, I theorize that after a certain point THC concentration has diminishing returns. For example a 90% THC concentrate might hit just about the same as a 60% high wise. A lot of the smoke is being wasted. This is why I think a slow and steady stream of vapor from a dry herb vape is the most efficient way since its little bits of smoke at a time which your lungs can absorb more easily in full.

A lot of great responses here already. I wanted to offer a few thoughts.

What does quality mean to you when it comes to concentrates? For me, I search for solventless rosins that try to capture the flavor and essence of the strain/plant being used.

Concentrate quality is typically determined by:

1. Input material - What did they use to make the concentrate? Cured nugs, trim, whole plants? As they say, “Fire in = fire out”
2. Extraction method - Do they use some type of solvent (e.g. butane) to create the concentrate? Or is it solventless, and maybe created via ice water hash or press methods.

Comparing outputs:

• Distillate: While typically the most potent and used in vape carts, I’d generally say anything with distillate will be the least representative of the original material used (no taste), and something I try to avoid. Distillate = headaches, for me.
• Live / Cured Resin: Resin is extracted with solvents, and retains more of the plant’s profile of terpenes and flavonoids. A great budget concentrate option. This is typically where you'll find shatters, waxes, budders/badders, crumble, sugar, etc.
• Live / Cured Rosin: Then we have Live Rosin which is extracted in a solventless method, and to me, is the best concentrate available. Full of flavor and character that is representative of the original plant/strain used. I've seen rosin come in shatter (fresh press), sauce, and badder-y variants.

EDIT: Also if texture can be an issue, I know people who swear by the Hot Knife by Puffco: https://www.puffco.com/products/the-puffco-hot-knife

No, all concentrates are the opposite of equal. Different types, strains, extraction methods. Different terpenes and cannabinoids content.

In terms of high, the various types of concentrates you would use in a dab rig are relatively the same. About the same variation as weed.

But the consistency can change how well it smokes/vapes. I like shatter for dabs because it's easy to break off a chunk and drop it in/on the hot plate. I like crumble with a nectar collector because it is easy to make "lines" like I'm snorting coke, but is melty and sticky enough that it doesn't get sucked up like a powder or slurped up like something more liquidy like live resin.

Distillate vs live resin or shatter or crumble and what not isn't the same high. It's more uniform across the spectrum of breeds used and the high is short lived and feels only slightly the same as what you'd expect from weed. It's usually what's in a cart. If you like carts, you gotta look specifically for live resin or rosin because distillate sucks.

You can find high quality dabs in any consistency, so a lot of that comes down to preference. And in terms of effects, yeah they're all pretty similar whether you're spending a lot of little (excluding the extreme ends of the spectrum).

But if you care about flavor (the main thing Im picky about), there is quite often a difference between the $10 gram of sugar wax and the $30 gram of live resin.

In that sense I've found the sweet spot is mid range live resins/rosins (with the highest terpenes) but more expensive does not necessarily mean better dabs, and rosin is also not inherently better than resin (despite what the prices and marketing often imply).

So, it's complicated. A lot of differences in concentrates ultimately can be rooted in 2 things which are style of extraction (which often dictates consistency) and how much remains when the dab is "done" i.e. chazz (which often denotes how much byproduct there was), but realistically the difference between dabbing 85-95% diamonds or full spectrum rosin (generally ~$50/g) is pretty minimal. However the difference between 60-75% $5/g live resin is a step down, and below that is old school BHO shit (30-50%) which is literally over half plant matter.

Length of high? Maybe a little extended, maybe less is more if you manage that with tolerance and desire. Level of high? I mean, how high can high be... How quickly you get tired/couchlocked? How heady/spaced out?

For me personally, the difference between the %5/g live resin and anything higher quality is simply whether or not I get a headache. Other than that, like I said it pretty much comes down to how much chazz is left behind and how long the dab itself lasts (for cold start full evaporation).

You can actually test this fairly easy with the PuffCo :) I use the Focus V Carta, but all you do is get your dab and time the full session. That means turn it on, let it heat up, melt the dab in as it reaches temp (noting how long it takes for the oil to stop boiling - that means when the oil goes flat/settles down from sizzling), and then how long/how many hits are produced.

You'll likely notice that something like diamonds may last a little longer even with relatively similar sized dabs of something lower quality, maybe as many as 6 sizeable hits. However whether that gets you higher for how high it can be priced is another story.

My general rule of thumb is trying to average the price/g and the percentage ratios. Live resin may only be a little over 70% but 10-15% of that is terpenes. For $5/g compared to the $35/g rosin? I'll take the $5 dabs.

Comparatively, if all they were to have were BHO or $50+ actual quality dabs, I'd take literally anything over BHO because I value my health lol.

P.S. crumble is kind of like dry diamonds in the style of a mix of sugar/batter. Totally dry so not sticky but very dry and it crumbles. It's ok, sometimes there's a decent amount of leftover wax. Shatter can be quality but also like its name it needs to be shattered from its little sheet. This can cause pieces to go flying. I also find that shatter evaporates quickly compared to other dabs. Worth trying once in a while if they look nice and clear.