MOTM

I've been wondering about it.  I just splurged $18.00 to buy two of 
these babies:

http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntt=652-51AAA-B28-D18

I needed a couple of audio taper pots for an audio mixing application, 
and it came down to these or some carbon Alpha pots.  I'm pretty sure 
these will work well.  But what if I had built all of my DIY stuff with 
carbon pots?  I would have saved a lot of money.

I noted some recent posts where people were saying that the Alpha pots 
work fine (they are used by Modcan, Arrick, Blacet, Cyndustries, and so 
on).  So I am wondering what reasons we could give for shelling out more 
$$$ for conductive plastic or cermet sealed units?  Are there 
applications where the extra cost is justified (in say, the MOTM-800)?  
What about pots intended to pass audio without introducing scratchy 
sounds?  What about CV?

I guess I am asking where I can scrimp on pots by using Alphas, without 
regretting it.

-Richard Brewster
http://www.pugix.com