I use 3 stainless conicals myself I have had very good luck with my 12.5 gallons stout conical.. they are about $425 shipped and are the same diameter as a carboy so the coolzone cooling jacket for a carboy fits them perfectly allowing easy hookups to a chiller solution. I use inexpensive 24v flexible heating strips attached to each and I control the temps with stc1000s
I completely know what you mean about not needed fancy equipment.. what I was really trying to say is though, As far as stainless conicals the worst one you can buy from a standpoint of having the least amount of benefits for being a stainless conical, is the blichmann. It's made well in the USA and all but it's has these silly cheesy weldless fitting because actually having sanitary fittings welded onto it like all the other stainless conicals would apparently raise the cost too much for blichmann to make its profit margin.
So being that it's extremely expensive and the valves and valve fitting/mounting solution is inferior to even the $300 moonshine distillers and no name conicals I just think it's not a good choice once you do a side by side comparison to pretty much anything else being sold these days in stainless.
This is why dispite all the blichmann users on the forum there really isn't a lot of people talking about the blichmann conicals.
I'm sorry if this upsets anyone who owns one but I tried to sugarcoat it in my first response and the point just didn't get through.
A stainless conical is much easier to use and does have some nice benefits, bling aside.