Out of curiosity, what were the other bases you tried?
In this order. KD, Admins new base, Darth, ifindforyou and Saffron. I'd rate them in order of best to worst as Saffron, Darth, Admins new, KD and ifindforyou.
Saffron had the right flavour and texture and reminded me of my favourite BIR.
Darth's was similar but just didn't taste as good. Good body though but I'm not so keen on the colour (if I remember correctly this is down to the lack of tomatoes).
Admins new base was a turn up for the books for me. I tried this after the KD base and thought it was better. Really good strong fundamental flavours, great colour and easy oil reclamation! Overspiced however and so not versatile. All the curries taste the same

KD was the first base I ever made, as I'm sure it was for many members. I thought it was great but discovered there are better. It has too much ginger, stinks out your house and is far too thin. I also think the method is over complicated. I bet I could take 3 steps out of it and end up with the same result... The blending of raw garlic / ginger in water I think is unnecessary - separate blending / cooking of the onion mix and the tomato mix also seems over the top and I can't see much difference in reserving a little onion mix to cook your meat with to just using a little of the base. It seems to pedantic and I think is all part of the illusion that there is some kind of secret being divulged.
Ifindforyou base is just like brown coconut milk. Will someone please edit that recipe from where it assumes a whole block of creamed coconut, to using something more sensible? I spent quite a lot of time getting the ingredients together e.g. Tararind paste, Ajowan seed and so on, so I was really quite disappointed. I'm going to try it again with little or no coconut to give it a fair chance because something about the recipe really appeals to me, only everything was ruined by a creamed coconut block the size of a large soap bar.