Hi,
I work for a company designing HF radio equipment. We don't do anything like the scanner you're talking about, though I can say that Icom generally do really good eqipment. As a company, they have access to much more expensive manufacturing processes than what my company uses. They do pretty different equipment from us, though.
Probably a better place to ask, would be a Ham forum or news group, etc. Another company which does some more affordable products is Yaesu. In my opinion, their products are OK, and provide value for money, though are not really as good as Icom in most respects. I'm not sure if they do scanner such as you are after, though.
I can't really offer much more help than that. You could have a look at mods.dk to get some idea of what brands you could look at. I think talking to some hammers would really be your best bet. There is a lot of knowledge in that community.
Good luck.
Oliver
