No experience with SRAM.

I had a very similar problem with Shimano- if it gets slightly out of tune I can't get the triple into the big ring without pushing really really hard- I ordered a custom bike a few months ago- when I posted a different question about the same problem a bunch of people wrote back with the same experience. I suspect that it's more the triple/STI shifter combo- and less the gruppo level.

I wound up doing a wacky combo- I put a R700 short reach shifter on the right/rear, and a bar-end (friction) shifter and standard brake lever on the left/front. I don't actually have the bike yet though- it'll be a few months before I can actually decide if I like it that way.