PV Audio's Playtest Thread

[alidisperanza]

I have nightmares about that stuff...

[JT_2eighty]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

This goes out to ali, enjoy!




This is Tornado/Xcel at 3.5 hours. So, if you hit harder than I do, which the majority of you do, look elsewhere for durability.

Have you tried Tornado/Mosquito Bite yet?

I'm currently testing Typhoon/MB and it is sweeeet. I'd imagine Tornado mains even better performance over time. MB crosses are so soft it's like having a syn-gut comfort cross with all the performance of full poly. Control, spin, power, touch are all there... all that's left is the longevity question: 2 matches in and so far so good!

[rdis10093]

tonic is a good string, at least good enough for my game. with stuff like that and vs it is all just mental for me. Kind of sad but I almost have the mentality that if I buy some thing that cost more then it must be better. Because clearly the cost of a 16 dollar poly must mean that it is the best string out there.

[rdis10093]

on a side note, I am pretty close to hewitt's actual setup. Same tension and almost same poly. he also plays his vcore in stock form. do you plan to get more tonic in stock, and if you did would it be old or new?

[pvaudio]

Nope not planning to get any more Tonic, and if I did, it would be the new stuff. All of my VS Team is pre-BT7 however.

[alidisperanza]

You guys might be proud... I strung up multi-- Sensation Control

[pvaudio]

That wasn't half bad actually.

My fingers are screaming, just strung 3 Radical MPs with Black Widow 16. I thought Hexablade was bad in dense string patterns.

I also think that Scorpion/S-Gut shall be my go-to. Once settled, it plays absolutely like I want it to. Plenty of spin, plenty of touch, fairly neutral power, and superb control. Also, 6-7 bucks a set too. Much better than the Tornado/Xcel which is over 2x more.

[pvaudio]

Originally Posted by JT_2eighty

Have you tried Tornado/Mosquito Bite yet?

I'm currently testing Typhoon/MB and it is sweeeet. I'd imagine Tornado mains even better performance over time. MB crosses are so soft it's like having a syn-gut comfort cross with all the performance of full poly. Control, spin, power, touch are all there... all that's left is the longevity question: 2 matches in and so far so good!

Sorry I missed this! Nope, I did not try that hybrid nor am I planning on it. I am not a believer in full poly hybrids even though they have their proponents.

[Samuka]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

That wasn't half bad actually.

My fingers are screaming, just strung 3 Radical MPs with Black Widow 16. I thought Hexablade was bad in dense string patterns.

I also think that Scorpion/S-Gut shall be my go-to. Once settled, it plays absolutely like I want it to. Plenty of spin, plenty of touch, fairly neutral power, and superb control. Also, 6-7 bucks a set too. Much better than the Tornado/Xcel which is over 2x more.

Interesting. Which tension you will to use ?

[pvaudio]

47/52 has been pretty good to me, so I think I'll stick with that.

[rdis10093]

I dont understand though man, I like the new racquet. It does several things well. However I am dying on the two hander. You hit with me, my two hander is normal way more solid right? Why is this new racquet so different. I feel like I could play for hours with the vcore, but only a couple with the rdis. you think I should switch back? We have only hit a couple of times, but have you notice any differince (remember rdis with forten.) Any adivice would be awesome.

thanks

[rdis10093]

also I dont want to use any lead.

[pvaudio]

Honestly, I don't know. Are you saying the RDiS is better? The slice with the RDiS is lower, that much is for sure. If the two sticks are balanced differently, then you just need to adjust to the different frame. I think that's likely all it is. I mean, the gut cross isn't going to change much and you've used that Lux poly many times. Also, the string choice isn't going to cause changes in your BH. That's likely timing related.

[souledge]

Thought about doing an L-Tec review comparing JET and non-JET installation methods?

[pvaudio]

No, and for a number of reasons with the main one being that I will not use the JET technique for my customers. If someone wants to do this playtest, then please feel free. The stringing practice is what irks me above all else because it implies that the stringers for the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and all other players who have sticks strung by tournament stringers are simply not qualified to install this string. Or put another way, the method that is good enough for professional players is not good enough for the moderate hitting rec player (no one gets 30 hours out of a poly before it breaks unless you're not hitting a huge ball).

[pvaudio]

As hinted at in U&C's thread, I think that after 2 years and 150+ pages, I am done playtesting. It says everything when a poly tested on the first page of the thread is the poly I am going to stick with now on the last page.

Also as mentioned there, I agree with his sentiment on strings. All of these setups from gut mains to Iso Baseline/OGSM are fine. Above all else, what I've learned most is that string choice is not about performance, rather it's about preference. I could have won a match using B5E/6Star just as I could have won it with that dreadful Wilson blue poly. THe only difference is that the ones I don't prefer detract from the fun. Performance wise, with a few exceptions, strings will get you where you need to go. So with that, I leave you with an analogy: cars.

I have an '02 Civic Si that I've owned since high school. I cross-shopped Subaru WRXs, Golf GTis, and even thought about replacing it this year with a myriad of newer and faster cars. And yet, none of them feel right. The steering in my Civic just has more feedback, the gear change feels higher quality, the interior is of astounding finish, the engine is just perfectly smooth, and the car has a perfect blend of power and fuel economy. All of those other cars would have done the job, but nothing to me feels right compared to my car, and I knew that the first time I test drove it 7 years ago.

Point being, I prefer my $6k Honda to a $26k Subaru for the same reasons I prefer my $6 Scorpion hybrid to a $20 gut hybrid. It just fits me, so on that note, I urge people again to take every review with a huge grain of salt. I'll still answer questions about any stringbed or strings, but active testing I believe to be over.

[rdis10093]

what does pro streatching gut do? And do I get that done?

[pvaudio]

Pre-stretching comes in two forms: manual or machine. I'm assuming you're talking about machine, but nonetheless I'll describe both. Natural gut, like polyester, is often feisty to work with. However, unlike gut, it doesn't matter if you kink poly. Kinking gut can easily damage it. So, manual prestretching is typically done to remove what's called the coil memory: the tendency for the string to go back into the shape it was packaged in. You take the loop of string at the halfway point and hook it around something solid, say a door handle, and pull backwards until the string is tensioned. As I was taught and as I've done with some strings, simply leaning backwards with your body weight is sufficient for a few seconds versus actively pulling on it with your arm.

Now machine prestretch is a different thing entirely. What this does is add a certain percentage of the reference tension to each string pull. As an example, you got your Tonic strung at 54. I can select on my machine if I want 5, 10, 15 or 20% prestretch. Let's say I do 20%. So, instead of pulling up to 54, the machine will overshoot 20% to 64.8 and then settle back down to 54. That overshoot removes elasticity in the string and improves tension stability. It also lessens the feel of the string for the same exact reason. It always comes down to preference of the player.

I should point out that you can prestretch by hand using the manual method above, but obviously there is no way to have a precise amount unless you're using some sort of force gauge. Either way, that's not an area I'm familiar with, so I'll defer that to someone like drak or Irvin who likely know how it's done.

For me personally, if it was gut crosses, I would do 10% prestretch if I would be using very lively poly mains since I want the crosses to have the best tension stability possible and to damp the power once the poly dies. If it's a less powerful poly, say B5E, I want as much feel as I can get so I do no prestretching. For gut mains, I do not prestretch for myself.

To answer your last question, I do not prestretch gut by default. I ask guys who play with gut if they want it, and typically if it's their first time playing with gut, I always recommend against it since it changes the characteristic of the string.

[rdis10093]

thanks for the info

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

As hinted at in U&C's thread, I think that after 2 years and 150+ pages, I am done playtesting. It says everything when a poly tested on the first page of the thread is the poly I am going to stick with now on the last page.

Also as mentioned there, I agree with his sentiment on strings. All of these setups from gut mains to Iso Baseline/OGSM are fine. Above all else, what I've learned most is that string choice is not about performance, rather it's about preference. I could have won a match using B5E/6Star just as I could have won it with that dreadful Wilson blue poly. THe only difference is that the ones I don't prefer detract from the fun. Performance wise, with a few exceptions, strings will get you where you need to go. So with that, I leave you with an analogy: cars.

I have an '02 Civic Si that I've owned since high school. I cross-shopped Subaru WRXs, Golf GTis, and even thought about replacing it this year with a myriad of newer and faster cars. And yet, none of them feel right. The steering in my Civic just has more feedback, the gear change feels higher quality, the interior is of astounding finish, the engine is just perfectly smooth, and the car has a perfect blend of power and fuel economy. All of those other cars would have done the job, but nothing to me feels right compared to my car, and I knew that the first time I test drove it 7 years ago.

Point being, I prefer my $6k Honda to a $26k Subaru for the same reasons I prefer my $6 Scorpion hybrid to a $20 gut hybrid. It just fits me, so on that note, I urge people again to take every review with a huge grain of salt. I'll still answer questions about any stringbed or strings, but active testing I believe to be over.

Sometimes you just need a break from play testing. I've enjoyed playing with the same setup the last few months. When a few packs of white Genesis Thunder Blast came in the mail last week, all of a sudden I felt the rush again.