any opinions on tecnifibre x-one biphase 18g?

[chair ump]

I am planning on trying tecnifibre x-one biphase 18g in my 18 x 20 wilson ps classic. Does anybody have any thoughts, experience, or comments? I've never tried an 18g string, so I'm interested to hear what you have to say.

 

[robkat]

I just completed a test period over the last three months where I played with a few different 18g strings. They included X-One Biphase 18g, Gamma TNT 18g, NRG18 18g and Volkl Fiber power 18g, I also tested Legend Nat Gut 18g. Each string had between 4-6 hrs of play time before re stringing with the next. Here are a few thoughts.,nothing too detailed, of what I determined. First up was the X-one; Intially played very crisp with good bite on the ball. I liked it. It seemed like it held tension up unitl about the 4-5 hrs mark and then it started slowly losing it's tension. Next was the Gamma TNT 18g. Once again it played well, right off the start, after about 2-3 hours it lost it's tension and became dead. What I found unusal about it was, when it felt like it was dead the stringBed became very very stiff. NRG 18 was next. I was very surprised by this string. I have played with the 16& 17g versions and compared to those the 18g string seems like it has held it's tension much better. Also the NRG18 seemds very reslient, not much string movement compared to the X one and Gamma strings . Volkl Fibre Power 18g was up next . Of the four 18g strings, I played test(not including Legend 18g) this one seems to be the best. Good tension maintenance, very reslisent and plays very crisp. If I were to rate these strings inorder I would go: 1. Volkl Fibre Power, 2 NRG 18, 3 Xone ,4 TNT18g.
I put the X-one behind the NRG because the NRG seemed to be more durable which was surprising. In my experinece with the 17 and 16 gauges of NRG and X-one I would rate the X-one ahead of the NRG but in this case with the 18g strings,the NRG18 out played the X-one 18g. lastly the TNT18g. which played disapointing due to the bad strign maintenenace. Overall, it seemed Generation of Spin; Toppsin, slice ,off the ground or serving was pretty much the same for all of these strings. If I was to rate these four strings with Klip Legend 18g, there would be no comparison. The Legend 18g is an awesome string, probaly the best I have ever played with. It is crip, pockets the ball well. Superb playability. It seemed like the ball stays on the srtings for an a long time. I was able to generate excellent spin, incredable slice. Ball speed off of the string bed was excellent !!

 

[chair ump]

Thanks a lot for your thoughts Robkat! That was helpful. Where is the best place to find the legend nat gut 18g? And how expensive?

 

[robkat]

You can get Klip Legend 18g right here on TW;

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageACKLIP-KLNG18.html