Best electronic machine for the money?

P

pvaudio

Legend
Hey guys, I'm back with another question for this forum. About a year ago, I bought a Eagnas Flex 940. It's a great machine, but I want to improve it. The clamp bases aren't spring assisted, so I ordered those as replacements for a ridiculous $230. They aren't here yet, but this is the thing: if they don't make my stringing life a good deal easier, I want to get rid of the machine and get something better. I was considering also purchasing a Wise tension head for it and turning it into an electronic machine, but at that point, I would have spent as much money as buying a decent electronic machine like a Gamma 6900. So, it comes down to this: for the money, what is the best electronic machine out there? I'm looking at $1500 or so which will be a bit more than what I would have spent total improving the machine I already have (I don't particularly like the fact that the clamps only have three teeth either as it puts too much pressure on too little area of the string and can cause ghosting if I'm not careful). So, IYO, what you you consider when looking at a good quality, electronic stringer? :)
 
If I were you, I would see if you could return the spring assisted bases. I don't care what anyone here says, but the Eagnas cone lock bases work fine. They are very simple and don't require as much pressure as some people tend to believe. From my Eagnas, I upgraded to a Gamma 6004 which has very high quality spring assisted bases. They are very nice but I wouldn't say it was multiple times better than the cone lock bases. Prior to my Gamma, I bought a Wise. I also bought the Wise adapter for a Gamma, and then a diablo. It all adds up, and I wish I just bought a stand alone electric machine.

Lot's of people here say they like adding a Wise to their crank and hang on the crank in case of an emergency. It will be only a rare occasion that you will use that crank again. I used mine once when I was out of power for a week during Hurricane Ike in Houston. And that was because I was so bored.

In retrospect, I wish I would have bought one of the higher end Gamma machines.
 
I bought them thinking that I was just going to upgrade the machine, then I realized that I really wanted a Wise head, and then realized that I wanted upgraded clamps themselves, then realized that I'm an idiot and I could have bought a good electronic machine for the same amount of money, which is why I'm stopping halfway and starting to look at electronic machines.
 
Best electronic machine for the $ as you ask, may be best to look for a decent used. On the big auction site there is a Star 2 with a star 3 mounting conversion done by Babolat.Said orig. owner. Seems like reasonable price. This could make a decent electronic at a lower price to someone looking for an electronic.But like anything used theres always a ? of just how good it is, but then there is the $ issue.
 
^^^Although the star 2 is a great machine, I would stay away from the one on the auction site. I got word from Vahn at Babolat that they have discontinued the parts (electronics) for the star 2 and 3. So, whatever is left is it.

Also, I think that machine is overpriced. A good star 3 goes for less.

Just my two cents.
 
I recently upgraded my machine to a 6004 2-point mount from my 5003. Though the 5003 was a big upgrade from the Flex 940 I had before, then adding a Wise 2086, I was satisfied.

I had dislocated my left thumb back in Dec. and using the Gamma Quick action clamps, somewhat aggravated my previously dislocated thumb. I got the 6004 used from a local seller. It's a much nicer machine, than the 5003 I had. As for the Switch Action clamps on the 6004, they are much easier to use, but I have to get used to the snap-back when releasing the clamps.

Getting back to my decision to upgrade, I personally upgraded slowly, as I did not have the budget to buy a mid-level electronic machine which is in the mid $1000s. Though what I spent to get to where I am now, I could of bought one. What I made on string jobs, made it possible to upgrade to a newer machine.

In a nutshell, if you have the money to buy a better machine, buy it. If you can't make due with what you have and upgrade later.

PV, find a better machine and sell your Flex 940, it's way cheaper than upgrading it to what essentially is a Combo 910.
 
yeah i agree with all these posts. Although i am not sure about the right electronic stringing machine, its been interesting reading thru this thread.
 
although i just got my new 910, i'd agree with the fact it's not worth the upgrade.

sell the 940 and get what you really want, or get a 910 and upgrade to a wise later. that's my tentative plan, although not sure i'll ever NEED a wise.

the nicer clamps work great (eagnas spring assisted on the 910). effortless. i was "worried" about the extra move (compared to the neos with glide bars i used BITD). easy as pie.
 
tbuggle said:
although i just got my new 910, i'd agree with the fact it's not worth the upgrade.

sell the 940 and get what you really want, or get a 910 and upgrade to a wise later. that's my tentative plan, although not sure i'll ever NEED a wise.
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He's just ordered the upgraded clamps, essentially upgrading to a Combo 910. No need to buy another Combo 910 if you already have one. The next step up would be something like a Plus 6500 or Gamma 6000 series, with a Wise 2086.

You may prefer the crank now, but after using a Wise 2086 or other Electric CP machine, you'll never want to go back.

To get back to the thread: A decent electronic machine worth considering is an Eagnas Plus 8000 for about $1300, or a Smart 6000. If you are still considering an Eagnas.

For PV FWIW: I sold off parts from a Flex 740 I picked up. I got $50 for the pair of Cone Lock base clamps. Since you now have a Combo 910 you can sell it for at least the price of one, instead of the Flex 940 price.
 
Honestly, I don't think I'll be doing Eagnas again. I haven't had any problems with my machine, but you do get what you pay for. The fit and finish is good, but not great. The clamps are good, but not great. The tensioner is good, but not great. The finish of the parts is mediocre at best. THe paint was chipped already when I got it and looks like someone just took a rattle can to it. I'm going elsewhere because although I haven't had problems with their CS, if I'm going over the $1k mark, I want top notch everything for my money. There is a Gamma 7500 ELS going for 1500 max on the bay, so I think I might just drop the money now considering that's nearly half off the new price and it's been barely used and then worry about selling the Eagnas later. Get it while the getting's good I say :D

Or, I could get a new Gamma 6900 new off TW and bite the bullet or a Mutual Power Atlas for 1k brand new. Thoughts?
 
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$1800 for a new Gamma 6900 vs $500 for a new Wise added to a Flex 940 with spring-assisted clamp upgrade. I know which way I'd go.
 
Funny you metion MP, coz they are in the same league as Eagnas. Gamma seems to be a better option. You might be better off buying Dan's (dgdawg) DG.
 
beernutz said:
$1800 for a new Gamma 6900 vs $500 for a new Wise added to a Flex 940 with spring-assisted clamp upgrade. I know which way I'd go.
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Thanks for letting me know your choice. No matter what way you slice it, the difference is only going to be 200 maximum and if I go that route, I'll get a purpose built electronic stringer, and not a hodge podge job with upgrades and an aftermarket tensioner.
 
pvaudio said:
Thanks for letting me know your choice. No matter what way you slice it, the difference is only going to be 200 maximum and if I go that route, I'll get a purpose built electronic stringer, and not a hodge podge job with upgrades and an aftermarket tensioner.
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The difference is going to be $1300, not $200. The money you've already spend is gone (sunk cost). It really shouldn't figure into your purchase decision. You should consider what your resale for the Flex 940 + new clamps would be if you planned on selling them when buying an electronic machine and factor that in, but not its new cost imo.

The Wise option has the advantage of being able to go back to a manual stringer should your power go out or if something goes wrong with the Wise itself. The same is not true for the dedicated electronic machine.

You sound like your mind is made up though so good luck to you whichever way you decide to go.
 
beernutz said:
The difference is going to be $1300, not $200. The money you've already spend is gone (sunk cost). It really shouldn't figure into your purchase decision. You should consider what your resale for the Flex 940 + new clamps would be if you planned on selling them when buying an electronic machine and factor that in, but not its new cost imo.

The Wise option has the advantage of being able to go back to a manual stringer should your power go out or if something goes wrong with the Wise itself. The same is not true for the dedicated electronic machine.

You sound like your mind is made up though so good luck to you whichever way you decide to go.
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High school econ doesn't really apply in this situation. The cost difference between what I would have spent upgrading the machine vs. selling it and getting a completely different type is far more relevant than looking only at the sunk cost.

As far as the electronic machines go, I don't understand why people keep bringing this up as a disadvantage. If my power goes out for some reason, the last thing I will be thinking about is playing tennis, let alone stringing racquets.
 
pvaudio said:
As far as the electronic machines go, I don't understand why people keep bringing this up as a disadvantage. If my power goes out for some reason, the last thing I will be thinking about is playing tennis, let alone stringing racquets.
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Good one. I keep saying that to my self over and over again.
 
pvaudio said:
High school econ doesn't really apply in this situation. The cost difference between what I would have spent upgrading the machine vs. selling it and getting a completely different type is far more relevant than looking only at the sunk cost.

As far as the electronic machines go, I don't understand why people keep bringing this up as a disadvantage. If my power goes out for some reason, the last thing I will be thinking about is playing tennis, let alone stringing racquets.
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Wow, reading comprehension is obviously not your strong suit. Go back and read ALL of what I wrote. If you didn't want people responding with their opinions why did you start this thread?
 
^^^ Totally agree! We are just trying to help, and it seems PV has his mind set. If he's not satisfied with what he currently has then he needs to buy something that will. If he buys something within his budget, it may not be what he really wants. To me it sounds like buyer remorse.
 
hmm Pav brought up a good case. And maybe he just sees an electronic machine superior to a crank. And people give the excuse that if your power goes out you can't use electric. But when is that ever going to happen? my last power out happened 5 years ago and lasted only 1hr. Last thing id wanna do is string. So it doesn't matter at all.
 
There was a day last year when the local electric company decided to replace a transformer in the neighborhood, which took 8 hours during the day. At the time I did not have my Wise 2086 Pro, yet, but had a few rackets to string. I would not have been able to complete the rackets, if I had a Star 5 or any other fully electronic machine.

Sure, a brownout does not happen often, but it's possible. Depending on where you live it happens more often than you think.
 
beernutz said:
Wow, reading comprehension is obviously not your strong suit. Go back and read ALL of what I wrote. If you didn't want people responding with their opinions why did you start this thread?
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What are you talking about? I read exactly what you wrote. You told me to consider what I could get on the resale + upgrades and compare that with the cost of buying a new machine. I did that already. What you are neglecting in your argument is that I would also have bought a Wise tension head, meaning that you need to add that into the value of the machine. I'm not saying what I will get out of it by selling; I'm saying the amount of money I will end up spending in either direction when going electric will amount to a few hundred different.

Lakers4Life said:
^^^ Totally agree! We are just trying to help, and it seems PV has his mind set. If he's not satisfied with what he currently has then he needs to buy something that will. If he buys something within his budget, it may not be what he really wants. To me it sounds like buyer remorse.
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And no, I welcome your opinions completely, I just don't think that you understood what I was implying. :)
 
And someone please tell me that the 7500ELS isn't a very good machine because the seller changed his ad to have the starting price at 750 higher than it was yesterday when I could have "bought it now" for less than the current starting price :(
 
Lakers4Life said:
There was a day last year when the local electric company decided to replace a transformer in the neighborhood, which took 8 hours during the day. At the time I did not have my Wise 2086 Pro, yet, but had a few rackets to string. I would not have been able to complete the rackets, if I had a Star 5 or any other fully electronic machine.

Sure, a brownout does not happen often, but it's possible. Depending on where you live it happens more often than you think.
Click to expand...
Again, that may be, but whenever my power goes out, I don't often think about stringing tennis racquets. That plus I'm a college student so I only string on free days anyway, so it's not like my major source of income is from stringing racquets. That's why I'm arguing that it's irrelevant to include that.

My main source of income is designing loudspeakers which I need my computer to do so. To use your analogy, I could design a pair of 2-way monitors by hand using a calculator and reference texts, but if my power goes out, the last thing I would be wanting to do is designing audio equipment.
 
pvaudio said:
And someone please tell me that the 7500ELS isn't a very good machine because the seller changed his ad to have the starting price at 750 higher than it was yesterday when I could have "bought it now" for less than the current starting price :(
Click to expand...

I saw that as well. I would take a long hard look at the Silent Partner DG or Aria, before dropping the kind of money that guy wants for the 7500 on the auction site. It may be like new, but it is still used, and discontinued.
 
pvaudio said:
What are you talking about? I read exactly what you wrote. You told me to consider what I could get on the resale + upgrades and compare that with the cost of buying a new machine. I did that already. What you are neglecting in your argument is that I would also have bought a Wise tension head, meaning that you need to add that into the value of the machine. I'm not saying what I will get out of it by selling; I'm saying the amount of money I will end up spending in either direction when going electric will amount to a few hundred different.



And no, I welcome your opinions completely, I just don't think that you understood what I was implying. :)
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I am talking about exactly what I wrote which you still fail to comprehend. I first said to compare your out of pocket to buy a new machine to the out of pocket for upgrading your existing machine with a Wise. I then added in the next post that if you plan to sell your existing machine you should subtract that value from what you would pay for the new machine. You can spin it any way that you want but that is what was written. At this point I've lost interest in you and your problems so, as I said before good luck. That is not what I'm thinking of course, but I'm too polite to write that.
 
Cfidave said:
I saw that as well. I would take a long hard look at the Silent Partner DG or Aria, before dropping the kind of money that guy wants for the 7500 on the auction site. It may be like new, but it is still used, and discontinued.
Click to expand...

I agree on the DG or Aria. I would call SP and find out if they have any demos. You can get a demo DG for less than $1000 and I had one for a while and sold it due to time (or lack thereof) and it was a great machine for me. I liked it almost as much as the Star III that I learned to string on.
 
beernutz said:
I am talking about exactly what I wrote which you still fail to comprehend. I first said to compare your out of pocket to buy a new machine to the out of pocket for upgrading your existing machine with a Wise. I then added in the next post that if you plan to sell your existing machine you should subtract that value from what you would pay for the new machine. You can spin it any way that you want but that is what was written. At this point I've lost interest in you and your problems so, as I said before good luck. That is not what I'm thinking of course, but I'm too polite to write that.
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Okay, I don't know where exactly the attitude is coming from, because I understood clearly what you said and it's what I've been thinking the entire time. Whether or not I conveyed that to you is irrelevant as it seems as though you're upset about something that I am completely missing, so please feel free to leave the thread if you're getting this worked up over such a simple question. Your location, curiously enough, is no longer surprising to me.
 
Baseline13 said:
I agree on the DG or Aria. I would call SP and find out if they have any demos. You can get a demo DG for less than $1000 and I had one for a while and sold it due to time (or lack thereof) and it was a great machine for me. I liked it almost as much as the Star III that I learned to string on.
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That's actually a great idea, thanks for the tip. I'll do that on monday. :shock:
 
i contacted Silent partner a while back and asked them to email me if a demo came up, its been a month still nothing.
 
Cfidave said:
I saw that as well. I would take a long hard look at the Silent Partner DG or Aria, before dropping the kind of money that guy wants for the 7500 on the auction site. It may be like new, but it is still used, and discontinued.
Click to expand...
Indeed. He has raised the price 3x now if you look at the auction history. I emailed him and he said that he's strung less than 50 frames on it, but as you say, at the end of the day, it is discontinued.
 
This is my last post in this thread. DGdawg (Dan) has a SP DG for sale, if he has not sold it yet. It's probably as good as a demo, but you should talk to him about it. I'm done.
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions guys; I don't understand what upset beernutz and lakers4life, but I apologize if I offended you in any way. I'm just looking for suggestions on an electronic stringer; not an argument as to why I shouldn't get one. :)

I will update once I look around a bit more; I got my spring clamps in today (under 1 week shipped from CA!) and will be installing them later tonight or tomorrow and will make another thread about them and how the machine feels.
 
Interesting thread. I have an EAGNAS 940 and also bought the upgraded clamps and then bought the Wise tension head. I also was never happy with the build quality of the Eagnas. I recently bought a Gamma 7500 els from a nearby tennis shop. The one I bought had a good amount of use but as a professional machine, it is built to have use. Yes it is no longer made but Gamma still supports it with parts and service.
Stringing frames is a joy with the gamma versus the eagnas. I think that the string jobs are more consistent.
For me the Gamma purchase has been worthwhile and I wish I didnt go through the cost of all the upgrades and would have gotten a better machine to start. But I had no idea that I would end up liking stringing as much as I do or that I would string as many rackets as I do!

JND28
 
jnd28 said:
Interesting thread. I have an EAGNAS 940 and also bought the upgraded clamps and then bought the Wise tension head. I also was never happy with the build quality of the Eagnas. I recently bought a Gamma 7500 els from a nearby tennis shop. The one I bought had a good amount of use but as a professional machine, it is built to have use. Yes it is no longer made but Gamma still supports it with parts and service.
Stringing frames is a joy with the gamma versus the eagnas. I think that the string jobs are more consistent.
For me the Gamma purchase has been worthwhile and I wish I didnt go through the cost of all the upgrades and would have gotten a better machine to start. But I had no idea that I would end up liking stringing as much as I do or that I would string as many rackets as I do!

JND28
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Good lord, what are the odds that you have the same machine, did the same upgrades, then looked at the exact same electronic machine to replace it? :shock:
 
Yeah this is a coincidence! I wasnt really looking for the Gamma. I had gotten in the habit of checking the local Craigs List for stringing machines. Truth be known I would have more than happy with a prince NEOS that I could have added my wise tension head to. I think that is a fine set up. The Prince is built like a rock and with the wise you would get the constant pull benefit.
WHen I saw the Gamma for sale I did a little research and decided what the hey. It has been great. The digital string measuring deal is terrific. It is a bit of a beast to move around.

JNd28
 
Okay, at that price point, I've really only (as far as I know) have two choices for new machines: the Gamma 6900 ELS and the Silent Partner Aria. Which would you pick and why?
 
Sorry I would give my input but i don't have experience with any of these machines, and haven't really looked into these machines as they're just a little bit out of my price range :P Wish i could help though.

However based on first impressions, both machines look really good. However i am not really a big fan of rotational grippers, and a great deal of people liked using linear grippers more. I don't know how much it matters to you, but if i were going up to 2k i would try to invest a bit more on a linear gripper. I heard it's easier to use, and doesn't damage the string as much :) Just my opinion.
 
If you have the wise tension head you might want to look at the price neos 1500. I think that would be a great set up. Or I would look at the gammas 5800 or 6800.

JND28
 
jnd28 said:
If you have the wise tension head you might want to look at the price neos 1500. I think that would be a great set up. Or I would look at the gammas 5800 or 6800.

JND28
Click to expand...
...I take it you didn't read the thread. The point is that I want an electronic machine in lieu of upgrading my Eagnas to have a Wise head.
 
I think what hes trying to say is that with the quality and simplicity of the prince neos, and with the quality and efficiency of the wise, it is better than any machine worth at the 2k value.

In my opinion if you're already willing to spend as much as 2k on a machine i suggest saving more and getting a used babolat star 3/4/5. I am placing an order for a neos 1000 this upcoming week, and may buy a wise tension head later on.
 
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