Don't wish to drag your thread off topic, but I can't help but ask some questions (as I'm considering either the X-Red or Dark Red):
1. How is the racquet for stability?
2. What about plow?
3. Is the sweetspot close to a 95sq", generous or small?
4. Is the racquet demanding or forgiving?
5. Powerful or low powered frame?
7. Does it play like the PB10 Mid? Or less polaraized?
Any replies greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen. And glad NXT showed up in the suggestions, because I'd like to give it a shot again. Used to play with a full bed of it in my KBlades and always loved the crisper feel, and I haven't gotten that crispness from the Vs. Gut like I thought I would (it was my first Vs. Gut full bed attempt, and it just felt too soft for my personal taste; I like a crisp, crunchy kind of feel) ... Now, onto answering Torres' Qs [this would be regarding the Dark Red; thoughts on Red further below]:
1. Stability is great. No trouble at all getting back hard-hit balls, whether from the baseline or at net.
2. Plow is SUPERB when you pop the heaviest 10g weightcap in. That weightcap also gives it a whipability that just crushes serves to the right spots. Even though it swings so much easier through the air, the plow of this frame is like a K90, but unfortunately doesn't have the K90s sublime feel of the ball. (hence my string search attempt to make it perfect).
3. Sweetspot is like a 95, very generous. One of the more generous frames I've had and I was puzzled by some on the boards that said these Donnays have small sweetspots. And then reassured when the sweet spot info came up on the Learning Center and confirmed that it was indeed very large.
4. Depends on your game. I'm a borderline 4.5 and find it similar in style/shot capabilities to the K90 and Volkl PB10 Mid, but easier to wield in the third set. Thin beam really makes it cut through the air so easily.
5. Extremely powerful. That's why I'm looking for a low-powered, control-oriented setup to tame it a bit.
6. Obviously yes, as I already stated. Feel is similar, too, in that it's a pretty soft frame and a tad flexy, and I'm doing the same thing now I did when I tried the PB10 Mid before: get a crisp-as-can-be string feel to balance out the softness.
Now, as for the Red 94, I tried it briefly and I will say that for me the Dark Red just seem to outperform it on every level - shot depth/quality, serve pop and consistency, stability - EXCEPT for feel. The Red 94 was a bit stiffer and I liked that it didn't flex quite as much, but I was hitting so much better with the Dark Red that I concentrated my tweaking efforts on the DR.
So in the end, I ended up buying a Dark Red for a long-term tweak to see if I can make it my go-to, since it has the most upside of any frame I've demoed in the last year-plus. I'm just trying to get the feel of it JUST right. My best setup was a full bed of Tourna Big Hitter Silver at high tension - that crisped the thing up very nicely and performed well - but the crispness was also just a tad wire-like in feel, so I'm looking into a hybrid setup (may try that Adrenaline/NXT combo). If that doesn't give me the desired feel, I'm going to go back to the Big Hitter Silver or another crisp feeling poly and play around with tension.
