donnay pro1 97 xenecore in da house --> surprisingly head-heavy (pic)

[wallymann]

dealing with forearm/elbow injury...picked up these new donnay pro1 xenecores, the latest octacore design that's supposedly super arm-friendly, a product of the foam-core design i guess.

anyways, they're really head-heavy! my preferred spec is a heavy static but head-light setup --> 362g @ 321sw.

with these racquets, just adding an overgrip and some head-protection tape i'm at 343g with 341sw --> so 19g light and 20sw points heavy compared to my desired spec...WTH?!

guessing that's the trade-of with adding a foam core: more mass distributed around the head.

unfortunately the laws of physics do not allow me to reduce sw...so i'm basically stuck here.

figure i'll give 'em a shot as is...already own them!

 

[gold325]

Quality Control issues - Donnay in its current incarnation is supposedly terrible in both specs and racket durability.

 

[McGradey]

Have those been customised by yourself? Looks like some fairly random strips of lead on the blue-taped one? And they both seem to have tape over the head guard unless my eyes are deceiving me ... is that how the racquets are presented upon delivery?

 

[wallymann]

Have those been customised by yourself? Looks like some fairly random strips of lead on the blue-taped one? And they both seem to have tape over the head guard unless my eyes are deceiving me ... is that how the racquets are presented upon delivery?

one racquet was 6g lighter -- when adding the 6g of lead, i had to place bits as shown to get the SW to match @ 341. so not random...it's physics!

also, i have really thin head-tape covering the bumpers -- i'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy -- i do this to all my racquets. even if i strip it off, its only a few grams and a couple kg-cm points.

 

[Tennisist]

Something is not right. I have some donnays 97 ( not octacores ) — they are 318-320 sw. What’s the balance?

 

[wallymann]

Something is not right. I have some donnays 97 ( not octacores ) — they are 318-320 sw. What’s the balance?

i back-tested my sw machine with my other racquets, just to make sure it hasnt lost calibration...everything is good.

both racquets measure 11mm HL --> which is ~3.5points HL, which is consistent with a higher SW of 341.

 

[Crocodile]

I think what one might need to do when ordering online from a company like Donnay is to ask them to measure the specs of the racquet they are selling you to confirm that the specs are accurate.
If you order a racquet and when it arrives is totally different then it’s a different racquet and should be sent back.
I think retailers should have the option to send back racquets to the agent that don’t match up to the specs. Many YouTube content makers also highlighted this problem when they received a demo to review and it was way off.
In the past Fischer used to have a no tolerance policy with their frames. Don’t know about Pacific today but will be interesting to test out.

 

[Kemitak]

I think what one might need to do when ordering online from a company like Donnay is to ask them to measure the specs of the racquet they are selling you to confirm that the specs are accurate.
If you order a racquet and when it arrives is totally different then it’s a different racquet and should be sent back.
I think retailers should have the option to send back racquets to the agent that don’t match up to the specs. Many YouTube content makers also highlighted this problem when they received a demo to review and it was way off.
In the past Fischer used to have a no tolerance policy with their frames. Don’t know about Pacific today but will be interesting to test out.

Wasn’t the Fischer zero tolerance like +-6g?

 

[Crocodile]

Wasn’t the Fischer zero tolerance like +-6g?

Maybe some Fischer people can verify,

 

[Tao69]

Quality Control issues - Donnay in its current incarnation is supposedly terrible in both specs and racket durability.

I ordered two, one cracked when I was stringing it up with Nat Gut @55lbs in the mains, not convinced it wasn't a QC issue with the frame.

I cut it up to have a look at how the Octacore is done (I took pics), its only got 8 cores in the shaft/handle, otherwise its 2 cores in the bridge and 4 cores in the hoop/throat.

I get the sense the multiple cores might be a bit of a sales gimmick, though without buying every iteration and comparing it would be hard to know.

Looking at the cross-sections, I'd say there's a compromise in the amount of graphite used in the outer part of the hoop to accomodate the weight of the cores and the foam, but I'd probably have to cut up a few other racquets for a comparison.