Donnay Xenecore Fan Turbine

marco forehand

marco forehand

Semi-Pro
1st a little background, on a whim I placed a $1 demo request with Donnay so long ago I had forgotten about it. Early on they sent emails and called to offer big discounts on purchasing since the demos were out of stock. Haven't heard from them in months. No big deal

Yesterday I received an email with great news..... I can put in an order to begin building my own private wind turbine farm (no confirmed delivery date yet)
Plus the fans have Xenecore ! Maybe thats where my demo is ?

I'm not anti wind power (unconcerned about the cancer potential :)) but Donnay's rep does set my spidey sense off.



Donnay fanturbine
 
C

CMAXB

New User
Yeah...... I ordered a Formula 100 on the Black Friday sale then changed the order to a 102 Allwood(I’m changing from OS to MP and thought this would help my transition). The customer service was ok. Didn’t have problems changing my order but the order came in Today. I was told the order would ship on the 15th of December when I ordered it on the Black Friday sale, so they were only a few days late. The only complaint I had was I asked the racquet to be strung and it came unstrung. Then I checked the invoice and it stated ‘unstrung’ so maybe that was my fault. Idk. I’ve read a lot of mixed views on Donnay, but my personal experience hasn’t been to bad. I’m just ready to try this Allwood out.
 
vsbabolat

vsbabolat

G.O.A.T.
marco forehand said:
1st a little background, on a whim I placed a $1 demo request with Donnay so long ago I had forgotten about it. Early on they sent emails and called to offer big discounts on purchasing since the demos were out of stock. Haven't heard from them in months. No big deal

Yesterday I received an email with great news..... I can put in an order to begin building my own private wind turbine farm (no confirmed delivery date yet)
Plus the fans have Xenecore ! Maybe thats where my demo is ?

I'm not anti wind power (unconcerned about the cancer potential :)) but Donnay's rep does set my spidey sense off.



Donnay fanturbine
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I like how they say that Donnay Xenecore has disrupted the tennis industry. Lol:-D
 
dak95_00

dak95_00

Hall of Fame
I’m on their email list and a racquetholic. The only reason I haven’t purchased is because I’ve been injured and not playing. It also because I can’t find any reviews either.
 
SVP

SVP

Semi-Pro
marco forehand said:
1st a little background, on a whim I placed a $1 demo request with Donnay so long ago I had forgotten about it. Early on they sent emails and called to offer big discounts on purchasing since the demos were out of stock. Haven't heard from them in months. No big deal

Yesterday I received an email with great news..... I can put in an order to begin building my own private wind turbine farm (no confirmed delivery date yet)
Plus the fans have Xenecore ! Maybe thats where my demo is ?

I'm not anti wind power (unconcerned about the cancer potential :)) but Donnay's rep does set my spidey sense off.



Donnay fanturbine
Click to expand...
I purchased a Formula 100 International early on and am totally satisfied. The Donnay fanturbine story is hilarious though.
 
haqq777

haqq777

Legend
Current Donnay is never getting a recommendation from me as long as that slimey conman Howie Mathews is at the helm of this. Tons of horror stories. His Tennis Menace operation is equally shady. Btw, this new Donnay has nothing to do with Donnay of yore as I'm sure most here know.
 
tennisgurl

tennisgurl

Semi-Pro
haqq777 said:
Current Donnay is never getting a recommendation from me as long as that slimey conman Howie Mathews is at the helm of this. Tons of horror stories. His Tennis Menace operation is equally shady. Btw, this new Donnay has nothing to do with Donnay of yore as I'm sure most here know.
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Same. Avoid at all cost from my experience. Get used from classifieds if you want to try, aren't bad racquets honestly and I'm sure outside of US is a different story too, but inside US no way is Donnay getting my money. Very dubious business practices.
 
kailash

kailash

Hall of Fame
tennisgurl said:
Same. Avoid at all cost from my experience. Get used from classifieds if you want to try, aren't bad racquets honestly and I'm sure outside of US is a different story too, but inside US no way is Donnay getting my money. Very dubious business practices.
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Their website has the $1 demo program. Is that real or dubious too?
 
L

legrandLeconte

Rookie
kailash said:
Just some fancy names for foam filled racquets. How good are these compared to Angell?
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I prefer one 16mm beam foam filled to 26mm beam of nothing. IMO it is an interesting technological solution with advantages, but of course it does not bear the signature of wilson, head or babolat.

They are very different from Angell.
 
P

PistolPete23

Hall of Fame
Yes, the business appears shady and they have QC issues, but I think it's mostly due to the "new company" being severely understaffed and without much funding (and really bad marketing team, which last I checked consisted of just the owner). I had purchased two Pro One Penta 97 on clearance sale from a local carrier of the brand. The racquets play excellent and are still my main sticks, especially the 16x19. Very, very plush and stable, even more than my pair of IG Prestige mids that I also frequently hit with. Would I pay retail for them? Absolutely not, but with the nice deal I had, they were a total bargain.
 
topspn

topspn

Legend
I have fanned off any curiosity for the brand after dealing with them on a pro one frame at some point. Both QC and service seemed none existent.
 
A

Aus_Hack

New User
I purchased the Formula 100 Hexa back in Nov 2019, and recently on the Black Friday sale picked up a pair of Allwood 102 hexas.

Not sure if the Formula 100 is a unibody (like the Australian Tenx Pro Xcalibre racquet claims) but it is profiled. TennisNerd did a review on the Tenx.

I posted about my positive experience with the Formula 100, but I have since found it didn’t really suit my playing style for a more all court/net player. I didn’t get the feel on volleys like I did with my Prince Phantom Pro 100, and so struggled a little as I’m not a diehard baseliner.

For me, the Allwood is the middle ground and best of both - much much better feel off the stringbed, but still has more pop and much better defensive play than the Prince. Between the Allwood and Formula 100 I suspect the frame balance makes up some of the difference, and the rest with the constant 22mm beam. Feels soft but solid if that even makes sense, but I found it definitely has great feedback re: feel.

When I bought mine off the website, it noted in the text it would be an irregular cosmetic. That ended up being a matte finish instead of the glossy black and no details on the inside throat at all re: racquet specs. It does have the Allwood throat colours, and “ALLWOOD” in white at 3 & 9 o’clock inside the hoop, which I think looks pretty cool. The butt caps aren’t clear either (on any of my frames) - I too prefer it that way.

Mine also came strung; with what I have no idea but they are grey and feel like poly. As with the Formula 100s I haven’t gotten TE or GE after playing with it either (No 1 reason I’ve bought Donnay). I don’t get quite as much spin from the Allwood compared with the Formula 100 (it’s a spin machine) but get a reasonable amount. Will change the string setup shortly to see if I can improve on that.

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
P

PT280 Fan

Semi-Pro
No complaints here. My Pro One Gts are such a unique ride, big juicy sweet spot, comfortable yet touch sensitive, dare I say Plush, and that loud satisfying thump upon contact - easy power. I can see this frame someday getting the kind of afterburner attention that the PT280s got cause they is special.
 
E

esm

Legend
On the Donnay website, they said the Hexacore 97 16x19 is like the PT57A..... wat’d ya think? 8-B
 
P

PT280 Fan

Semi-Pro
esm said:
On the Donnay website, they said the Hexacore 97 16x19 is like the PT57A..... wat’d ya think? 8-B
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Yeah, so in reality I traded a couple of PT280s for these Pro One GTs. I traded because I'd recently gone to a lighter tweener frame (in my 60s) - the Beast 98 which has a 16/20 string pattern and I liked the access to easy spin and wanted something in the same ball park (the 280s are 18/20, the Pro One GTs are 16/19). Surprisingly, after adding some lead tape at 10 and 2 and modifying the grip to be rectangular like my 280s, this racket came in only .2 oz less than my 280s (12.1 as opposed to 12.3). And after the same mods, my Beast 98s were just a .1 oz behind my Pro Ones at 12.0.

Performance-wise: the Pro One obviously has better access to spin. Good and bad thing as the Pro One is better suited to take the offensive, but doesn't neutralize spin on defense like the 280s. The Pro One has much easier access to free power as for one thing, the sweet spot is ginormous, but maybe a little less touch sensitive - haven't found that killer dropper I had with the PT280s as yet. The Pro One has a much crisper feel overall. I play doubles primarily and my kicker is more effective with this stick. That being said, when I really lay into one, I think I get a little more oomph out of the PT280s, but overall, I've found the Pro Ones a little more effective for doubles serving. I also feel like maybe I volley a little more authoritatively with the Donnays as it's easier to find that sweet spot. Overall, I like the 16/19 and don't see myself going back to an 18/20 configuration anytime soon. (I kept one PT280 strung the same as I strung one of my Donnays (Zyex/Kevlar crossfire) at the same tension so all comparisons based on that.)

P.S. I should mention that this is not exactly the same racquet as the Hexacore 97 they show on the website. I can see through the handle that this is a quadcore. Also the racket indicates that it's unstrung weight is 310 g as opposed to 305 g. Balance is the same at 315 mm.
 
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