So I had a chance to string up and play with both the Revolution and Kirsh Helix this past weekend and once yesterday side by side:
Set-up: full poly
Tension: 51 lbs
Total play-time: 3.5hrs
Type of Play: Mostly drilling, with some practice tie-breaks and ground stroke points
Weather: a bit colder – cloudy. I forgot to note exact temperature, but I’d say mid-60s, and felt some pressure/humidity.
HELIX:
I heard a lot of good stuff about proline 2, and gave it a try, but didn’t really think too much of it. Not nearly the same level of crisp feel, pop and control vs lux alu. This helix string however was pretty interesting and more importantly, my friend gave me a set for free! Anyways, overall thoughts:
Overall – better string than pro-line 2 IMO. If I had to point to 1 thing it would be the feel/control of the string. Better spin potential but not anything too crazy like the TB. Main issue on this is the pop factor. I like a string that has a lot of pop and control at the same time (which lux and I’m finding Tour bite has as well). Without the pop, I feel like you’re at a disadvantage – taking a water pistol to a gun fight. With just a powerful string, yeah you can get pop on the ball, but if you can’t feel very confident about how the ball will fly and hit out aggressively on the ball and its useless… So in this case its got decent control but not the pop factor (if this all makes sense).
REVOLUTION
Went back and forth between the helix and the revolution and I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that I liked the Revolution better than the Helix. Better spin, which I think translated into better control, as I found the balls that I was hitting out on dipping back into the court…and biggest difference was the POP. The ball coming off the string bed was a totally different feel with the Revolution. My hitting partner could tell the difference immediately in terms of how the ball was more penetrating and heavier.
In terms of tension loss, I’m going to probably have to play at least another session or two before I can really comment on that. Both strings at this point feel fine in terms of tension loss.
I really liked the tour bite - and the bite it had. Need to play a bit more with the Rev to come to a final decision /comparison between those two.