First of all I should say this is hard, because you know when you re-tie one shoelace and suddenly the other feels loose, whereas it didn't before? Humans are suckers for relative comparison. I'm also reasonably new to tennis, so take my opinion in that context. However, I am quite a sensitive (yeah, ok, picky too!) and have a lot of experience setting up racing cars and mixing music - so am no strange to A B A comparisons and feeling for small differences.
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Right now, what's clear in my head is the three rackets I have in my bag and played with yesterday. Out of those, the 98 16x19 has the most power, the 100 v8 noticeably less, and it's early days, but I think very close to that, but just below it, is the 98 18x20 (I'll know more tonight after I've played with the 18x20 properly). Another poster above agreed with this order, so I'm happy with that, but can update after tonight playing properly with the 18x20 for the first time. The other racket I've tried recently is the Head Gravity MP, and that had a little more power than the 98 16x19 (professionally matched to be the same strings, same tension, same SW as my 100), and noticeably less control. Much further back than that, two years ago, I spent a month or two with a Pure Aero 100 and then an eZone 100; that's hard for me to judge as it's so long ago, but unsurprisingly I think they both had more power again, and less control too. So yes, the 98 16x19 isn't a power racket, but it's not lacking power or spin by any means; in fact it has more than my Blade 100 v8.
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The more salient factor here is the way the 98 16x19 delivers its power. The You Tuber posted recently put it very well, and his words matched mine a few posts up almost word for word, which is interesting as I'd not seen his test when I wrote that. You feel the ball get sucked into the string, which initially sounds nice because you expect to be able to place it afterwards, but that's not the case - it then gets fired out, and the launch angle and power of that firing are a little to judge. This is extremely subtle when hitting with a machine or against the wall, and initially I actually loved this feeling and was ready to buy two and sell my 100s. However, when I took the racket to a club night and played against other people, I was bewildered by the lack of control I had. The difference was the speed of the balls coming in, and my will to place them where I wanted them. I enjoyed the soft buttery feel, but I just wasn't in full control.
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I should immediately say that I made a mistake matching the 98 16x19 v9 to my 100 v8. I got the all up weight and balance the same, as one can do easily at home, but later on, on a swingweight machine, I discovered that the 98 had a 330 SW, whereas my 100 is 320 SW. This will have contributed to the effects I describe above, and I haven't tried it properly yet with a lower SW. I doubt that explains everything though, as others have confirmed this feeling after playing with it stock.
None of these are power rackets, so we are talking relatively here of course. If you want power, you buy an eZone or similar.
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. I'm not sure what is wrong in my swing but for Blade it doesn't produce enough power. CX 400 Tour and Percept control racquets had better power for myself. PS X also much better for my swing.
