I would strongly recommend you try to search before making a somewhat pointless thread about subjects that've been discussed plenty of times.
If I wanted to trawl through old discussions I would have done that bla. As it is, I want to have a live discussion. Whether the subject has been discussed here before is irrelevant to me. Neither do I agree with your opinion that the discussion will be pointless. You're not a moderator or other administrator are you, so why not just leave that task to them?
You should trawl through the old discussions..Because frankly..They already give you the answers you're looking for. I've done it in the last month or so and I do not see how they aren't relevant to the present. Even the threads started a couple of years ago.
Do a summary for me then Ch1k0. What are the factors that make a company's top grade shuttles superior to their lower grade offerings?
The summary is that the feathers and then the completed shuttles are evaluated by experienced eyes and a couple machines. No different from quality control in most industries . Better feathers are put on better cork. Better shuttles are put in higher rated tubes. The geese, on the other hand, pretty much all end up the same way. :-/
Thanks Fidget, but that doesn't answer the question. What makes a better feather a better feather? I looked at a cheap one and an expensive one last night, and I couldn't see what the differences in the feathers could be.
You are right, you cannot tell from visual and physical inspection ... the DIFFERENCE will only appear when you PLAY .... trust me, hell of a lot difference between shuttles ... GOLD STANDARD is Yonex AS50 ... why even "humble" Yonex AS30 is already heads above all the best of the majority of brands here in Malaysia (or at least the ones I have tested and used like RCL, RSL, Protech, APACS, Yang-Yang) Right now, I only using AS30 or the RCL Black Gold (the best of RCL) ... (about same price) Love them or hate them ... you have to admit that Yonex makes the BEST BIRDIES in the game (ref: Aerosensa 30 , 40 and 50 - not the Aeroclub rubbish ) . I just wish someone can do better than Yonex at a cheaper price but so far, NONE !!! SO SAD !! SO BLOODY EXPENSIVE !!
Try looking closely at the feathers. There can be a visible different between how the thickness of the feather stems. The feathers itself should feel finer on the more expensive shuttles. But it still depends on the price difference between your shuttles. If you're talking about a couple of dollars difference per tube then you'll just have to take it to the court to test.
SPECIAL WARNING DO NOT TRY YONEX AS30 and above ... IT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT !! Once you tried them, (if you are like me and appreciate a good birdy), you will always be spending the rest of your playing days comparing all other shuttles against them and then cursing and swearing as to WHY THEY CANNOT BE AS GOOD in terms of flight, timing, durability, consistency, feel and WHY YONEX IS SO EXPENSIVE ? No joke, top-end Yonex Aersonesa birides are like drugs .... highly addictive, give you a GREAT HIGH and FEEL and expensive !! PS: If you have never tried them at least ONCE (esp Aerosensa 50), then you will never know what a TRULY HIGH GRADE BIRDY is like .... wish I am a MILLIONAIRE and can buy them without batting my eyelids or developing a nervous twitch each time the till rings !!
I don't know what contributes to the differences but the appearance can be deceiving. Some appeared to be well made birdies can fly too slow or too fast, or great at first then slow down significantly after awhile even though the feathers still looked good. I haven't tried very few brands and the one I settled with was the EG1130 which maintains its speed quite well even though the feathers started to fall apart. Sadly, their quality drops significantly since this year. I still have 2 tubes from the old batch to go but after that, I don't know. Maybe I will try the RSL Classic Tourney. Hopefully they would address the EG1130 problem soon but I am not optimistic as the manufacturer was obviously trying to cut cost.
Please go through this website (link below) - all the sections esp experiments & facts may contain the answers you seek: http://www.yonex.com/shuttle_news/history/index.html
To most players it may be difficult to tell the difference in quality between different grades of shuttlecocks. However, for those in the shuttlecock manufacturing business this is easy. Each manufacturer will have a range of grades which are priced according to their quality. The best shuttlecocks are made from goose feathers. Duck feathers are of lower grade. However, there are many grades of goose feathers and also duck feathers, and they are sorted out by grades before manufacture. For the consumer one way you can test the shuttle quality is to test out the speed test appropriate to the hall and the shuttle speed, provided you are an average player. The other way is to find out if the shuttlecock can still be playable after say one feather has fallen off. High quality shuttlecocks have very high rotational speed that are not as severely affected by one missing feather because of their exceptional feather shaft resilience and strength. If a shuttlecock slows down too mush after a game or two then the quality is not Super Series quality.
taneepak, I remember reading somewhere that you are consulting for some companies that are creating new shuttles, to be as good as AS50, if not better, how is the progress ? Anything for us to test out ?
Here are a couple of you tube videos about shuttle production posted by one of the major manufacturers.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK0c2xKQb8Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiAdro2SwvU&feature=youtube_gdata_player I like the speed test.