Panda Power: A Racket That Can Take 40lbs. String Tension!

Discussion in 'Badminton Rackets / Equipment' started by DinkAlot, Apr 22, 2009.

  1. cobalt

    cobalt Moderator

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    Can Panda tell us a little more about the Revelation, and what it contains?

    Are there are special fillings or sound enhancers/dampers?
    If compared to the AT900 series, would it play more like a P or a T?

    Revelation-related merchandising:
    Will Panda ship each racquet with a bunch of extra Revelation grommets?
    Will Panda enclose a gold-leaf embossed Certificate of Authenticity? and finally,
    Will Panda introduce a special "Tony G" signature series with a wicked red streak running down the shaft? :D
     
  2. maxout

    maxout Regular Member

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    Does it come with a RACQUET BAG ? So far, I have not seen a pix of it or did I miss it somewhere in the 362 pages ? :D
     
  3. amleto

    amleto Regular Member

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    I presume it will come with the same cloth bag as usual for DC badminton rackets
     
  4. BOUBOS1957

    BOUBOS1957 Regular Member

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    Who seriously use the bag or any padded cover offered by the others??? Can't fit many racquets in our bag when you have them all in their protecting covers.

    I'd rather let Panda keep the bag and the money that it is worth and use it for development or else.... maybe a decent overgrip that we need to add anyway???
     
  5. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    The cloth bags are fine. Not everybody uses overgrips (towel grips rule!) and the cotton bags are super to use when you really carry a lot of rackets in your bag - that way you can put every 2nd racket into one and they won't get scratched :) Especially useful to guys like me who often go to training with 4 rackets and come back with 9 - or the other way around^^ Then you can roll that bag up and it doesn't use any space when it's not needed.
     
  6. visor

    visor Regular Member

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    ^^ To protect my rackets in the bag, I just slidet my rackets alternately in old Yonex racket head covers. This way I can easily identify them from the handle and slide out the one I need.
     
  7. what07

    what07 Regular Member

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    honestly I don't use the cloth bags anymore as everytime i attempt to just pull one out I end up dragging another 2 with the first one :p

    But the cloth bags are nice, imo adds a nice touch to the purchase.
     
  8. CanucksDynasty

    CanucksDynasty Regular Member

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    I keep cloth bags. The case some rackets comes with just sits in my closet.
     
  9. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    I use the racket covers that came with my Oliver T50P for regular rackets as well, having 2 of them in my bag. That way I can take 4-5 of my own rackets. I have 2-3 cloth bags ready though as I can get quite a few rackets to string, especially after a weekend with league matches (competition). That way I can put up to 6 extra rackets in my bag, or if that is too full because of my other stuff pressing the rackets together, I can use one bag to carry a few separately.
    Used to take one of the Li Ning racket bags with me, but tended to forget that one in the gym and that's just too risky :D
     
  10. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    Well, I've been allowed to post something, so here are some musings after 6-7 hrs with the all-woven Rev. Running against my PPro with the same weight, balance, string and grip.


    Looks - stunning, even with no stickers on it. A really close weave sitting under a glass-like surface. I haven't seen the intended graphics yet, but I hope there's plenty of white.

    Stringing - I don't know what the warrantied tension will be, but it should laugh at anything up to mid-30's. Stronger both in-plane and, especially, out-of-plane than the PPro.



    Power - I think I went too tight with the silver stuff to begin with, but it came good once it was played in, to the point where I had to adjust very slightly downward from the PPro. Forehand clears were going long, backhand clears were going long, and I got penetration on anything below the horizontal, especially with drives. The sweet spot is a bit bigger as well.

    Control - even moving the racket to address the shuttle feels more composed. The head and shaft are a really good match, making the racket feel even more of a “unit” than the PPro. The shaft recovers from bending very quickly as well - absolutely no "lag" before the impact or "flop" after it (I hope you know what I mean here). Very direct, and took me some getting used to.

    Feel - supplants the PPro, and probably everything else. The thin frame combined with the woven structure carries every last sensation down to the hand; close to perfect in this regard. Even the sound is better - more compact and “bright”. Weirdly, while frame hits sounded awful, I got absolutely no bad vibration at the handle. This was delightfully unexpected given how much feel I got from the good hits.

    Stability - where woven carbon shines. Twisting the empty frame in the hand gives the least torque I’ve ever seen from a racket with such a thin profile, and I couldn't knock it off line in play. Round-the-head forehand clears are a good test for this (for me, anyway), and they all went straight up the line, where less stable rackets tend to push them wide.
     
  11. Fidget

    Fidget Regular Member

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    It sounds like it is true to the characteristics of the fine stiff solid creations of Panda. One question for MarkA: Is this an accessible racket? Or is it one of those technique dependent machines where the less-than-advanced are 'verboten'?
     
  12. maxout

    maxout Regular Member

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    How does it compare against Yonex ? What will be the closest equivalent? I am trying to get a benchmark comparison. PPro is still unknown to me.
     
    #6152 maxout, Nov 3, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2012
  13. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    I had absolutely no problem coming from the PPro. The woven swing is "smoother" (hard to describe, but those who know, know:). The bigger sweetspot makes it more friendly, if anything.
     
  14. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    There is no direct Yonex equivalent to the PPro in terms of frame - you've got to go to Victor for that - but with regard to stiffness, I, personally, would put it betwen Yonex's "stiff" and "extra stiff" categories.
     
  15. visor

    visor Regular Member

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    Mark: How's the accuracy compared to PPro now that the shaft is slightly flexier?
     
  16. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    Not "flexier", per se - the static and dynamic stiffness are the same as far as I can see - but the racket as a whole is much more "integrated". Result: very accurate. I play a lot of tape stuff at the net and in the midcourt (a "patient" game, IOW), and it's extremely amenable.
     
  17. visor

    visor Regular Member

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    Good to hear. How's about accuracy of shots with more power eg. line drives, smashes?
     
  18. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    As I said in the review, my "go to" shot for testing this kind of thing is the up-the-line round-the-head clear from the deep backhand corner. With some rackets I have to aim almost toward the middle of the court to get them up the line. With the Rev... well, put it this way: in one game, I hit two shots so close to that rear corner that we had to replay the point both times because no decision could be made as to whether it was in or out.

    I don't think I hit more than half a dozen shots wide all evening, come to think of it.
     
  19. Borbor

    Borbor Regular Member

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    I am with mark on this one. The PPro's shaft makes me question whether yonex rates the stiffness with the same scale, because the xstiff they rate the ZF as, the PPro is stiffer than that IMO.Cant wait to get my hands on the shiny panda :D
     
  20. what07

    what07 Regular Member

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    Mark, how would you compare the Rev to the UltraPro?
     

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