Been offered a couple of these at a fair price from an ex international junior. What I'm wondering is if anyone's had any experience with them and what type of player they think that racket suits. EDIT: I mean Arcsabre obviously.
A great all-round racquet. Even balanced, stiff, forgiving and good control. Power is not so easy to extract but is definitely available if you can time it well enough. I highly rate this racquet as one of the best that Yonex has produced. I'm actually looking for a spare so would be interested if one became available at a good price.
Thanks for that. I've read all the reviews and watched videos plus what this guy told be and it sounds a great racket for someone like me.
I have one strung with VS650 @ 30lbs. Its a great racket for control but lacks in power. I use it as a back up to a SW35. I wouldn't say you notice the extra stiffness. If you are a front court player then this is a good racket. If you are a base liner then you would notice the lack of power. It suits players with a short back swing and more finger and wrist use.
Me! amazing racket I have ever used for doubles. - Agree it's classified as extra-stiff shaft but I don't feel the super stiffness is there. - Back-court style racket in doubles, power is great if you do deliver an appropriate pronation work (NOT wrist). - Accurate thanks to its stiffness, I can deathly deliver steep smashes downward. - Even-balance racket brings net play department into your comfort zone. - Very durable among YY rackets ever, your partner will cry if he clashes your 8DX. - Very good color scheme with Orange (my favorite), black, metal silver. It's cool with black or orange string. - Head-shape is very forgiving (large sweet spot). - The only thing no pro is using it but it is like x-stiff version of Kason F9 and I love it.
I wouldn't recommend buying used rackets from a pro. Those international players have very strong techniques and strong power. The rackets will suffer a good amount of force applied on them. Rackets have durability limit too. Once they are used by those international players, I think they alter the racket in terms of stiffness greatly at the least.
agreed with most of the ppl here. very stiff racket. stiffer and heavier than ns9900, imo. but if u managed to flex it, and contact the bird square to the sweetspot, u will experiece the power it delivers... but whether you can unleash its power depends largely on your play style. love it at 29lbs, bg66m.
I'm willing to take a slight risk on these given the price i've been offered and the fact that he's 17 and hasn't played properly for a year. He's not really a pro though.
Let's say he participates at international tournaments... so what? If the rackets are in good shape without mayor clips etc. I would go for it if the price is reasonable. Furthermore would I be more worried about the condition of the racket if it hasn't been used by a good player. Actually intermediate and high intermediate folks tend to use tensions beyond their level of play and tend to mishit more often. Those mishits within the frame area are deadlier for the lifespan then a hard hit at the sweetspot imho. About 8DX... well, basically it's a Arc10 for hard hitters. Make this 8DX work for you at high tensions and it will be more powerful and more controllable then the more user friendly Arc10. If you aren't that sort of player you might be still pleased with it.. but the potential sensation will pass away.
If the price is good, why not go for it? It's the best of both worlds of the Arc10 and NS9900, such a nice racket.
This is really a racket I'd like to try out. How does it compare to the MX80? Seems to me they have some of the same characteristics.
Never tried the MX80 so can't help with that. But if it helps I have a NS9900 which I feel is very similar in many respects but is not as solid as an 8DX. I played with both my 8DX and NS9900 last night and I kept turning back to my 8DX. If I'm playing well, timing each shot perfectly, I'll play with my Z-Slash. If it's an off day my most dependable weapon is the 8DX. It NEVER lets me down. Compared to the NS9900, the 8DX is almost as quick through the air, balance-wise the NS9900 is a touch headlighter - but is not noticeable, in fact during play, you probably wouldn't tell the difference. I personally would classify both as even balanced (even though the NS9900 is supposed to be head light). The NS9900 is a solid racquet but no where near as solid as the 8DX, it has a smaller sweetspot and is not as good as the 8DX in off center shots. However the NS9900 is more repulsive. During fast exchanges at the net, the NS9900 really kicks butt, if you have fast reactions, this racquet will turn you into a ninja! It doesn't have quite enough power from the back and whilst the 8DX is not the most powerful racquet to smash with, if you are strong enough it will deliver very powerful smashes. Control-wise I have to say 8DX wins. A lot of players will disagree with this, but the 8DX is one of the best control racquets I've played with. However one thing I've discovered about the 8DX is that it is very particular when it comes to strings. I've tried quite a variety of strings on the 8DX, cutting and restringing many times until I finally found what I think is the perfect string for it - Victor VS850. BG65Ti is second with NBG95 close behind. However admittedly I'm a little biased towards thicker strings as I love to smash, so this is just my opinion.
Love that write up, it matches my feelings quite well. I used a NS9900 for a few hours and a Z-slash for about 10 minutes. I found the 8DX to suit me much better. It's currently strung with BG80, how did you find that string?
I used to like having BG80 on my Ti10 and MP88 but for some reason it doesn't seem to work too well with my ArcSaber racquets (8DX, Arc10 or ZS). I'm not sure why, but it seems to reduce the sweetspot size (may be placebo effect) and seems to give more vibration. As I like smashing, I tend to prefer a large stable and forgiving hitting area but still give that nice metallic "ping" on touch shots. With BG80, you get more repulsion, but the feeling I get seems a little artifical probably because it's such a hard string. But having said that, I know a lot of people using BG80, pros love it, so don't take my opinion as gospel. But if you like BG80 minus the hardness, you may want to try VS850. The only downside is it loses tension so make sure you pre-stretch. I've given mine 0.25-0.5lb extra tension to help. Admittedly I now have my strings at around 27-28lb, but used to string at 25-26lb with my older racquets so that may play a part in it. But generally speaking, I tend to prefer thinner strings at low tension, but thicker strings at high tension.
