Timestamps ⌚: 0:01 Introduction 4:25 The Big Three Overview 7:52 Power 14:27 Spin 18:56 Precision & Control 20:13 Comfort 23:45 Feel & Touch 27:56 Manooovrlbity! 31:21 Final Words & My Recommendation
I am 61years old and switched to the Dunlop FX 500 Tour. Given from my coach it was strung with Dunlop Spin 1,25 mm at only 22/20 kg. What is even on fast indoor carpet stiff in the beginning. Dialed in fresh strings after some 90 Minutes it has so much spin and power I had to adjust to spinful strokes not to send the ball too deep. For me therefore the Dunlop has by far enough spin and power if you use a stiff and spin oriented string at low tension. Manoverability, feel and touch are really great. It feels for me you have the ball an endless time on the strings. I think the ball impact sensation is unique with this racket - try it out. Wonderful arc on stroke and man - there is plenty of pace coming out off the racket, Great also on serves, on volleys and all kind of trick shots like drop shots or half volleys. Also it is very easy to switch from an arc "neutral shot" to an offensive "flat shot". Couldn't do that on purpose with any other racket before. Great stick! Well done Dunlop.
The tour that you are speeking of , is it this current version or the previous one ? I have tried the previous one and will try in a few weeks the newer ones .
@@derekpappas1556 Hi Derek my comments are meant to target the 2023 Version of the Dunlop FX 500 Tour. It has the lower RA66 (?) stiffness. The model before was around RA70.
@@franksauerwald I just received 1/2 hour ago , the new Fx 500 I'm my grip size to demo , from Tennis Warehouse in a poly. So , I will see if what you have stated is correct . I have been from the begging with the Dunlop Black Max and own 2 current cx200 tours . The Sx after testing the last and current generation sacrificed too much for playable comfort and have heard the fx tour decreased power for this same comfort . I will see for myself if it compromized itself too much . I am glad that the current one works for you :)
@@derekpappas1556 If its a demo ranzet you probably cannot switch strings - which I did for testing since Dunlop Explosive Spin 1,25 was not in stock on wheel for some weeks. I tried a RPM Blast 1,25 mm at my here preferred string tension 22/20 kg. But it was a disappointment - the raquet lost much of its magic and felt dampened too much. If you buy one - watch out for the right strings 👍. My last raquet before was a Völkl C100 Prof. which is in specs and from the feel very close to the Dunlop CX 200 (Tour? the one with leather grip). For me a perfekt switch because of less effort needed and a more crisp feel while having the ball long time in the stringbed. Much fun and good luck 👍🥎
I used to play with a Dunlop CX200+ and can say that Dunlops are great for slicing for some reason or the other that I didnt pick up with others. I am considering revisiting Dunlop but I would only check out FX and CX ranges. A possible idea/venture for you to look into would be a thorough analysis of Dunlop and namely Tecnifibre line of racquets and strings. That is suggestions for racquets for advanced-tournament players obviously and then ones to pick if they are 2-hander or 1-hander backhand, looking to get more from the serves or trying to maximise control/feel. A lot of channels talk of Babolat, Head, Yonex, Wilson but few discuss Tecnifibre and Dunlop much. I think apart from one other channel your the only other to discuss Artengo at all. That said your recent live video was quite informative.
Great comparison video. And great shirt. NOVAK!!!! NOVAK!!! NOVAK!!! I actually just purchased the Wilson Ultra 100 v4. Hope I can handle the power lol
Could you please suggest which will be better considering strength and control b/n Wilson ultra team v4 and wilson blade tean v8 and ultra tour 95cv v3?
I have the dunlop fx500 tour customized to 327 swing weight and at that point it is very stable as well as huge amount of power. It's an ezone 98 clone, but actually better as it feels more connected to the ball, less stiff. I have multiple Dunlop rackets and the swing weight is way too low on all of them. You need to customize it just like your artengo.
@@wilsoch indeed. I personally like the cx200 tour 18x20 the most. 95 head 18x20. But for more forgiveness the next step is the cx200 98 16x19 and then the fx500 tour. The fx for more power
That's a tough one John. Btw. thank you, always a pleasure when you like the video. I'm between the Ultra and Dunlop. Both would be great for different matches and situations. But at the end of the day, I would go with Dunlop for more feel and touch and more precision and control. Cheers, John
Ultra is a fine raquet for anyone, imo I definitely do not find it that powerful with that low swing weight. Needs lead in top and silicone in handle. Jmho
what´s up my friend! Im planning to buy the Dunlop SX 280 Team (280gr unstrung), is it a big upgrade from any basic aluminum racket? It has a really good discount at the moment
Hi Jürgen, from a basic alu racket, this would be a lot better racket for sure. Personally I would recommend you the SX300 LS version (285g), but that would be a more expensive update.
It's compareable. I would say the Shift has little bit more feel and control in the spin thanks to the 16x20 pattern and 99 inch2 headsize. But overall it's similar.
Whoever claimed that must have been on some serious drugs! However I do recall Wilson propaganda campaign when they were claiming all sort of things out of the Clash. I even had at a certain club I wont name, 2 staff trying to persuade me to try and even buy the Clash(which they were kind of struggling to sell at the time) as it was going to 'change the game forever'. Some months later I tried it in Pro v2 and while it was easy to play with it was too flimsy and just felt 'off'. Its a beginner to novice and low-intermediate racquet. Anyone who is at upper-intermediate level should look for a proper frame to use. Shift hopefully will be a great racquet. Though Wilson does already have Pro Labs, Blade 18x20 which is solid, the Pro Staffs and new Ultra so its not like they have to 'prove themselves'
I prefer the Extreme Auxetic a lot better. They are solid, easy to play and predictable. The Shift is unpredictable at times and I don't trust that racket so much afterall.
Yes, but it's more solid, less vibrations, little bit more muted, super stable. Something you were missing from the TF-X1. But overall it's similar in terms of free power and easy hitting. I like it. Great racket for those days where you want to just hit fast, play careless and without worrying you gonna miss. Big sweetspot is there of course, too. I'm impressed with this update.
I did not try Instinct MP 360+. I find the Instinct series the worst from Head. It's the only series I've had elbow/arm problems with the 360 version. I found the racket very powerful, but unresponsive with very limited feel and touch. I don't mind stiff rackets at all, but this one was very hard on arm for some reason. Don't know why. I think Instinct rackets from the past like 5+ year ago were a lot better. When Tomas Berdych played with Instinct, it was a good stick. I don't know what they've changed, but I think they offer a lot better options like the Extreme/Speed/Radical/Gravity/Boom rackets and the Instinct series nowadays feel obsolete. And even among pro players there is no one to see that is endorsing the Instinct line anymore.
@@CzechTennisGuy Hope you will shake of the bias from the previous iterations and try the 360+/2022 which is just a new paint job of the 360+. Because the specs are almost like the extreme and other reviewers say it lands between the Speed MP and the Extreme MP. The spiral fibers should maybe do something about the arm problems. also a tight stringjob of syn gut or a hybrid could suit this racket well. When adding a few grams of lead to the hoop 12/ 3-9, which is probably a must for this racket, Instinct will land quite close to the very best rackets on paper, when using the tennis warehouse tool of customisation. So add some lead and you maybe have a winner for 1/3 the price. Those who endorsed the racket didnt actually play with it but a pro stock (maybe radical) painted the same way as the retail, but you know that well. Maria and Tomas didnt play with the ones we could buy. Tomas played with a Pro Stock version of Youtek Radical MP with a 16×19 (Head TGT 260.2) People say that the auxetic, dont do any thing better to the rackets than the spiral fibers did and some even have prefer the spiral fiber tech over the auxetic, depending on rackets. the auxetic made best improvement on the Gravity and Prestiges... and made the Speed too mushy and thus it lost some of the magic. So spiral-fibers can be considered better to the Heads speed/power rackets than auxetic. aka the thicker and stiffer the beam then better with spiral fibers over auxetic. So I find the Instinct 360+/2022 quite interesting as it sports the 360 + tech and thus make it a different racket from the previous iterations. 360+ (spiral fibers) did a great thing to almost all head rackets. Instinct 2022 has 65 RA, 23-26-23 beam, power grommets ( same grommets of the Extreme on cross), maybe armfriendly and feel/touch goodness through spiral-fibers in shoulders... and a headform close to gravity. So I think this is a real dark horse, to be honest, and cant wait to try one myself. I think it will be like a Pure Drive but with control and feel.
@@benjaminjensen111 You might be right and it might work well for some people. It can be a good racket for this money especially nowadays, but I'm not interested because I know that there are plenty of better rackets out there. Nowadays feel and touch is something people are searching for when buying a new racket. Power and spin is still important, but now every racket is quite good in this category. The extra feel, comfort, touch and overall "hand + racket synergy" is something people value the most. I'm not saying your analysis is bad, probably it's very accurate but I feel like if Instinct series was really special, it would have a much larger audience and much bigger marketing from Head. Nowadays Instinct series is literally not supported by Head at all, marketing for this seris is non-existent and they probably know why. But for this money it can be a good all round racket for weekend warriors and people with lower budget.
@@CzechTennisGuy I play good tennis and I am a diplom instructor and stringer. I cant follow your reasoning here. I guess your bias towards it wins over logic because only by actually testing the version with the spiral fibers you can know whether its just a low budget weekend warrior stick/failed stick or much more than that. I will assume that its much more than that because of its tech and dimensions and by using the tool provided by Tennis Warehouse its very easy to make it on par with even newly released sticks costing much more just by adding 3 grams of lead at 3 and 9. Price is set because of demand and much demand is set by marketing that again is chosen because of earlier demand and that makes room for a lot of under radar dark horses when updates of a previous bad stick might turn awesome by new tech like it did to the Prestige line that suffered. The Babolat Strike VS is down to 120-130 euros now bc os low demand and that is not exactly a weekend warriors stick. You know well there is rackets at 80 euros that has shown to play better or on par with rackets priced at 250. The marketing around the shifty Shift has made people buy a so so unpredictable stick to a high price and you dont see many people at high level using that one or they change quickly again. Almost none of the retail rackets are in the hands of any pros even if they indorse them on tv. The few reviews of high level players and coaches thats there is on the 360+ Instinct says it has good power, good control good feel but lacked a bit of weight and lands between the Speed and the Extreme which tells me that you get a good blend of power, control and spin. I think its an under radar dark horse. Just because it not noticed or hyped up, sold a lot, bc the last version failed, or the shopowners dont push it, or they couldnt spend more money on endorsements.... doesnt mean it will not maybe be even be better than many current pure drive/ speed/ extreme. The auxetic made a great Speed 360+ into something else that wasnt better. The Pure Strike with last update 2017/2019, which is a high level player stick, is also not marketed very much these days, but is still on par with many new releases. My predictions is that instinct MP 2022/360+ will play on par with some of the last generation best Yonexes (Ezone's/Vcore's) with a leather grip and some little bit of 3 grams lead at 3 and 9 and 12. Weekend warrior sticks are something different regarding level of play. They can reasonable play with some 105 inch fused graphite composite like Head TI Radical lines to 40-50 euros. But actually a lot of Weekend warriors will not like the Instinct as its not endorsed. Many weekend warriors plays with RF 97's or Babolat 98/ Rafa Original Aeros which they do not have technique nor strength to wield.... I think you miss out on the dark horse under radar segment of the tennis. Djokovic plays with some old Radical with 10 year old tech and added lead. Closes stick Head has in retail regarding characteristics and playability to which he plays with today, is in the Prestige line and not the Speed line. The prestiges are not endoresed by any significant players on tour but the Prestige MP auxetic plays awesome modernly with both power, satbility and control and I will have that one over any Speed/Pure Drive/E-zone/Radical/Extreme any day. Have a nice day.
According to a female staff member at the wilson soho store in manhattan , ny was that the ultra was designed for women and others , who are 50+ in age . Perhaps when you get the fx 500 , you will see its equality with the ezone and pure drive 100's . Novack gives away shirts with his own face on it 😢
You people that make these videos NEVER say what strings are on the rackets, EACH one of these rackets NEED the same string to get a comparable opinion, OMG
I would say I mention this in the description or in the video most of the times, like 70-80% of my videos. But it's true that I can do better and talk about it every time.
@@ambertudor Not sure about that. I have many questions on my channel and I answer most of them when I have time. But to answer them all is not possible. Most of the times I receive these rackets strung with Tecnifibre Black Code 1.28 mm at 25/24 kg.