no, i don’t think so.
Sochi Phoenix String || B (86/100)
Ok so this review is kind of weird because i’ve been using it for months now, so i had to use more traditional polyester string like OT and Kitty to get a better view of where this falls, so bear with me.
This string is normal thickness (a bit more than OT Thin, a slight bit less than alphaline), fairly soft and actually gets softer/slicker when it ages, which is interesting. The wind isn’t too exaggerated on the fingers, and i would place it around average tightness. Out of the pack, whips are pretty fast and somewhat controllable. Slacks are also nice and open with a light weight to them, but it gets a bit wiggly and speeds up on itself when you’re not careful, closing or misshaping that slack you need for certain tricks. I think (?) this is more common among normal-thickness strings because there’s not as much structural integrity but i might just be talking out of my butt. It’s certainly an acquired taste, but it’s one that fits my taste for slightly fast whips, slacks, and soft string. The durability is pretty good, it lasts about an hour 30 to 2 hours before i want to change it out for textural or tension holding reasons. The thing is, age doesn’t really affect its performance at all besides slight tension holding, and I’ve found most issues with the string to be either weirdly paced slack feel (the acquired taste mentioned earlier) or from texture. This means that if you don’t really care about roughISH string, you’ll find minimal issues. I’ve definitely heard and seen that Sochi quality control isn’t the best, leaving about a 40-60% defect rate. I’ve also heard these defects range from a strand sticking out a bit to weird kinks in the string to multiples of both on the same string. My pack has about 40-50% of a small strand sticking out, but that’s only aesthetic and not noticable when you’re actually throwing.
Overall, this is wonderful. The slacks and small floppiness are the most obvious thing I see stopping people from liking this, but I’m fine with it. Whether I buy more or not is up in the air, but I respect it. Stats below.
Durability 30 min (4)
Durability 1 hr (4.5)
Personal Thickness Feel (5)
Whip Feel Break-In (4.5)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (4)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (4)
Softness during break-in (5)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (4)
Total: 43 x 2 = 86, 86 = B graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)