Cake’s String Reviews

Yo-Yo Reviews
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The fact that some folks felt the need to express some support for @theendofcake after my last post has, after working a 12 hour shift, compelled me to make a slight add on to this discussion.

I just want to clarify that I would never publicly criticize a user of the forum. I think most people probably understood that my response here probably wasn’t trying to do that, but all the same, it might be good to state it explicitly.

I also want to reiterate that I feel, by the metrics Cake has been using, my strings were rated in a predictable, and fair manner. I also appreciate that care was taken to point out their positive attributes. I do not feel that this review was unfair, or the need to publicly ride to my own product’s defense.

in a very slightly less positive direction, I will acknowledge that I don’t completely agree with the idea of numerically ranking strings. After 10 years of throwing, most of the strings I’ve used perform fine and I actually have a hard time saying if one performs objectively better than another after a certain point.

What I have found to be more important in a string (assuming the performance isn’t TOO horrendous, and it has a baseline capability) is how good it feels to run across your hands when you’re trying to get lost in the world of mounts and slacks and forget about the outside world for a while.

And that is really difficult to assign a number to.

I also want to point out that aside from this specific numbering aspect of the reviews, I think the writing that Cake does is really, really solid. I’ve done reviewing myself, and I recognize really good product analysis when I see it.

BUT, what is so, SO much more important than anything mentioned above about the user who makes these reviews is that the user is dedicated and enthusiastic about this community. It is not easy to write content every week. It is not cheap to constantly get new products, even string. The fact that someone is devoted to trying to help yoyoers, and contribute to the community on a regular basis is incredibly admirable.

Moral of the story: hats off to Cake!

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i totally understand your reservation with the rating system, so i think it would do some good to elaborate more on how i rate things. there seems to be a misunderstanding on how i approach these ratings:

i don’t think ive ever claimed them as objective. first off, by objective and subjective i mean whether something’s validity or truth value depends on the perceiver’s mind. the number 3 is objectively less than the number 4 in terms of numeric value (and preferential value in my reviews), but when both were made within a subjective context it gets messy. i’ve always graded based on 5 being an ideal as stated in my explanation on the base thread. the greek philosopher Plato had an idea about “forms”, non-tangible perfect ideals of objects in the world. i believe we all work with these ideals in our mind and create based on those. the part where I disagree with plato (as far as i know) is that these forms are not objective, but instead subjectively created in each individual mind. when i grade, i’m working based on how close a string is to my own ideal. when a string is rated a 1 in a quality, that doesn’t mean it’s empirically a horrible string or will stay a horrible strings if I wasn’t there to perceive it; instead, it simply doesn’t approach the ideal in my mind as much as another string i’ve used. therefore, i’m able to maintain the potential value in the string for other people’s forms while also acknowledging my own distaste for it. hope that clears things up for you and anyone else! :smiling_face:

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I think Cake did well to point out in the OP that these are just opinions. String preferences are super personal somehow. I definitely disagree with Cake about some of the reviews and also strongly agree about others. No ones reviews should be considered as holy truth and 99% of people know that. It is hard to try all the strings out there and it’s cool that Cake is out here trying to help people get a sense for different strings. Time and time again cake acknowledges that her reviews, like all reviews, are subjective and has kinda gone out of her way to highlight that.

I don’t know…just wanted to share my thoughts.

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I mean, everyone knows Throw-Yo Ropes are the best there is :wink:

Seriously, though. When I read @theendofcake’s reviews I tend to focus more on the words than the numbers. She’s got a way of explaining things that narrows down what’s important to me about a string when it comes to how I play.

She has a system, and sticks to it. It’s an extremely good quality for a reviewer to have!

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oh yeah 100% get more Rope, i know i memed on it but there’s genuinely nothing like it

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Throw yo Rope is absurd. I love it. It might actually work better on a spin top than a regular unresponsive yoyo to be honest but in a responsive it’s a neat experience,

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Also I’ve said it enough times I really don’t see why I’m saying it again. But I’m OCD and repeat myself often so why not.

I love cakes reviews but I am also very aware how cake plays and what is valued in a string is very different from me and the scoring system isn’t very important compared to what is in the word written about the string.

Also my biggest regret is how some of the best reviewed string on the list isn’t even available anymore.

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Totally! And what I absolutely love about this is Mark did the review?
I really appreciate someone stating the negatives. I’ve been waiting for it because I’m aware of it all lol but no one has ever said it.
String choice 1000000% comes down to player preference. Some people don’t like the initial gritty feel of trilobal, I personally won’t play anything if it has even 1 wrap of nylon in it.
I’m going to link this if people ask for more details. Maybe I can get that on the website too.
Becaus honestly when people ask I don’t even know what to say I’m just like yeah, it last forever and you have to break it in for like a week and once it’s past the crunchy phase it’s nice and soft and it’s fast. And then that’s not enough info haha.

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yeah! mark contacted me and asked if he could send along some fox tails for review bc he loved them and wanted to see what i thought, so i agreed, got them in, and played with it for an hour and a half from new. i still have some on me, maybe ill wash them and rereview them when i have the time. i’m proud of what i do, and im so happy to have the support of everyone here!

DM me if you need help with anything! always happy to help

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I think the inclusion of terminology like “Personal thickness feel”, “Whip feel”, etc makes it pretty clear Cake’s rating system is about personal preference. Even if you were to skip all the writing (and why would you do that, it’s the best part!) and just look at the score, the subjectivity is hardly hidden.

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As stated, this isnt a end all/be all.

I actually find the scoring helpful. While a string may get a lower score in one area, that may be exactly what I am looking for in a string.

Might not score high for Cake, but there is enough description to let me know it could score high for Me.

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this is 100% my primary objective, hope i never stray from it

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Yeah, reviewing anything subjective is tricky and I think this is as good as a system as you can get with reviews such as these. Very helpful all around though. Overwhelming at first but I tend to get ahead of myself. It’s a great one stop thread to get more info on strings you may be interested in.

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I like the Cake review, I think she does a great job and I agree with everyone praising her, no one does that around so its a great service.

The only thing I wanted to pointed out from a bit (hope without get killed) is not about the rating, I can understand it but about she play the string for only 1 and a half hour or similar.

I think most of the strings I play and love give the best after 4/5 hours of playing when the bounciness is gone and them thin out a bit, I play quite hardcore and I like to mistreat the strings and always I notice how much strings are nice after a bit of worn out.

Even for my videos I like to use “used” string at least 5 hours of play behind them and usually I noticed how much better they keep the tension (in general all of them).

If I can give my poor 2 cents to her I would say maybe to play muuuch longer with them before the review at least 15 hours, only like that I think a person can have a complete view of a string, it goes from new to the peak and then exhausting but is a full cicle

Said that I encourage Cake to do what she doing and have fun :yo-yo:

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you’re very right on this, that’s one of the biggest flaws. i was thinking about this and actually attempted it with some whiteout alphaline, but i think my limit is about 3 hours before i can’t use it based on texture or tension holding. even if both of those qualities get better with time, im too weak to get past the hurdle :pensive: i have pretty moist hands and live in a humid environment, which can affect the life of the string too. i dont think im capable of having a complete view of string (nor do I really want to), so instead i tackle the one to one and half hours I have with it to the best of my ability :smiling_face:

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Someone in a dry climate should start a 5-hour string reviews thread using the same criteria to compliment Cake’s reviews.

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sweet ok! You both used them! That makes me happy! Because I make so few and want everyone to try them lol.

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back on it!

HKMT Ayumu || A- (90/100)

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I did NOT expect this to be an A, mainly because im not a fan of the worn feel near the end, but WOW

First impressions, its loosely wound and slightly soft, where the threads kind of blend into each other to create a nice, slight plush. It doesn’t lose its softness at all by 30 minutes, and it always has a subtle stiffness to it. Binds are amazing and about normal thickness, bit less than OT Normal i think? Slacks are light, fluffy, very open, and full of flight while simultaneously maintaining a presence in the hands and when making contact. Whips aren’t fast by any means, but more controlled. Both of these performance feels are the kind that compliments technical skill very well, but don’t supplement any skill. Maybe the white color of the string is helping me, but the string seems like a carefully crafted blank easel for you to make your own creative tricks. Very artsy! I’m a HUGE fan.

While the string starts feeling a little dirty and slightly rougher by the hour (that’s the worn in feel), the performance stays the same. The tension barely builds up and the consistency is perfection. Being able to pull off minimal performance change on white polyester string is very impressive. This is a string with no bells and whistles, just quality polyester made to fit you personally. If you love the worn string feel, this is that and More. Amazing stuff. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (5)
Durability 1 hr (4) aging like fine wine
Personal Thickness Feel (5)
Whip Feel Break-In (4)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4.5)
Slack Feel Break-In (4.5)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4.5)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (4.5)
Softness during break-in (4)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (5)
Total: 45 x 2 = 90, 90 = A- graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

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last review before worlds! i’ll be there, come say hi :people_hugging:

HKMT Hajime || B- (80/100)

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This string is fairly rough, with a fat thickness to it that doesn’t really overdo itself. The loose wind and tactile feel of the twists in the string get lost when you play, so it ends up feeling like a straight roughness (which gets more rough when broken in). The slacks feel amazing, very open and solid with a bit of heft and speed that doesn’t feel like it’s hand-holding you. Whips are moderately fast for 100% polyester and just feels good combined with the string weight.

It ages slower than bulk poly, and by the hour it plays very close to how it felt brand new, besides more roughness and ever so slight fraying. Because of how minimal performance changed, the durability ranking is quite high. The tension holding is fantastic too, which is another mark of high quality. Lastly, my only complaint with the consistency of the string is how loose the slack can feel sometime. I have a feeling it’s a skill issue on my end, and it doesn’t actively hinder any performance, so I’m still viewing it positively. The score would be so much higher if it wasn’t for the comfort factor, so sorry. Overall amazing string, and I’m so happy to see that HKMT never disappoints. I have no clue how they don’t make meh strings, but i’m happy they don’t. If you can, try it out. $15 for 20 of them is a solid price. Stats below!

Durability 30 min (4.5)
Durability 1 hr (4.5)
Personal Thickness Feel (2.5)
Whip Feel Break-In (4.5)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4.5)
Slack Feel Break-In (5)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4.5)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (4)
Softness during break-in (1.5)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (4.5)
Total: 40 x 2 = 80, 80 = B- graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

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happy saturday, nothing to report because of worlds. go watch the stream!!!

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