There is a definite difference. I’m not a bearing snob, but the Platinum DS plays different and better than every other bearing I’ve tried (everything except ceramic and ceramic hybrids). I would agree that the difference in performance is small, and not proportionate to the cost difference. However, that’s true of any performance scale. A Draupnir costs far more than many mid-range bimetals and perhaps only performs slightly better. This logarithmic curve applies to cars, motorcycles, musical instruments, etc…
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I have bearings in an altoid tin and could not tell you what they are if my life depended on it. If they work when needed, I’m good. I would like to try a ceramic someday though.
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Where’s the crucial grooved bearing?
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When I get YYE replies sent to my email - haven’t been on here in so long! 
Miss all the homies - ya’ll know who you are 
<3
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How can you identify pixel bearings? Is there a name printed on it?
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The pixel bearings have a concave shape with ridges on it. The center track is flat in the middle with bumps in the side to keep it centered.
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Clyw has used centre-trac in most of their recent throws due to the difficulty of manufacturing pixel bearings. Here’s the post by iYoYo explaining what happened and why the pixel bearing took 4 years to make a comeback:
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Created a new portion that listed all the bearings. I have added it there since I can’t edit the poll.
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Wow @Hanker you’ve done a lot of research.
Recent pixel bearings have been good. The ones that have really surprised me are the Mazel Top hybrids, after a short break in period they spin for a long long time and feel extremely smooth. I run these dry and they have been very low maintenance. I’ve got a dozen of these in various yoyos and have not had to clean one of these yet. The hybrids aren’t as silent as a platinum DS can be, but they aren’t loud either, and there’s something about the way these resonate with Ti yoyos that I absolutely love. The few MFD hybrids I have are this way also.
For steel bearings I’ve experimented for a long time with a home brew dry lube, my current recipe is very small equal quantities of PTFE (teflon), molybdenum and graphite mixed in acetone. I use just enough to make the acetone a cloudy light grey. You have to shake it really well before using, I put a couple BBs in the jar to serve as agitators. I put a small drop of this on a very clean bearing, spin the bearing a bunch to work it in and then blow it dry. You want to buy PTFE, MO and graphite with the smallest particle size you can find. The idea here is that these tiny particles will adhere to the surfaces inside the bearing and smooth out tiny imperfections, thin lube does the same thing but it doesn’t stay put. This stuff lasts for a very long time and can really smooth out a cheap bearing. It does not mix well with oil based lubes, the particles adhere to the oil and then tend to clump up where ever the oil might accumulate. Make sure your bearing is CLEAN. I’ve found my combo works better than YYF dark matter. I don’t think this provides much in the way of preventing corrosion, but I live in a dry climate.
Another I’ve been experimenting with is Sentry Solutions Tuf-Glide. It’s a dry lube protectant suspended in something like mineral spirits. I’m not sure what’s in it, it has a funny smell and its color is a very light brown. I’ve used it on my folding knives for years and I decided to try it on a couple bearings I was about to throw out because I just couldn’t get them to feel reasonably smooth. I was surprised how well it worked. This stuff also prevents corrosion. It seems to work better than anything else I’ve tried, but you have to apply very sparingly like you would with thin lube, too much is counter productive. Again you want the bearing very clean before you apply this. Just a tiny drop, spin the bearing to work it in, then blow it out to get rid of any extra. I gave a couple of cheap bearings I treated with this stuff to an old yoyo friend, didn’t tell him anything about them and asked for feedback. A couple days later he called me and asked where I got the bearings because they were so smooth and quiet. I told him off the chinese website and sent him the url. He called bull****, so I finally told him I’d used Tuf glide. It’s all he uses now. YMMV etc.
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Updated the post with a list sorted by vote count.
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My 3 favorite bearings are as follows:
Sochi T
YYT/Throwback Skill Toys VIP
OD 10 ball.
Recently got 2 spare OD 10 balls, and dropped them into some of myf avorite throws that I’ve been using the VIP bearings in. I have to say, the OD bearing is remarkably smooth and quiet, so much more so than other bearings ive tried.
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Myy 10 ball and nsk for me
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The best bearing I have is this cheap, buy-in-bulk, freebie that @Niki threw in as extra. It’s noticeably smoother then even my Pixel bearing, and apparently only cost about two dollars to buy.
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I have had great luck with the Throwback Skill Toys VIP and Ultimate VIP bearings. I see them on the “List of Bearings,” but not on the list where I could vote for them.
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I’ve been using Lotus bearings in my favorite two throws. Excellent bearings even though the marketing wanketeering on their website is definitely on the ludicrous side.
I plan on getting more for my other throws!
Ivan
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The poll was made before those bearings were introduced and I can’t edit the poll after it has been created so yeah. I’ll manually add the mentions here to the ranking list.
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Which one did you use? There are three types if I remember correctly, super scoop, super stack and super groove.
I’m going to assume it’s the Super Groove one for the sake of updating the vote table for now.
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I’m using the Scoop and the Groove. The Scoop is my daily so it’s definitely got the most playtime on it.
Ivan
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I might have to try a lotus, I have one in my cart but hard to spend 20 on a bearing when I can get full ceramic for that price from mazaltops
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I thought they were $15? Still not super cheap but I like the Lotus better than my NSK Platinum.
Ivan
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