More subjective info than you could ever want:
My favorites are Sochi AlphaLine for string and NSK CenterTrac for bearings.
OneDrop 10 ball is by far my favorite flat bearings.
NSK bearings are so expensive, so my second favorite is still Dif-e-yo KK.
I still use the standard Duncan dies personally, but I think most people have moved on from those. Typically people use a counterweight with a function that centers the string via an anchor point, vs a slipknot wrapped around the weight.
Some of the cheap off brand Center Trac and KK bearings are decent too, but I do find the quality of NSK and the Dif-e-yo too to generally be better. NSK especially so.
The cheap/cheaper off brand ones I’ve bought have been hit or miss. For example, I’ve bought TopYo bearings and Sochi bearings and both were more of a mixed bag than NSK/Konkave. Might’ve partially been luck of the draw though. Some played good and some grinded after only a few days. Similarly, standard CenterTracs can be really good, but the quality/tolerances can be pretty hit or miss.
On that note, for whatever reason, I’ve found the KKs Turning Points ship with to also be very good, but I don’t know who their supplier is.
They get a lot of rave reviews, but I personally really don’t like the DS bearings and equivalents (Pixel, etc). Quality on the DS bearing is really good, but I personally find that that shape bearing is very grabby with backspin in comparisons to CenterTrac, KK, or even flat. It’s probably just a style thing for how I play, though a lot of people love them.
Other strings I really dig are any of the Kitty 1st Class or Original Throw string. I think the OT string is probably the most common competitor’s choice at the moment. It’s slightly stiff for me, but probably what I would compete with if I was still competing.
AlphaLine is my favorite overall. Sochi regular is super soft and feels the best to me for bulk string for casual playing. Kitty 1st class is a good all around string. OT if I was competing. I think Zipline is still popular but I haven’t had the chance to try it. I also haven’t tried YoyoStringLab, but major s/o to Eric.
I’ve also tried some player signature string, like Phoenix, but I honestly like the regular/standard string better than the player signature strings I’ve tried in most cases.
MarkMont also makes a host of unique and rather weird strings. They’re not my favorite in terms of everyday performance, but they’re honestly so unique in how they play that I’d recommend giving them a shot if you’re looking to mix things up. And they last forever. I played with one string for months and even washed it.
Also, I haven’t jumped on the train much yet, but lots of people now play with fat string as their main string. I guess the weight is better for holding shape for slacks, etc. I don’t personally like how it feels - too chunky of a hand feel for me, but it can definitely help with certain tricks.
Last, you can find a bunch of different blends, though from what I can tell, people largely still use 100% poly.
