To be frank, I expected even more weight in the head - it has only about 0.5 g more head weight than the N9II. But thanks for the warning, I will try not to be too gutted right away.
I found the difference in real application to be huge, although that was going down from a N80ii to a N9ii....but I don't think it matters much if you go from light to heavy or the other way around. Just dry-swinging them around Unstrut they feel deceptively similar.
That makes me even more curious to actually play it tonight. As you say, dry swings feel surprisingly similar - the only difference is that the "wooosh" sound of the N80II has a clearly lower pitch and the shaft is noticeably stiffer than the N9II. I wonder if it's a different weight distribution in the head that could cause the big difference in real action on court. Anyway, expect another update (whining?) tomorrow!
I guess the N80ii has a somewhat more extreme weight distribution, which will feel head heavier, but depending on the setup a 0,5g head weight difference can be quite significant already.
Honestly the colour was an attention gainer. But knowing my racket history you will discover that my rackets came all in a boring color to me. Just naming the last 3 (BS10, JS10, DUO-ZS) none of them was a stunning eyecatcher. And trying one of the current stiffest Li-Ning rackets which is a speedy frame was the main reason. The DUO-ZS was a stopgap at a good price. If I had to pay an european price, I had never pulled the trigger. After 2 identical cracked JS10 and the sunken hole history and a noisy and brittle handle of a DUO-ZS, I lost confidence and as a control-freak who spins a racket in the hand, the Duora gave me additional stress. Out of the Yonex range the DUO-ZS was the closest choice coming from a JS10 (ticked the boxes: stiff, even, compact head, aero design) but never satisfied me in terms of speed. Yonex rackets were never as fast as any speedy Victor and the chance of something close dropped after the ZS to zero. Honestly I wanted to stick with Victor because they made the perfect suited products, but quality issues across all series and keeping silence, turned me away.
To me, N80-II is slighlty less stiff than N9-II, on par concerning head heaviness, but the head heavy feeling is less pronounced on it than on N9-II. It cuts throught the air way faster making it better in defence. In fact it reminds me BS11 in a way, but with solid feeling. N9-II is more powerfull on heavy smashes, offers better control and a more solid feeling. A really good racquet to make smashes raining down without loosing too much on defence
Interesting. Not even close to my experience and that of the shop owner...the N9ii is definitely objectively less head heavy, no two opinions about that. Personally I also feel there's a clear difference in stiffness but I have no objective measurements or anything to back it up.
going through some online shops you find different information on the balance of N9II. Have read all, from grip to head balance I tried the N9II last week. A little headheavy in my opinion. but that smash ..
I don’t say N9-II is head heavier than N80-II, just that when playing it feels like it, because of the less aerodynamic frame I think.
So, time to brag about my date with the N80II. Facts: 1) N80II is more head heavy than N9II (says the scale and my limbs too), but still it's not a real sledgehammer 2) N80II is stiffer than N9II (not by much, but it is) Reading through some of the reviews, I cannot shake off the feeling that there are some freak rackets around which are clearly off-spec. Like @Rob3rt's N7II and also @ice man's N9II. Back to the bragging... I was playing mostly singles games with it yesterday. I didn't want to risk clashing it since it is not mine, so doubles is off the table for now. It's currently strung with BGAS @27'ish lbs. which is close to my usual LN1 setup - except that the bounciness (...sorry... I mean the 11/10 repulsion ...) of the BGAS gave me a hard time again to control touch shots around the net. The N80II performed exactly like I had expected and it reminded me again why head heavy rackets are still so popular. With head light or even balanced rackets, you have to put in more effort from your core, shoulder and arm to achieve the needed head speed and to punch the racket through the shuttle. Whereas it's simply the mass of the racket that is doing a lot of the work on head heavy ones - you just have to have the strength to get the mass in motion and to stop it again after the shuttle has been hit. Coming from the N9II, I had zero issues to dial in the right timing. Sweet spot is huge and it's still quite forgiving on off-center hits. As expected, the power and control on full-on smashes is superb. Stick- or half smashes require a really good racket preparation and noticeably more muscle effort to accelerate the head during the shorter swing motion. And on the other end, it's the racket recovery that is noticeably slower and requires more effort. That is the exact reason why I can't see myself using it in doubles. Maybe I would only need to further build up more arm strength to improve this though. Depite its head mass, it's still a pretty fast racket when it comes to defense. The aerodynamic frame profile does a great job here. Again, it's slower than the N9II (which imo has even better aerodynamics too), but there were only very few moments when I thought that it was the racket's fault that I couldn't get back the opponent's smash. Again, it needs a good preparation and more focus on a decent racket carriage. If you have a sloppy below-the-knee racket carriage, I think you will hate the N80II passionately (as probably all other head heavy rackets too). After the session, I left the court with a smile. One reason was that I had won the match against our team #1 MS player in a tight 3 game match (and I was really pleased with my performance), a second one being that I could handle the N80II better than I had expected before. Nevertheless, I could clearly feel some fatigue in my arm and shoulder which is less after a comparable session with N9II. Today, I have some soreness in the muscle area around the elbow (both forearm and biceps) and shoulder which is a sign that both had to work harder than usual. And now the big question - do I want to keep it or not? Honestly, I can't decide yet and I hope that @Daniel™ lets me keep for another week to give it another go and to make up my mind.
It there an updated LN racquet chart anywhere? For some reason I can't find it.. and for you LN fanatics, how accurate is the chart would you say?
I've found yonex to not be too bad. It's mostly accurate ish. Maybe we need to make a matrix from user experience.
The problem with all manufacturers matrices. They're only accurate to a certain degree from one view. But when you throw in reality and practical usage, just throw that **** away. Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk
Well I have to agree with this 10000%. Was still hoping I could get an idea of where all the new LN racquets are on the matrix. I don't really get LN's naming convention.. I mean each new gen of a series isn't even a direct improvement from the previous, at least that's how I see it.. they seem all just different
That's LN naming conventions in a nutshell. The only way to buy their stuff is to test it or pretend you have deep pockets. Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk