sudocrushms
Well-known member
Aramith says that they designed the Black series with Matchroom with 9-ball in mind and the black poles help differentiate the 1/9. Then the rest are just the same. They also touch on why they made the 5 purple instead of the 4. Apparently I was struggling with reading comprehension the first time i saw the article...I used to wonder why so many long timers on AZ used to fuss about pool-ball colors. Now I know. Here's my story.
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For months I’ve had trouble telling the 4-ball and 8-ball apart on my table at night. (Daytime is fine.)
I’ve been using Aramith Super Pro balls with classic colors.
My lighting situation is not ideal, admittedly, but not much I can do about it for now.
Anyway, I decided a few weeks ago to get the Aramith Pro TV balls with the pink 4 and brown 7 and 15. Figured I would be able to see the balls better.
Alas, now I have trouble at night telling the 4 and 5 balls apart, and sometimes the 12 and 13! (Daytime is fine).
Which made me think: Now I know why Aramith/MR made the 5 ball purple. And a lighter shade of purple at that.
My next thought, logically, was why didn’t Amarith/MR just make the 4 ball a lighter shade of purple and keep the 5 orange?
Yeah, they goofed.
But there was a fix, sort of. They then came out with Aramith Black.
Unfortunately they added the black stripes to the 9-15. Why, I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like I can identify the individual Aramith black balls better on TV than the stripes with white.
I don’t mind the look, mind you, but I think white looks better. Why not just stick to white?
In any case, I decided to buy the Predator Arcos balls this week so I won’t have any trouble (I hope) telling them apart at night. We'll see.
Wish the Arcos didn’t have the logo on one side, but at least Predator got the colors right IMO: A lighter shade of purple for the 4, an orange 5, and a brown 7 and 15.
Admittedly, I never had trouble seeing the 7 and 15, but brown does make it easier to distinguish them on TV.
As for Dynasphere, none of their sets have ideal colors.
The Dynasphere Palladium purple looks lighter in most photos than traditional Aramith, but they are actually fairly dark. And the other sets with colors I mostly like have the charcoal gray 6. I think it is ugly.
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The upshot: There is still no perfectly colored set of pool balls. If Amarith used the same shades of colors in the Black version but made it white, it might do the trick.

Source: https://www.aramith.com/story-behind-aramith-tournament-black-colours
Personally love playing with my set, but the black stripes would definitely be rough if your lighting isn't good. I also mostly play 10 or 9-ball so I don't use the stripes as much.