Ball Colors On Stream

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.

***

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.

***

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.
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... 😕

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.
 
Don't want to start a fight over this, just acknowledging different perspectives (literally).

After watching a bunch of DCC matches this weekend, I can see why Matchroom tweaked the colors for their tournaments.
It's irrelevant and personal preference when you're the one at the table, but the balls were really difficult to differentiate on a lot of the side table streams.
At times it was tough even to tell the 3 from the 1, 5, and 9.
The 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 looked basically the same depending on where they were on the table.

I understand a lot of people don't like it (sorry to pick on you @Fatboy...), but for the cameras the pink 4, purple 5 definitely helps with differentiation.
At least until the TV tables that are better lit and have better cameras.

So the solution is to put really nice lights and cameras at all the tables and keep the 5 orange, right? ;)

Aside: really happy for April, she played really well.
View attachment 804375
But there was no improvement whatsoever in the pink 4 purple 5 swap. Why did they not simply keep the 4 ball purple and make the 5 pink instead of orange?? I will never understand why on Gods green Earth someone thought this was a splendid idea. I'm surprised that Emily didnt decide to square the balls off to make them look unique.
 
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... 😕

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.
The black stripe for the 9 ball makes sense given the evolution of Aramith ball sets. I would have just created the same set with white and added a separate 9 ball with a black stripe as an extra ball in a designated MatchRoom set.
 
Aramith did the extra ball thing, I’d also point out, in its value pack. But that includes the Jim Rempe ball instead.
 
Why did they not simply keep the 4 ball purple and make the 5 pink instead of orange?? I will never understand why on Gods green Earth someone thought this was a splendid idea.
snooker doesn’t have orange balls or purple balls and the minds at matchroom came upon the decision from a place of ignorance
 
It is low resolution settings on the video and crappy camera placement.

Couple that with this idiocy of people formulating video for the lowest common denominator, watching it on a tiny phone screen, and you have recipe for suck.
 
After having trouble telling the 4 and 5 apart at night with the TV Aramith set, I sold my traditional colored Aramiths and bought an Arcos II set.

Turns out the lighter 4 ball in the Arcos set can be mistaken with the brown 7 at night in my cellar. I usually can tell them apart, but sometimes I have to look more closely.

Both the Arcos and Aramith Pro TV sets are easy to distinguish in the daytime in my house, but no one pool ball set seems to be perfect for my situation at night.

I am guessing the Dynasphere Platinums or Tungstens would be my best bet, but I don't like the gray 6/14 in the Platinum set or the general color palette of the Tungsten.

Gonna have to try the Aramith Black set, but not sure the dark stripes will help.

Who would have thought seeing pool balls would be so hard. In some conditions, that is. Better lighting would help, but I am limited in what I can do.
 
After having trouble telling the 4 and 5 apart at night with the TV Aramith set, I sold my traditional colored Aramiths and bought an Arcos II set.

Turns out the lighter 4 ball in the Arcos set can be mistaken with the brown 7 at night in my cellar. I usually can tell them apart, but sometimes I have to look more closely.

Both the Arcos and Aramith Pro TV sets are easy to distinguish in the daytime in my house, but no one pool ball set seems to be perfect for my situation at night.

I am guessing the Dynasphere Platinums or Tungstens would be my best bet, but I don't like the gray 6/14 in the Platinum set or the general color palette of the Tungsten.

Gonna have to try the Aramith Black set, but not sure the dark stripes will help.

Who would have thought seeing pool balls would be so hard. In some conditions, that is. Better lighting would help, but I am limited in what I can do.
If your playing room is dark, you probably won't like the Tournament Black.
Maybe new lights instead of swapping ball sets?
 
My cellar celling may be too low for an overhead light. I also have recessed lighting. None of the cannisters are over the table.

I'd have to hire someone and spend decent coin to get the right setup. Would involve new lights, rewiring and repainting. Eventually I might go that route ...
 
Back
Top