What is the latest /best Diamond 9 foot table?
Best Diamond Table
- Thread starter Tennesseejoe
- Start date
As I understand it, they are pretty close to the same. I think the Pro-Am often comes in 1pc slate but is available in 3pc as well, like the professional. Biggest difference is Pro-Am has a ball return, Professional doesn't.
As soon as I have a room big enough I will be ordering a Professional.
As soon as I have a room big enough I will be ordering a Professional.
3 Reasons Diamonds are the best:
1. Diamond Tables sponsor more pro-level tourneys in the US than any other table manufacturer.
2. Diamond Tables (owners) actually care about the state of the game and listen to player opinions as referenced by their manufacturing of the 10ft table. (for those that don't know, 10 ft tables became a bit of the rage a couple years ago thanks to Earl claiming that is what pro pool should be played on...so, Diamond obliged!)
3. Diamond Tables play brilliantly imo and provide a truer playing standard in general of what you can expect from room to room.
Also, I have owned 2 Diamond tables. First was an Oak red label made when Diamond first starting making tables. In fact it may have been manufactured by steepleton when Greg got started. Either way, it was built like a tank. The rails had been changed and pockets shimmed really tight for what undoubtedly was a one pocket table in the room it came out of in Toledo.
I now have a Pro-Am that I love more than any table I've played on before. It really plays that good. The best part is that it plays tough tough tough with 4.5" pockets. Better than that is it gives me an edge when I go to tourneys and play on Gold Crowns or other loose equipment.
Gary
1. Diamond Tables sponsor more pro-level tourneys in the US than any other table manufacturer.
2. Diamond Tables (owners) actually care about the state of the game and listen to player opinions as referenced by their manufacturing of the 10ft table. (for those that don't know, 10 ft tables became a bit of the rage a couple years ago thanks to Earl claiming that is what pro pool should be played on...so, Diamond obliged!)
3. Diamond Tables play brilliantly imo and provide a truer playing standard in general of what you can expect from room to room.
Also, I have owned 2 Diamond tables. First was an Oak red label made when Diamond first starting making tables. In fact it may have been manufactured by steepleton when Greg got started. Either way, it was built like a tank. The rails had been changed and pockets shimmed really tight for what undoubtedly was a one pocket table in the room it came out of in Toledo.
I now have a Pro-Am that I love more than any table I've played on before. It really plays that good. The best part is that it plays tough tough tough with 4.5" pockets. Better than that is it gives me an edge when I go to tourneys and play on Gold Crowns or other loose equipment.
Gary
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JC
Coos Cues
The professional looks like a classy pool table and the pro am looks like a pool table pregnant with a half a unit of plywood.
Other than that, not much to choose from them.
JC
I agree. In terms of aesthetics, I much prefer the Pro to the Pro-Am.
I think the pro ams with the 4 1/8th pockets are the best personally
The best is a gold crown with extended rails done by John Burns of Classic Billiards
in Maryland. 4 1/2 inch pockets angle cut on the tight side. It rolls as good as a diamond, banks 'much' better than a diamond, and plays as tight as the TAR table used to play....and is 'much' cheaper to buy and set up.
ps
As you can tell , I dont buy in to the diamond myth. A well setup GC is a much better playing table...IMO
pss
Centennial balls with a red circle CB play as well ( or better ) than aramith balls with the 'sick' measle CB
in Maryland. 4 1/2 inch pockets angle cut on the tight side. It rolls as good as a diamond, banks 'much' better than a diamond, and plays as tight as the TAR table used to play....and is 'much' cheaper to buy and set up.
ps
As you can tell , I dont buy in to the diamond myth. A well setup GC is a much better playing table...IMO
pss
Centennial balls with a red circle CB play as well ( or better ) than aramith balls with the 'sick' measle CB
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IMO, everything about the Pro Am is simply the best:
Look
Slate
Slate leveling
Table leveling
Are you comparing a new gold crown to a new diamond professional here? If so, I would like to know where you are buying a new gold crown for the price of a new diamond! Ill take two!
Lol. No, I've never seen a GC5. I just think you can get a GC1,GC2,GC3.GC4 at a good price in great condition, hire a good table mech ( like John Burns ). and you have a great playing table at half the price.
Ohh, get the hardware powder coated and it looks better than a diamond!
No doubt. Nothing wrong with a good gold crown. Wish I had one myself.
I like my 9' Diamond Pro Am far better than the Diamond Professionals at our local poolroom. It just seems to play more consistent and fair than they do. One reason may be that I have Simonis 860HR on my Pro Am and the poolroom owner uses Granito on his tables.
Pro-Am vs Professional
The Pro-Am is super easy to move, basically just take the legs off and set it up side ways on a custom dolly.
The Professional will require extensive time to take apart and move.
I am a novice with moving a table. However I moved my 8ft Pro-Am like it was nothing, I built a really nice dolly though. And I wouldn't ever try to take apart, move and put back together a Professional.
The Pro-Am is super easy to move, basically just take the legs off and set it up side ways on a custom dolly.
The Professional will require extensive time to take apart and move.
I am a novice with moving a table. However I moved my 8ft Pro-Am like it was nothing, I built a really nice dolly though. And I wouldn't ever try to take apart, move and put back together a Professional.
I cant argue with any of this. For a Diamond I like the look of the Pro-Am a little better, looks like the Diamonds I am used to. 4 1/2" pockets are OK with me, I would not want anything tighter. The Pro-Am ball return is a plus, not sure why so many people remove their GC ball returns and put drop pockets in them. For some reason a 9' Diamond looks much bigger than a 9' Gold Crown, so much so that I actually had to measure the Diamond at our pool room.
Gold Crown or Diamond would get my vote. If they are set up properly, they both play extremely well. Me personally, I prefer the tables without ball return. I like drop pockets.
I think the best Diamond table must be the Pro-Am. I am the owner of an 8' Professional ("blue label", the current design). I think the engineering goes into the Pro-Am, and then some of it is adapted to the more traditional designs, like the Professional.
I was fortunate enough to have an excellent mechanic, experienced with Diamonds, take on building my Professional when it arrived. And that is what assembling the Professional is: building. (I live in Texas, and Diamond doesn't have their own mechanics in this state.) Before final leveling and covering, I decided I wasn't going to be satisfied with the completed result as a whole, so I disassembled it completely that night. The mechanic was stunned, I think, but polite, when he returned. We spent some time talking about what we each saw. I explained to him it wasn't his work that concerned me, it was what he was working on. I also spoke on the phone with a Diamond mechanic a few days later, and learned a bit more about some things that were puzzling me.
I could write a very, very, long post, with pictures, about what I have learned and about the modifications I eventually made, from the feet up, to this brand-new table. (And the things I decided to just live with.) I haven't since I think Diamond is, overall, a positive force in the sport and many might view the information (or me) as being negative.
The table is finally to the point where I have asked the mechanic to come back for leveling this strange beast, covering it, and bolting on the top rails. I hope to be playing on it on Christmas day (if not before).
Some of this is on me, as I'm particular about many things ("OCD" perhaps) that others wouldn't think twice about.
I wish Diamond (or another maker of better tables) would make a factory-assembled drop pocket table that you just bolted the legs/pedestals on like the Pro-Am. (Valley told one of their D/FW dealers they would make a drop-pocket Panther for me when he asked them on the phone, but I decided against it.)
I was fortunate enough to have an excellent mechanic, experienced with Diamonds, take on building my Professional when it arrived. And that is what assembling the Professional is: building. (I live in Texas, and Diamond doesn't have their own mechanics in this state.) Before final leveling and covering, I decided I wasn't going to be satisfied with the completed result as a whole, so I disassembled it completely that night. The mechanic was stunned, I think, but polite, when he returned. We spent some time talking about what we each saw. I explained to him it wasn't his work that concerned me, it was what he was working on. I also spoke on the phone with a Diamond mechanic a few days later, and learned a bit more about some things that were puzzling me.
I could write a very, very, long post, with pictures, about what I have learned and about the modifications I eventually made, from the feet up, to this brand-new table. (And the things I decided to just live with.) I haven't since I think Diamond is, overall, a positive force in the sport and many might view the information (or me) as being negative.
The table is finally to the point where I have asked the mechanic to come back for leveling this strange beast, covering it, and bolting on the top rails. I hope to be playing on it on Christmas day (if not before).
Some of this is on me, as I'm particular about many things ("OCD" perhaps) that others wouldn't think twice about.
I wish Diamond (or another maker of better tables) would make a factory-assembled drop pocket table that you just bolted the legs/pedestals on like the Pro-Am. (Valley told one of their D/FW dealers they would make a drop-pocket Panther for me when he asked them on the phone, but I decided against it.)
