Anybody else had Cyclop balls crack?
- Thread starter Thomas McKane
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Send your balls to mark Gregory. Quickly.
When I was considering ordering a set of Cyclop balls a few years ago, I asked my longtime Seyberts account rep who has been in the business forever, is a high level player himself, and someone whose opinion I highly regard, what he thought of the Cyclop balls. He made it very clear the quality of the Cyclop balls just does not compare to Aramith balls, at least not at this time. I took his advice and did not purchase a set.
It is sad that the pro players have to play with them in many events due to sponsorship money, even though it's well documented how some of the players feel about them. I find it very interesting in some pro events that I've seen using Cyclop object balls, they use a Pro Cup cue ball. I assume this is a compromise they've made in an attempt to appease the players that had issues with the Cyclop cue ball.
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I meant Mark Griffin at CSI per an earlier post. I edited my earlier post.
My Cyclops set is a year old and some of the balls have
Small chips with sharp edges. I rarely break on my home table and use a linen tip when I due.
now is the time for cyclops to post and declare any problems and their fix. otherwise all credibility for this company is going out the window and will eventually ruin them, as their balls look nice but are close enough in price to aramith that buying them if they have issues they wont fix is stupid.
and if diamond keeps supporting them they are going to lose credibility as well. if they are pushing a product that has problems and supports it then what does that say for their products they make. unless someone steps up and straighten things out.
and if diamond keeps supporting them they are going to lose credibility as well. if they are pushing a product that has problems and supports it then what does that say for their products they make. unless someone steps up and straighten things out.
That’s a good reason for a necro post.
And back to the original thread…
Ah, Cyclop balls. The original “purple 5”
And back to the original thread…
Ah, Cyclop balls. The original “purple 5”
I own a few Cyclop sets. Not one of them has a purple 5B or cracked balls. I'm not sure why everyone hated on these. They play great.
Originals:
Hyperion:
Athena:
They did have some issues with the early production stuff. They took care of it and afaik no further issues. Same factory is now making the Dynasphere balls. Friend plays at MainSt. in Mesa and they've had DS Bronze for a while now. Zero issues and everyone likes them.
Do you suppose they changed the name to get rid of the history once the quality was worked out? Who knows... They made some very nice sets under the Cyclops name. The 20 ball set has a really nice design.
Whatever the problem was has certainly been fixed. Dynaspheres are clearly among the best out there today for playability.
I will say, however, that my Dynaspheres Palladium set DOES have one cosmetic problem. It's so minor I would never complain but the 12 ball is a slightly darker color than the rest of the set. It is obvious in person and has been commented on by friends over to play. The 12 was obviously from a different run for some reason. It CLEARLY was not from the same batch as the others. The picture barely shows it. The other balls and cue balls are pristine white. The 12 looks like a set of 15 year aged Centennials.
Whatever the problem was has certainly been fixed. Dynaspheres are clearly among the best out there today for playability.
I will say, however, that my Dynaspheres Palladium set DOES have one cosmetic problem. It's so minor I would never complain but the 12 ball is a slightly darker color than the rest of the set. It is obvious in person and has been commented on by friends over to play. The 12 was obviously from a different run for some reason. It CLEARLY was not from the same batch as the others. The picture barely shows it. The other balls and cue balls are pristine white. The 12 looks like a set of 15 year aged Centennials.
Looks like the warehouse guy boxing up the balls wasn't looking too close as he put the set together.
I own a few Cyclop sets. Not one of them has a purple 5B or cracked balls. I'm not sure why everyone hated on these. They play great.
Originals:
Hyperion:
Athena:
The skittle 6 and 7 was the original metaphorical “purple 5” because viewers often complained about not telling them apart. When I watched a runout. Definitely had to think about which ball was which each rack. It never became intuitive to me.
I also heard Cyclop received a lot of complaints from players at pro tournaments about the balls rolling funny due to weight imbalances.
The 6B is still green. I never understood how people got baffled by the colors.
I've played with several Cyclop sets in several different locations and never once had a ball roll funny. I'm not saying it never happened, just saying I've never experienced it in my many hours of play.
i think mainly playing full set games like 8-ball and one hole, the 6-7 and 14-15 became confusing. just about every professional commentator mixed them up. i liked the lighter green 6. the hated aramith blak also has a lighter colored 6-ball. they got that right. it's easier to see the edge when playing.
They did have CB rolling issues early on. They fixed them soon after.
They also had object ball roll-off issues. I have a 3 ball I stole from DCC that does very, very remarkable things. Either Cyclop did not have a quick fix or bad balls remained in circulation for years. If it was only one ball in 200 or 500, that's still an unacceptable level of defects for pool balls. At DCC that would mean maybe three bogus balls in play.
If you shoot hard or the ball is not turned the right way on a shot, you won't see the problem. It is a real pain to screen balls for roll-off since each ball has to be tested in multiple orientations. That's for round balls. If a ball is not round, it can be even harder to test unless you have special equipment.
It’s all about intuition vs processing (active thinking). You see two skittle colors and an unfamiliar mind will not have the ball numbers intuitively fed to them like they will with traditional colors.
You’re describing what I had to do. Every rack I had to think “okay the lime ball is a kind of green so that’s the 6”. And then think “the teal is not a kind of any traditional color. What’s the other weird ball in this set again? Oh yeah, it’s the 7. That must be the 7.”
I never got to the point of that being intuitive so I’d have to actively process every time. It takes you out of the experience of enjoying the match in the moment. I can see how owning the balls can expedite that but it’s a tall ask for the entire viewing audience as a whole.
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