This has been discussed on here occasionally before. The rubber they use is known to play a bit too springy as well as shorten the rebound angle of balls coming off the rails. Now that these tables are everywhere, some people think this is normal. It is a fundamental change to how balls move on the table. I do understand why Diamond does this, though. They can't exactly use the rubber of their main competitors. It would be like Ford getting Chevrolet to build their engines. The table construction and the one piece slate on the 9 footers is AWESOME - no slate seams to work with. You could have a qualified table mechanic (Glenn)install Brunswick Superspeed - a bit of work, but then you'd have a perfect table !
Brunswick Superspeed are garbage. Notorious for becoming dead, or even turning into rock (see Gold Crown III). Cheaper quality rubber.
Artemis (what Diamond uses) made in Germany are the best. People think the Diamonds bounce too much because the Artemis retains it's bounce throughout most of its life. Doesn't change much from my experience. I feel most of the change is the cloth wearing down, not the cushions. Superspeeds when brand new, non-defective, and installed right play just like the Artemis - fast and strong rebound. For a while that is, until they get broken in and they deaden a little bit. Then they become what people think is the standard of Superspeed play. I've played on new Superspeed. They are quite fast. But that doesn't last. Artemis stays the same longer. Relative to the Superspeeds, the Superspeed's deadening gives the illusion that the Artemis plays faster than normal. It's not. That's regular. It's the Superspeed becoming Superslow.
Playing on a well used or older Gold Crown shows this well. You have to pound the ball a lot more to get around multiple rails than does a pro player, playing in a tournament on Diamonds with Artemis cushions. They don't have to juice it as much to get action off the cushion.
I was so used to regular slower play worn down Superspeeds that when I had played on a table with new SS cushions, I had a hard time with control. Rebound was significantly greater. Goes to show the difference.
The best cushion isn't necessarily the fastest - but the one that stays the same for the longest period of time. My guess is the main factor in that is the composition of the rubber. What they put in and what they don't put in.
Artemis is my favorite, but expensive. For cushions on a budget, the Diamond Black are pretty good. I have these on my Gold Crown. Very good rebound. Time will tell how they hold up. At 1/6 the price of the Artemis, and 1/3 of the Superspeed, they are price performance winners.
Compared to the Superspeed, which run about $150 and up and will play slow after a couple of years. Seen this also on GC IV's when they came out. Played wonderful the first year to two years at most. Then got slow. If I'm going to risk cushions that will deaden prematurely, I'd rather spend $50, than get the Superspeed and have the same result. Superspeed are suppose to be a premium cushion, but don't last any longer than budget cushions and in many cases are worse than budget cushions.
Today's Brunswick isn't the Brunswick of the past that earned them the good reputation. Diamond is the table with the all-around quality. Diamond will be my next table.
