Gear-wise, I'm in a position which I hope proves valuable to you. I've got a Deep Impact shaft with the stock Sonic tip, and a Deep Impact Pro R shaft with an updated Taom. In general, I prefer the Taom. It feels a bit more bouncy and easier to control. Comparatively, the Sonic feels in between the Taom and phenolic. Really hard, but with the slightest sense of compression. I measured how hard I could break in a silent room over 30 breaks on each shaft with the Breakspeed app, and averaged about 24.7mph with the Pro R + Taom, and 26.6mph with the original Deep Impact.
I prefer to break around 19mph and try to stop the ball center table with a bit of hop and top on it. For that, I find my resulting spreads and leaves much more consistent and favorable with the Taom. The Sonic is very good, but I wasn't able to control it as well as I would've liked.
As far as shattering, that is supposedly a known issue with the first generation. As long as you order from a big name (Mika, Jayson), you should be supplied with the updated version. It's a very interesting tip, and worth trying out.