I have tried a lot of paddles at the $200 below and $400 below. The vatics can hang with any $400 paddle all day long. The new Tour feels amazing and I don't just mean generally holding and swinging. I have a few paddles my family use on the courts at the same time and when the Tours are being used, you can hear them. They sound great, they feel great when contact is made, the swing great, pop is better than most but still in the manageable realm. Sometimes you can have too much pop, this is perfect. Also, my son and I are spin wizards. We spin it all and the tour has increased the consistency of every ball I want to have spin, having spin. If I want to pour on aggressive spin at say a serve or something, this Tour makes short work of it. Time will tell if the grit stays like they say, but so far so good.