StringSpec
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Browse all 791

Head to head

Luxilon Element Soft IR 1.27 vs Yonex Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25)

Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) leads on 4 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is tension loss, where Element Soft IR 1.27 is 9 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Luxilon

Element Soft IR 1.27

Polyester

Yonex

Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25)

Polyester · 16L ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
19866th pct
19663rd pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
4473rd pct
4782nd pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
838th pct
8414th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
7.090th pct
7.695th pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.50379th pct
0.50077th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.0727th pct
0.0662nd pct

Bars are percentile against all 791 strings, and the marked side is the one that measures better, which is not always the one you want. A firmer bed is worse for your elbow and better for your control, and no measurement knows which of those you came for.

Which one wins, by problem

Each string's standing on the site's rankings, out of every measured string in the database. This is where a comparison stops being arithmetic and starts being a decision.

Swapping between them: what tension?

Bed stiffness is published at one reference tension, so the only honest conversion is to scale it. These are starting points from 52 lb, not prescriptions. The calculator takes your own tension.

Coming from Element Soft IR 1.27 at 52 lb

String Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) at 52.6 lb 23.9 kg

Coming from Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) at 52 lb

String Element Soft IR 1.27 at 51.4 lb 23.3 kg

Hybrid: what if you used both?

Estimated, not measured. No hybrid combination has been tested as a bed. These figures are the two strings' own lab measurements weighted by how much of the bed each one actually is. Treat them as a guide to which way a pairing moves, never as lab data.

Element Soft IR 1.27 mains / Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) crosses

Stiffness65th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss76th pct · 1 measured
Energy return10th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential92nd pct · 1 measured
Ball bite79th pct · 1 measured
String friction5th pct · 1 measured

Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) mains / Element Soft IR 1.27 crosses

Stiffness64th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss79th pct · 1 measured
Energy return11th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential94th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite78th pct · 1 measured
String friction2nd pct · 1 measured

Open this in the hybrid builder

Which goes dead first?

Estimated from tension loss, which is the only thing the database measures about ageing. This is when the bed stops playing the way you strung it, not when the string breaks.

Element Soft IR 1.27

~18 hours of play

Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25)

~15 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Luxilon Element Soft IR 1.27 Polyester—find19844837.00.5030.072
Yonex Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) Polyester16Lfind19647847.60.5000.066

Add a third string Element Soft IR 1.27 in full Poly Tour Drive 16L (1.25) in full