Alright, need to place an order for a CPC set and I don't have much experience with CPC molds, so I reach out to Spragg to ask what he's got on hand for the molds I'm looking for. Three days later, these arrive in my mailbox:
Some are a little hard to see... Clockwise from top-left: Lcrown, CSQ, A-mold (not interested in these, but I got a color sample so might as well), Leaded THC (for control), jockey, HHR, DIASQR (md-50), Scrown.
I specifically asked for inlaid samples as I didn't want that affecting my evaluation of the chips. In retrospect, I wish I had also asked for all weighted colors, as I have a nagging suspicion unweighted vs unweighted affects sound and feel. Oh well.
Going into this experiment, only having handled scrown chips before, my rankings based on looks probably looked like:
I got the jockey mainly because several forum members claimed them to be really good feeling. Ok, let's give them a try... but they are really not visually appealing at all.
Since I got these, I've been riffling/shuffling/clacking these chips at my desk (WFH) for a few weeks. I am at a point where I can most of the time identify almost all the molds in a blind test Here are my thoughts:
(disclaimer: these are just my personal opinions. they may be different from yours and other forum members'. use proper judgment and obtain samples yourself before making important decisions)
Scrown: My favorite based on looks going into this experiment. Unfortunately, they were by far my least favorite mold in the sound and feels department. Shuffling was decent. They have this somewhat unpleasant clack sound that sounds like two flat surfaces crashing into one another, and felt less substantial than the other molds. Also, when I am "slinky-ing" the chips, I felt like there was a greater probability of chips sticking together (or feeling like they did). Overall, very disappointed that was my least favorite mold for sound.
LCrown: First thing I noticed is that visually, the dashes are prominent while the crowns are not. This is physically true as well, with the dashes being deep and the crown imprints shallow. When looking at it casually, I notice the dashes much more than the crowns themselves, which I feel like detracts from the mold a bit. Also, despite being an "outer-ring" mold, the outer ring of the Lcrown is much shallower than the outer ring of other molds that have such rings. This is the only mold that I noticed that for. Theoretically, that probably makes it sit somewhere between an "outer-ring mold" and a "non-outer ring mold", as it is generally accepted that the outer ring improves feel and sound.
As for sound, the lcrown was the mold I felt most neutral about. Sounds okay. Sometimes it sounds like scrown (yuck), but sometimes it sounds like HHR (nice). Feels a little light. No real strong feelings in either direction.
Update: I received regular (weighted) lcrown samples. With these, the sound is much better.
Jockey: For sound and feel, this mold is the stone cold nuts among the CPC molds. Texture is rough and nice. Shuffle is hard at first but breaks in quickly. I am actually really upset I tried the jockey mold, because now all the other molds sound like shit. If I end up buying on a different mold, I know I will always have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind there is a better mold out there. The clacks have this timbre to them that is pleasant, penetrating, and at the perfect pitch. There is also a second very subtle dimension to the sound that I can only best describe as "the sound that a coin makes when it 'dances' after being spun, right before it stops and falls flat". Fantastic mold.
As a side note, I have now asked two people who knew nothing about chips what they thought the "jockey" resembled. One person said a skier, the other said a guy dancing.![ROFL :ROFL: :ROFLMAO: :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png)
Update: The only update I have on jockey is that the chip gets very dirty very fast (probably due to texture). Take a look at these two chips:
I picked these specific chips because they both share the same base color (DG arc yellow) and so you can more fairly assess how much dirtier the jockey is. They have had about the same amount of handling. Take a look at how much darker the outer rim of the jockey is.
DIASQR: Sounds heavy. I would describe the pitch as lower than all the other molds, with the slightest hint of hollowy-ness. Feels heavy, but not necessarily more pleasant. Shuffles ok. Amongst all the molds, I also felt this one had the greatest variance in sound depending on how the chips were positioned in my hand and the angle/height that I dropped from. All in all, a good feeling mold.
CSQ: This one has a sound that is higher pitched than DIASQR and jockey, but still pleasant. Somewhat ceramic-like? The sound lacks that extra penetration that those two molds have, so it loses a few points in my book. Also, the CSQ mold markings are very prominent and busy-looking in person, much more than expected. Shuffles very nicely, even when brand new.
HHR: Very similar sound to CSQ all-around. The CSQ-HHR pair is one I get mixed up the most frequently in blind testing.
Unfortunately, none of these molds, not even jockey, comes close to the sound, feel, and weight of the leaded THC chips. The chips are just SO much heavier, the sound SO much richer, than anything CPC has to offer. The sound/feel difference between leaded THC and jockey is more than the difference between jockey and scrown. Comparing jockey to leaded THCs reminded me of that one time in middle school when my friends and I were dominating in playground pickup basketball, and then a bunch of high-schoolers showed up and took our lunch money.
Hopefully this information might be helpful to someone out there. But don't let it be a substitute for getting your own samples! As for my own CPC set, this experiment has really thrown a wrench into what mold I want to build on. Some tough choices ahead!
Some are a little hard to see... Clockwise from top-left: Lcrown, CSQ, A-mold (not interested in these, but I got a color sample so might as well), Leaded THC (for control), jockey, HHR, DIASQR (md-50), Scrown.
I specifically asked for inlaid samples as I didn't want that affecting my evaluation of the chips. In retrospect, I wish I had also asked for all weighted colors, as I have a nagging suspicion unweighted vs unweighted affects sound and feel. Oh well.
Going into this experiment, only having handled scrown chips before, my rankings based on looks probably looked like:
Code:
Scrown > Lcrown > DIASQR = CSQ > HHR >>> jockey
I got the jockey mainly because several forum members claimed them to be really good feeling. Ok, let's give them a try... but they are really not visually appealing at all.
Since I got these, I've been riffling/shuffling/clacking these chips at my desk (WFH) for a few weeks. I am at a point where I can most of the time identify almost all the molds in a blind test Here are my thoughts:
(disclaimer: these are just my personal opinions. they may be different from yours and other forum members'. use proper judgment and obtain samples yourself before making important decisions)
Scrown: My favorite based on looks going into this experiment. Unfortunately, they were by far my least favorite mold in the sound and feels department. Shuffling was decent. They have this somewhat unpleasant clack sound that sounds like two flat surfaces crashing into one another, and felt less substantial than the other molds. Also, when I am "slinky-ing" the chips, I felt like there was a greater probability of chips sticking together (or feeling like they did). Overall, very disappointed that was my least favorite mold for sound.
LCrown: First thing I noticed is that visually, the dashes are prominent while the crowns are not. This is physically true as well, with the dashes being deep and the crown imprints shallow. When looking at it casually, I notice the dashes much more than the crowns themselves, which I feel like detracts from the mold a bit. Also, despite being an "outer-ring" mold, the outer ring of the Lcrown is much shallower than the outer ring of other molds that have such rings. This is the only mold that I noticed that for. Theoretically, that probably makes it sit somewhere between an "outer-ring mold" and a "non-outer ring mold", as it is generally accepted that the outer ring improves feel and sound.
As for sound, the lcrown was the mold I felt most neutral about. Sounds okay. Sometimes it sounds like scrown (yuck), but sometimes it sounds like HHR (nice). Feels a little light. No real strong feelings in either direction.
Update: I received regular (weighted) lcrown samples. With these, the sound is much better.
Jockey: For sound and feel, this mold is the stone cold nuts among the CPC molds. Texture is rough and nice. Shuffle is hard at first but breaks in quickly. I am actually really upset I tried the jockey mold, because now all the other molds sound like shit. If I end up buying on a different mold, I know I will always have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind there is a better mold out there. The clacks have this timbre to them that is pleasant, penetrating, and at the perfect pitch. There is also a second very subtle dimension to the sound that I can only best describe as "the sound that a coin makes when it 'dances' after being spun, right before it stops and falls flat". Fantastic mold.
As a side note, I have now asked two people who knew nothing about chips what they thought the "jockey" resembled. One person said a skier, the other said a guy dancing.
![ROFL :ROFL: :ROFLMAO: :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png)
Update: The only update I have on jockey is that the chip gets very dirty very fast (probably due to texture). Take a look at these two chips:
I picked these specific chips because they both share the same base color (DG arc yellow) and so you can more fairly assess how much dirtier the jockey is. They have had about the same amount of handling. Take a look at how much darker the outer rim of the jockey is.
DIASQR: Sounds heavy. I would describe the pitch as lower than all the other molds, with the slightest hint of hollowy-ness. Feels heavy, but not necessarily more pleasant. Shuffles ok. Amongst all the molds, I also felt this one had the greatest variance in sound depending on how the chips were positioned in my hand and the angle/height that I dropped from. All in all, a good feeling mold.
CSQ: This one has a sound that is higher pitched than DIASQR and jockey, but still pleasant. Somewhat ceramic-like? The sound lacks that extra penetration that those two molds have, so it loses a few points in my book. Also, the CSQ mold markings are very prominent and busy-looking in person, much more than expected. Shuffles very nicely, even when brand new.
HHR: Very similar sound to CSQ all-around. The CSQ-HHR pair is one I get mixed up the most frequently in blind testing.
Unfortunately, none of these molds, not even jockey, comes close to the sound, feel, and weight of the leaded THC chips. The chips are just SO much heavier, the sound SO much richer, than anything CPC has to offer. The sound/feel difference between leaded THC and jockey is more than the difference between jockey and scrown. Comparing jockey to leaded THCs reminded me of that one time in middle school when my friends and I were dominating in playground pickup basketball, and then a bunch of high-schoolers showed up and took our lunch money.
Hopefully this information might be helpful to someone out there. But don't let it be a substitute for getting your own samples! As for my own CPC set, this experiment has really thrown a wrench into what mold I want to build on. Some tough choices ahead!
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