While the best value for money is always mid-range, for something I would use as often as a racket I'd be willing to pay more for the top-end. Like my tennis racket (and shoes) they may cost more, but I'd still buy them over a mid-range item.

While I would like coaching, my play time is limited to my school's games program (thrice a week, 1.5 hours after which I stay on for at least 30 mins). Less than I'd like, but there's little I can do about it. It's in the middle of nowhere too, so no coaches round here.

The company I'm demoing off gets their Arcsaber 11 stock at the beginning of April, so I'll have to wait till all 4 rackets are simulataneously available before a trial… it could take weeks.

Paul – I saw you say somewhere (can't remember where) that Direct Sports has a demo program. I rang, they said it's been shut down recently. Unfortunate, but I didn't know if you knew yet.

When (if) I get the rackets I'll be sure to post and give my impressions!

Finally got hold of the rackets!

Z-Slash: Unbelievably easy to maneuver. I didn't have any of the mistiming issues may have mentioned, but it was certainly unnerving to play with. When moving it there is very little resistance, so I really had to trust my judgement on where the head actually was. Smashes were unbelievably quick, but all shots had very little feedback.

Voltric 80: Other end of the scale. While the power was nice, my comment on the head being slower than I'd like still stands. Compared to the others it was harder to move. My partner used it while I was testing the arcsabers and managed to break a string, but I don't think I'd have picked this anyway.

Arcsaber 11: It may just be that this is a brand new racket I'm testing, but all my shots felt very crisp, with just enough power behind them. Solid and reliable – smashes were still fast, though not quite like the 80 or ZS. In terms of movement it's faster than the VT80 but slower than the 8DX.

Arcsaber 8DX – Turns out this has been discontinued by Yonex. Not sure why as it is a cracker of a racket, with a really nice balance. It was like the ZS in that it was fairly easy to move, but closer to the 11 in terms of feel – not quite as much, but at least a bit (could just be old strings though).

So overall I'm not really sure which arcsaber to go for. Which leaves me with some pretty open questions about strings (I can't demo these and have no experience here, so any help is appreciated):

I was thinking of getting whichever racket I choose strung at 24lbs with Nanogy99. 

ZS – when swinging this around I barely even know this racket exists – or even that it's hit the shuttle. The current string is a BG80 (not BG80P) and feel pretty loose. How much difference would a higher tension NGY99 make? 

8DX – BG65Ti, fairly good string tension, but a bit less than the brand-new Arc11. If the different strings could make this as crisp as the Arc11, this would be quite nice. It has a similar swingweight to my current racket, so naturally feels more “right” than the other two.

Arc11 – BG65Ti, I'm the first person to demo this so this racket has high string tension (24lbs maybe?). It's very crisp which I really like; clears feel good and drops are heavenly. A tad slower than the 8DX.

tl;dr: My problem here is choice. For smashing and quick shots the ZS is king. The Arc11 wins on feel. The 8DX sits in between, like a more even-balance Arc11 but worse control. Could different strings/tensions/both improve any of these things, and is there anything else to look for next time I go demo them?

Edit: It seems I found the ZS easy enough to time because my current racket is even weirder – on comparison with the ZS my racket's handle is 3cm shorter, and the overall racket is shorter by 1cm. The head also starts 2cm lower than the ZS (for reference, its a £30 Browning Nanotec80 CTI).