I took the plunge and purchased a Victor MX60, so I thought I'd provide some feedback on how it compares to the Arcsaber 10.  Bear in mind that my rationale for switching was that I wanted a more forgiving racket and felt that the Arc 10 was on the stiff side (although less so than my previous Ti10) and hopefully less head weight should also make the racket less tiring to use.

The big difference that I noticed was an improvement in manoeuvrability.  By contrast, returns of smashes or reacting to driven serves felt noticeably more physical with the Arc10.  So defence was improved but without any obvious sacrifice in terms of power.  Lifted returns to smashes got good length and there was plenty of pace when driving back flat smashes.  If anything the additional “whip” in the racket seemed to help in both cases.

Similarly, the racket felt more forgiving of shots that were not perfectly timed.  I was surprised by the good distance on a couple of backhand clears made under pressure.  It's inevitably subjective in such circumstances but I would describe the MX60 as having a larger, fuzzier sweet spot than the Arc 10. This was noticeable when warming up.  With the Arc 10 if you time it well, you can clear from one end of the court to the other using little more than your wrist.  By contrast the MX60 felt that it needed a more complete shot.  When smashing the Arc 10 feels more “direct” –  there is a greater perception of precision in terms of the shuttle's vertical trajectory. 

I also felt that the Arc10 had better touch round the net, but this was probably as much down to familiarity and stringing as anything else.  I had no issues with my short serve when switching rackets.

While I think that there are trade-offs, the virtues of the Arc10 largely come to the fore when you get the timing just right.  Given that footwork is a major part of that and the combination of age and ankle injuries mean that positioning and therefore timing is often not ideal, then the MX60 is a more forgiving racket.  In fact I would describe it as pretty viceless.  I did not feel that my smashing was down on power, if anything the reverse when timing was slightly off.  The racket has good feel – a forehand lift from the net to the backhand corner feels accurate and well-controlled.  Any marginal loss in precision that I alluded to above is really only noticeable when you are hitting with full power.  In other circumstances I think that the power of the MX60 is more accessible.  There is sufficient head weight that I never felt that I was being asked to adapt to a very different racket, but the MX60 is less tiring to use.  I was still smashing fairly comfortably towards the end of a match whereas with the Arc 10 I was definitely opting to drop much more frequently.

Inevitably impressions can be coloured by playing in a different hall, with different shuttles and different strings (with a bit more tension), but for me the clearest difference between the two rackets is in defence.  I mostly play men's doubles and found the medium flex and less head-heavy balance of the MX60 definitely made life easier.  It is quicker, less physical and when you need to add power to the shot, it is more accessible.

So I guess you can chalk up another endorsement for the MX60 as a very good all round racket, especially for doubles.  The racket is still pretty hard to track down in the UK.  I bought mine from http://www.badmintonbase.co.uk who were very responsive and  allowed me to specify string tension.

Sorry, didn't mean to plug BadmintonBase in particular, beyond saying that I had good service from them.  The issue was more that it was the only place that I could find the racket for sale!  Other places do stock Victor, but nobody else seems to have the MX60 yet.