JDM vrs 'Big' JDM

[Petethepilot]

Hi all,

recently read Tario's quick review of the new (Dunlop) Srixon Z-TX Tour P-420 driver. It looks packed with technology and playability. It got me thinking that although I 'get' JDM over OEM product, why do we tend to concentrate (on this forum) with the smaller niche producers over the larger scale JDM companies?

I play a JBeam driver and Muira irons and, to be honest, have never considered a driver from a 'Big' JDM company. We seem to rave about JBeam, Crazy, Ryoma, Muira etc despite the fact that the large companies like Dunlop and Bridgestone have huge developmental budgets to throw at R & D (as well as quality control). How can JBeam or Ryoma compete against that I ask? Are we missing something or do the small club companies have a different focus/way of development that the large companies are incapable of doing?

Any thoughts?

Pete

[Vegaman]

Ive been thinking the same. Especially Tourstage seems to be on the cutting edge when it comes to club making and design. But these "Big" JDM companies do have a very broad set of equipment to develop and the smaller makers are able to specialize much more I guess. Jbeam almost only do driver heads. Ryoma actually only do ONE driver head. To take Ryoma as an example, the ultrathin crown they have in order to be able to get all those 60 grams for the weight pod in the back must mean extreme tolerances and a lot of rejected heads. These heads could never be massproduced because the fail rate would just be huge. At Ryoma they can probably test each and every head for wall thickness, strength and weight. A larger company could just never do that, they would have to produce heads with thicker walls, and thus automatically wont have 60 grams to place in the back of the head. Instead maybe only 25-30 grams tops to get the right balance between cost and production speed...So thats is a case of a smaller nimbler maker out-innovating the larger companies.

Besides, it doesnt take more than one or two REALLY talented designers and engineers to do all aspects of a clubhead. having an army of designers and engineers is not always an advantage. That coupled with the maybe less fanatic and rewarding work environment at huge corporations where often several visions and outlooks compete, not to mention bean counters putting a break on things sometimes, leading sometimes to products that are results of a compromise between different philosophies and goals.

[gocchin]

Vegaman pretty much said it. Its about more mass production over more focused and fine detailed production.

This is of course not to say the bigger JDM companies are not good. Tourstage, Srixon et al certainly make fantastic clubs and many people are certainly happy with them.

The P-420 from Srixon is a beauty, and it does use Srixon's on face material and incorporates feed back from Srixons top Japanese pros. It is wonderfully finished and looks and feels great.

Same goes for the new X-Drives. And they all certainly have very good quality.

Many drivers from many big JDM companies are made by Endo which of course also produces Epon who we all consider one of the smaller high end brands.

Many of us like to be different and are instinctively drawn towards the manufacturer who puts its all into production and design and in this case its many of the smaller brands.

I play all the clubs from all the brands... are there differences, sure there are. Designs, aesthetics, feel and yes performance.

In the end a lot of it is personal and subjective. For me the Ryoma works and Crazy shafts work, they just happen to be rather costly (^_^).

But I also enjoy gaming Callaway and Titleist, and even gasp Taylormade clubs (all JDM of course)... a lot will come down to what appeals for each person.

[supo]

i hit quite a few different makes and models as you know.

i dont care who makes them as long as the quality/ performance is the best it can be.

i use j beam ,ryoma, p-tune,birth,zone sprout as examples of small niche houses

and i equally use yamaha as an example s of a big shop.

the thing is tho i m always kind of using ENDO made products.

theres gotta be something in that.

i just packed my bag for this weekend

crazy 460 epon 101 drivers

kasco 2 wood

yamaha 5 wood

royal collection ute

yamaha irons

mizuno wedges

yamada putter.

bit of both right

thats full of both big and small, i dont care , about niche over oem ill use what ever i feel gives the best results.

and if its made here, the chances are itll be pretty good regardless of who designed it.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

With woods companies like Ryoma & Jbeam/Crazy can go toe to toe with any big brand's offering.

When it comes to Iron's & Wedges I find it to be a different story. Many smaller brands are adjusting open model heads based on how the final result looks not plays or measures up as far as CG placement overall balance and performance.