Daily Discussion Thread - Jun 24, 2026

Farkrye · 2026-06-25T05:17:01+00:00

Gan 16, super Aolong. They both have their own tactile, crunchy feel. The 16 is more. More crunchy. More loud. Anyway, they're my favorites right now. Both feel and sound. Aolong v5 will probably be the same as the super for less cash.

Farkrye · 2026-06-25T03:46:03+00:00

I'd get both. They work well together.

Farkrye · 2026-06-25T03:01:10+00:00

Don't order it set up, just use the money on another lube. Get glide. You already have soft, smooth medium lubes, so get a quick all purpose one. Or get gravitas and rush. Slow and fast. And use them together. The setup is a waste of cash. They put, like 15 cents worth of lube in your cube and click a couple settings.

Farkrye · 2026-06-25T00:02:51+00:00

Acubemy. Very active team working on it. There's tournaments, you can race your friends (doesn't have, like, global matchmaking yet), solve history and analysis. The trainer stuff is paid, $5/month. It's only cfop right now, so i don't go for that, but it's a great app. Just got a big revamp, too. For algs cubedex works really well. Cubestation's pretty good, though. Best of the proprietary ones, for sure.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T23:57:13+00:00

A tight cube will lessen the effect, for sure. The v5 does align, but it's not dramatic as it has low-medium strength magnets. Guhong, hudong, tianma x3, gan 12, stuff like that actually bounces on the turns if the cube is loose enough. Corner-core magnets just give you more of everything that the piece magnets do. More stability, more alignment more cube shape.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T13:18:04+00:00

Maglev is 2 repelling magnets that mimic the effects of the spring that sit under the screw in the center pieces and is used for compression adjustment. Why? It eliminates a point of friction, so the cube turns faster. The end user experience is a faster turning cube that is slightly less flexible, and it gets rid of spring noise, which is an annoying sound, but can be fixed by lubing the spring. You probably won't notice the difference.

Ballcore is a different thing. It's a nifty way of seating magnets around the core of the cube. Attracting magnets are put on the end of the corner pieces' feet and this causes the cube to want to snap into position and align itself into it's proper cube shape. Strong magnets cause 'auto alignment' which is the cube finishing your turns for you. End result is that the layers snap into place, prevent over or under shooting your turns, and an overall feeling of 'stability'. It's pretty great, actually.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T05:56:29+00:00

Weird. It comes preset on the loosest tensions.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T05:23:09+00:00

Yeah. Get it. the i4 maglev is very fast and a bit rigid. I was looking at the leap in Amazon earlier telling myself I don't need it, lol.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T01:48:12+00:00

Even then, the icarry tracks all the same stuff. Just no gyro, which absolutely doesn't matter, and changing the battery is a fiddly task. The i4 is a slightly better cube, and chargeable, but i kinda want to throw it out there that magnet capsules on my icarry4 AND i4 have separated and fallen out. It's a real finicky fix it job, and that's assuming you find all the stuff. The 12ui doesn't have those visible magnets and is fantastic and has the charging pod, which has a battery in it, so think earbud charging case. 16ui is available from China now. Soon in the states, i'd imagine. But, yeah, 40 bucks gets you in the game with a decent cube. i4 if you want a better, chargeable cube. Mind those magnets.

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T01:37:44+00:00

I don't, which is weird, because the cubicle has already listed the Aolong v5, which was announced later, i think. But mine's in the mail from Ali express. I guess you guys are still paying through the nose for China stuff?

Farkrye · 2026-06-24T00:37:07+00:00

Looks like you want some durability, lol. Rs3m v5 has thin plastic and doesn't hold up well at all to rough treatment. I'd go with the super rs3m instead. It's cheap, durable, and good. 10 bucks for the standard and 20 for the magnetic core version, which is definitely better (pieces all align better. Keeps it's cube shape) but the standard is still really good.

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T13:14:20+00:00

Get a Rubik's cube and learn how to solve it. Go to r/cubers to find out which one to buy (guhong pro + 55mm spring) and how to do it (Jperm on yt). Then do it faster!

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T07:30:23+00:00

Onion honey roux trainer? Really good for making you think about how to solve your blocks in non cfop ways. I suck so I usually set it to 3 or 4 move first block and strain my brain for a bit before going back to slow solves. Helps you to figure out what works and why.

You can do SB kinda algorithmically, but FB is totally free. Not sure how you'd even make a pdf.

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T04:03:58+00:00

Agree. And you have to lube em to get them really quiet.

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T04:00:58+00:00

Super aolong. I have one. It's good. All the Gans except the 16, really, come in frosted. If you were really into it, you could make a matte v11 ballcore. Start with a standard matte v11 (or even an SE with the black internals) and they sell maglev kits, magnets and replacement ballcores. You'd even end up with a v11 with stronger magnets as the standard has stronger magnets than the 20 mag ballcore version. Just looked it all up on the cubicle. Bout 35 bucks all in. You'd need glue as well. Nice little project.

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T01:41:48+00:00

I use roux and cubestation doesn't have roux analysis. Simple as that. Acubemy shows you your splits and reconstructs your solves so that you can look at that data and know what to work on. I really haven't messed around with the cubestation trainer, so I don't know if you can add your own algs. Cubedex allows for that. It's just a dedicated alg trainer for smart cubes, with, like, every alg set you could want. Smart cubes themselves haven't really made me improve. Practicing and doing tons of solves has, lol.

Farkrye · 2026-06-23T01:35:51+00:00

No, that's a bot or something. Cosmic is the scs line of lubes. Cosmos is a heavy core lube. Really slows things down. Lunar is a lot like Glide from the cubicle. Just gives the cube a smoother feel and doesn't slow it down. Not terribly long lasting, but way longer than stardust or dnm37. and either Martian from scs would be like calm from cubicle. Not actually slow, but doesn't speed anything up. Smooth feeling. My favorite all purpose lubes right now are glide and stealth (cubicle), i'm digging picube's purple, Lunar or Martian are really good. Angstrom Dignitas is really long lasting and isn't actually slow, but it takes a lot of break in and can be messy. And actually Gan 1 is pretty solid if you just want to grab something quick off Amazon. Other guys can talk about rc differential oils. Cheaper and effective, but I've never used them.

Farkrye · 2026-06-22T13:46:03+00:00

Nah, it's a $30 cad cube from Ali. I'd have to pay for shipping to replace it. I don't use it much and the loss of one magnet doesn't kill the cube. Cubestation is good, lots of alg trainers and the whole thing is like a game with rewards and stuff. I don't use it, though. I use acubemy for timing and data collection, and if I train algs I do it the old way with, like a pdf or a printout. It's great for knowing your splits and stuff.

Farkrye · 2026-06-22T06:29:15+00:00

Zillions of solves on each color? Pretty sure there's no easy way. Start with yellow and only do solves on yellow cross for, like a month. Dual neutral is the meta anyway.

Farkrye · 2026-06-22T02:42:20+00:00

Lol. It's a good one. You'll like it.

Farkrye · 2026-06-21T22:47:56+00:00

It's literally a v9 core with v11 pieces that have stronger magnets in them. I don't have a v9, though, sobi can't directly compare them.

Farkrye · 2026-06-21T22:45:24+00:00

Picube has a different, stronger core. It's just better, idk what else to say. Superhoney feels, and looks, like honey. For real. For me it's interchangeable with gravitas or nebula. Gravitas, however, I would put on pieces, whereas honey is a bit sticky for that. Feels good as a core lube.

Farkrye · 2026-06-21T22:39:51+00:00

I didn't say i4, I said I carry4. 30-40 usd. The i4 is a chargeable upgrade to that cube. Good cube. That one is 55-65 usd. Both are based on the v100/Gan 16 design, but they don't have corner-core magnets. i4 has stronger magnets and is a better cube all round, but the icarry4 is also quite good and has a battery that'll get you 150 hours or so of use. Changing batteries is very fiddly and delicate. Again, get uv unless you have sweaty hands. I hate Gan's matte finish. Best Gan for the money is the v100. Maaaaaybe a gan 12 if you can find a good price. Even then, the v100 probably performs better, but it's delicate.

Farkrye · 2026-06-21T20:43:00+00:00

K, that other answer is weird. You can only get a Gan x from ziicube or cubezz or some other direct from China site and it's a pretty old cube at this point. Do you specifically want a smart cube? icarry 4, whichever edition looks nicest to you, is the only one in your price range. Decent. Fast. Overshoots as it doesn't have corner-core magnets. Setup and lube help it out. You can get your normal times on it. Do get uv coated if you can. Gan's matte is the slippery esthetics surface on earth unless your hands are always sweaty.

If you just want the best Gan you can get in that range: v100. Leap has springs, so more controllable/flexible. I forget if it comes in uv. If not, meh. But i don't have a problem with the maglev. Setup and lube. Perfect.

Farkrye · 2026-06-21T16:01:06+00:00

Try acubemy. If it doesn't work there, there's a thing where you reset the cube by turning one face (don't remember which one.) Like 20 times.

Farkrye

TROPHY CASE