# Gan Air - Is It Worth Getting The Advanced/Master/Grandmaster Editions?



## Perfectionist (Jun 9, 2017)

It seems as though the Chinese stores only stock the Standard version of the Air - getting the other Editions is more expensive and available from Gan directly or from US/UK dealers... but is it worth spending the extra money, or is the Standard setup actually the best?

Gan Prices = https://www.gancube.com/shop/gan356airgrandmaster
Air Standard = $25.79 - has Normal Bright Stickers
Air Advanced = $29.12 - has Half Bright Stickers
Air Master = $29.89 - includes S series changeable springs
Air GrandMaster = $32.53 - includes both S & G series springs and a VIP card

Edit: Found a dealer on AliExpress who sells the Air Master for just $18.99!
= https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Bes...lgo_pvid=a5541bcf-99e9-4280-b4c3-aadfbc9a9099

The VIP card gives you free parts with free shipping, which is nice... but is it really needed as Gan cubes are very high quality so are unlikely to break?
= https://www.gancube.com/f-a-q


> 2.What should I do if my parts is broken?
> 
> (1）If you are VIP members, you can get free parts (under 20% of the cube) with free shipping .
> 
> ...



The main difference is apparently the replaceable Springs and different Stickers:
- are these useful to have, or in reality do the normal Standard version springs feel the best?
- are the G series springs much better than the S series?
- are the Half Bright stickers much better than the Normal Bright stickers?
(in the picture, it seems the Red & Orange are a little too similar, so the Normal Bright might actually be easier to tell apart?)

Would appreciate your advice guys!

PS: Does anybody know why Gan refuses to produce Stickerless cubes?


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## EmperorZant (Jun 10, 2017)

Normal or Half-bright, the stock stickers have pretty decent contrast and are very, _very_ durable. I tend to use brighter (flourescent) shades on my cubes, but the Gans Air's half brights are quite similar to such shades, so if you like brighter stickers, you'll probably like the half-brights. (If you don't like them, you could always resticker them, anyway)

If you're a collector-type, you want the Grand Master or Master Edition obviously. But if you just care about functionality, I would also recommend getting at least the Master Version so you have all the means to customize your cube (within practical reason, as I'm sure you don't need to try every single series of GES nuts!). The G and S series are also different (not necessarily better or worse), and as such you should treat them like any other method of tensioning. Gancube and TheCubicle also sell individually the G and S Series iirc


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## Perfectionist (Jun 10, 2017)

Are the G series springs much better than the S series - do they make the cube tighter or looser? 
Thanks!


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## Ghost Cuber (Jun 10, 2017)

Perfectionist said:


> Are the G series springs much better than the S series - do they make the cube tighter or looser?
> Thanks!


I use clear springs in my Ultimate, but prefer Yellow in a regular Air. I find the G series to be too loose to be controllable.
I recommend this: http://cubezz.com/Buy-5298-GAN356+Air+UM+with+Magnet+Positioning+System+Black.html
It is a UM (Ultimate Magnetic) for around $36 USD and free worldwide shipping. It comes with all the springs as well.


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## Dash Lambda (Jun 11, 2017)

Perfectionist said:


> Are the G series springs much better than the S series - do they make the cube tighter or looser?
> Thanks!


I personally think so, but really they're just lower tension springs that are sold separate because not enough people would actually prefer looser springs to justify putting them in the regular package. If you generally like looser cubes you'll probably like them, and if you don't, you probably won't.

The only real difference is the included parts. I wouldn't get the advanced edition unless you really want that box (as it's the only difference, other than stickers, from the standard), but I would recommend the master edition because the springs can make quite a lot of difference to the feel. If you're concerned at all about money, don't get a grandmaster edition -They're only expensive because they're limited editions, and you can get the G series springs separate if you're not satisfied with the S series.

The stock stickers for all of the non-ultimate Gans Airs are kind'a mediocre. The shades are fine, but they chip like nobody's business, so much that I'd buy it with the expectation to replace them. Probably the least durable stickers I've used.
The Oracal stickers on the ultimate editions, conversely, are easily the best stickers I've ever used. They show practically no wear after excessive use and the shades are fantastic.

Gans doesn't make stickerless because all their cubes (at least current cubes) use capped pieces. The outer section of each piece is one unit, so they can't simply use multiple colored sections. I personally prefer it that way because the piece structure is more durable and there aren't any seems along major surfaces (and I also just inherently like capped designs more for whatever reason), but it is a tradeoff.

As for the VIP card, uh... I got one with my Air UM, I'll let you know if I ever use it.


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## Perfectionist (Jun 11, 2017)

Dash Lambda said:


> I personally think so, but really they're just lower tension springs that are sold separate because not enough people would actually prefer looser springs to justify putting them in the regular package. If you generally like looser cubes you'll probably like them, and if you don't, you probably won't.


Thinking I should start another thread, with a poll asking which colour spring people prefer!



> The only real difference is the included parts. I wouldn't get the advanced edition unless you really want that box (as it's the only difference, other than stickers, from the standard), but I would recommend the master edition because the springs can make quite a lot of difference to the feel. If you're concerned at all about money, don't get a grandmaster edition -They're only expensive because they're limited editions, and you can get the G series springs separate if you're not satisfied with the S series.


Is it quick and easy to change over the springs - and does it take a lot of adjustment to get all 6 to have the same tension? 



> The stock stickers for all of the non-ultimate Gans Airs are kind'a mediocre. The shades are fine, but they chip like nobody's business, so much that I'd buy it with the expectation to replace them. Probably the least durable stickers I've used.
> The Oracal stickers on the ultimate editions, conversely, are easily the best stickers I've ever used. They show practically no wear after excessive use and the shades are fantastic.


The picture above is from the Gan website, which says their non-ultimate cubes also have Oracal stickers? Did they upgraded their Air range recently, or do Oracal make both low and high quality stickers? 



> Gans doesn't make stickerless because all their cubes (at least current cubes) use capped pieces. The outer section of each piece is one unit, so they can't simply use multiple colored sections. I personally prefer it that way because the piece structure is more durable and there aren't any seems along major surfaces (and I also just inherently like capped designs more for whatever reason), but it is a tradeoff.


I see, so its not that they refuse to make them - it's because it'd be difficult with their present cube design. Shame really, as I can't help feeling that stickers are little primitive in the 21st century!



> As for the VIP card, uh... I got one with my Air UM, I'll let you know if I ever use it.


Please do - would be interesting to see how good the after-sales service is.


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## Dash Lambda (Jun 11, 2017)

Perfectionist said:


> Thinking I should start another thread, with a poll asking which colour spring people prefer!


I think I've seen a couple of those, this one is quite recent.



Perfectionist said:


> Is it quick and easy to change over the springs - and does it take a lot of adjustment to get all 6 to have the same tension?


Yeah, I'd say it's quick and easy. The nut contains the spring, so there's surprisingly little fiddling and you're only swapping one part (per side, of course). As for the second part, if you mean set them all to equivalent heights, then no it's quite simple (I always just set mine flush the the spokes on the core), but if you mean adjust them so they feel the same, that's not possible.



Perfectionist said:


> The picture above is from the Gan website, which says their non-ultimate cubes also have Oracal stickers. Did they upgrade their Air range recently, or do Oracal make both low and high quality stickers?


I'm not entirely sure, though I don't imagine they changed the stickers on the base models since the new stickers were a marketing point for the Ultimate editions. So, unless they had a major change of heart, the base models have 'meh stickers.



Perfectionist said:


> I see, so its not that they refuse to make them - it's because it'd be difficult with their present cube design. Shame really, as I can't help feeling that stickers are little primitive in the 21st century!


I actually prefer stickers, since it separates the color choice from the cube choice. The only stickerless cubes that I really prefer are ones like the YuXin HuangLong series and the newer XMD puzzles where the stickerless coloring is actually panels or segmented caps on the pieces, since that offers the same sort of modularity that stickers have (albeit more limited). The XMD Galaxy Megaminx takes it a bit further, as they actually made four different face shapes -flat, convex, concave, and 'sculpted'- and they were all just different tiles on the same mechanism. They made a 'Lux' set where you got the puzzle itself and all the different shapes of stickerless tiles along with a couple color variations, so you could customize it. THAT'S how you do stickerless.


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## Perfectionist (Jun 14, 2017)

Dash Lambda said:


> I think I've seen a couple of those, this one is quite recent.


Cool, thanks!



> Yeah, I'd say it's quick and easy. The nut contains the spring, so there's surprisingly little fiddling and you're only swapping one part (per side, of course). As for the second part, if you mean set them all to equivalent heights, then no it's quite simple (I always just set mine flush the the spokes on the core), but if you mean adjust them so they feel the same, that's not possible.


Does setting them flush mean the tensions are the same on all sides - is the cube precision engineered enough for that to be possible?



> I actually prefer stickers, since it separates the color choice from the cube choice. The only stickerless cubes that I really prefer are ones like the YuXin HuangLong series and the newer XMD puzzles where the stickerless coloring is actually panels or segmented caps on the pieces, since that offers the same sort of modularity that stickers have (albeit more limited). The XMD Galaxy Megaminx takes it a bit further, as they actually made four different face shapes -flat, convex, concave, and 'sculpted'- and they were all just different tiles on the same mechanism. They made a 'Lux' set where you got the puzzle itself and all the different shapes of stickerless tiles along with a couple color variations, so you could customize it. THAT'S how you do stickerless.


Agreed - best of both worlds! 

Even the likes of lowly Rubik themselves are using the "tile" concept - wonder why the premium cube manufacturers are not implementing this on their high-end 3x3x3 cubes?


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## Ghost Cuber (Jun 14, 2017)

Perfectionist said:


> Does setting them flush mean the tensions are the same on all sides - is the cube precision engineered enough for that to be possible?


Unfortunately, that is not the case. When the tensions look even, there are usually a couple sides that require adjustment. It is quite a tedious process to get them even, but definitely worth it. One tip though: if one side feels "off" and you can't seem to get it to match the other, adjust the tensions on other sides, as they somehow affect eachother.


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## Dash Lambda (Jun 14, 2017)

Perfectionist said:


> Does setting them flush mean the tensions are the same on all sides - is the cube precision engineered enough for that to be possible?


Generally yes, though sometimes I need to do some microadjustments. Most of the variation I imagine comes from what I let pass for 'flush'.



Perfectionist said:


> Even the likes of lowly Rubik themselves are using the "tile" concept - wonder why the premium cube manufacturers are not implementing this on their high-end 3x3x3 cubes?


The Rubik's tiles aren't replaceable, though. Actually, they switched to tiles so that it would be impossible to peel the stickers off, so they predictably stuck them on pretty good.

Tiles the way YuXin and XMD are doing them make the pieces more complex and therefore more difficult to design and expensive to manufacture, and they also add some weight. They can also cause some unique problem, like tiles falling out of YuXin HuangLong cubes due to inconsistent glue (plus the fact they even had to glue them).


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