getting back into cubing, looking for a quiet/soft cube

[Dan the Beginner]

I really enjoy soft, quiet and smooth cubes with a nice good feel. I have tried and compared these quiet cubes - the Tengyun M (v1), X-Men Tornado V2 (I bought five of them, including one with corner magnets, and one with primary internals), and I also have the Moyu Maglev 2021, plus the Tornado V3 Flagship. Guess which one I like most of all.

The Tengyun is too basic, warps easily, and has little controls. It is as quiet as the Tornado V2, just slightly different in pitch. All others are not as quiet.

The 72g Tornado with the black internals is the best. I bought three. It feels more solid and has a slightly better turning feel than the one with primary internals. The one with core magnets has a very slight corner cutting improvement, if you set it looser (made possible by the core magnets). However I never had any corner cutting problem, being a slow solver. Shawn did not have any either.

Moyu Maglev 2021 is similar but not as quiet or good, esp for me due to its much greater weight. It's nice and colourful too and there's no spring noise.

The only other one worth mentioning IMO is Tornado V3 Flagship. It is fairly quiet, smooth, and also feels good while turning, but noticeably not as good as the Tornado V2 in all those regards. It has however no issue with corner cutting, according to all reviews. It's has the same weight, 72g, but includes core magnets. It is clearly better for speed. It's actually the best value top performing cube at this time.

What is unique among these quiet cubes is the nice, smooth and solid feel when you turn the Tornado V2. The other later cubes have all made sacrifices in feel when they cut weight in designs. They have a hollower feel, a lighter but harder to turn feel, probably due to the use of thinner and lightweight plastic in the pieces (too little moment of inertia). That may be advantageous to speed performance, but not good for noise and feel. If this is important to you, buy the Tornado V2, if you can still find it.

If you buy the Tornado V3 Flagship, be very careful, if you disassemble it. The axles and screws are super thin and known to fail.

 

[adventurous_penguin]

If you buy the Tornado V3 Flagship, be very careful, if you disassemble it. The axles and screws are super thin and known to fail.

This has been fixed through a core redesign. People still like to talk about it as if it's a regular issue, but it's just not a concern anymore. They only break if your turning is absolutely horrible and you're forcing your way through any and all lockups, just like any cube would. By now, tornado V3's break no more than any Moyu cube, so very rarely.

As for your question, I definitely recommend picking up a Pioneer version of the V3 when you can. I find it at least as quiet as my WRM 2021 and even smoother and softer to turn.

As for the lube, it just needs to be a fully silicone lubricant. A lot of people use lubes like Traxxas 10k or 50k, rc differential or shock oil. Don't use a lubricant with additives or something like a spray silicon grease, over time they will eat at the plastic and make the cube permanently gummy and awful to turn. But any pure silicone oil or lubricant is good. Traxxas is also widely available in large bottles for not a lot of money. Like cubicle weight 5 for all intents and purposes IS Traxxas 50k. Weight 1 = Traxxas 10k. Traxxas just gets you 5-10x as much lube for the same price. There are fancier lubes that are nice and can make cubes feel different to just silicone lube, but I'd be lying if I said a bottle of 50k and a bottle of 10k wouldn't have you set for life on your cubes.

 

[Dan the Beginner]

This has been fixed through a core redesign. People still like to talk about it as if it's a regular issue, but it's just not a concern anymore. They only break if your turning is absolutely horrible and you're forcing your way through any and all lockups, just like any cube would. By now, tornado V3's break no more than any Moyu cube, so very rarely.

As for your question, I definitely recommend picking up a Pioneer version of the V3 when you can. I find it at least as quiet as my WRM 2021 and even smoother and softer to turn.

As for the lube, it just needs to be a fully silicone lubricant. A lot of people use lubes like Traxxas 10k or 50k, rc differential or shock oil. Don't use a lubricant with additives or something like a spray silicon grease, over time they will eat at the plastic and make the cube permanently gummy and awful to turn. But any pure silicone oil or lubricant is good. Traxxas is also widely available in large bottles for not a lot of money. Like cubicle weight 5 for all intents and purposes IS Traxxas 50k. Weight 1 = Traxxas 10k. Traxxas just gets you 5-10x as much lube for the same price. There are fancier lubes that are nice and can make cubes feel different to just silicone lube, but I'd be lying if I said a bottle of 50k and a bottle of 10k wouldn't have you set for life on your cubes.

Thanks. I use Nebula or a Gan lube (orange label), both heavy. Do you know if they are silicone lubes?

 

[Lord_Oscar]

ive been using my old main from ~2 years ago, the gan 11 m, which i dont like as much as i used to. i want a quiet and softer cube.
i immediately throught of the tengyun v1, which i can find on ebay pretty easily. have there been/are there any cubes that come close to the tengyun v1? anything i should look at?
really excited to start cubing again, and hopefully read this forum again

Might be just me but I think the RS3M 2020 is pretty quiet

 

[Dan the Beginner]

Might be just me but I think the RS3M 2020 is pretty quiet

It is an excellent cube. I have bought 6 of them and given them all away.

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

For quiet, definitely the Tengyun V1. The feel is excellent, especially after setup.
For soft, I have heard many people describe the MG C Evo to be soft after lubrication, however, the Tengyun V1 is the same way.

For my personal T V1, I use SCS Solar on the feet of the corners and the sides of the pieces.
It seems to be very nice, quick, and extremely quiet (my parents didn't realize that I was cubing for like 10 minutes just hanging out in our living room)

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

the tornado v2 is literally the smoothest cube i have ever turned. super satisfying and for a great price.

 

[Jacksd]

Yeah SCS/cubicle lubes are at least 10$ for 5ml here, which i just find absurd. I'm going to get some gan/moyu lubes off AliExpress so i can use them when I'm back from vacation, and I'll also try some molykote 44 light in my meilong 3m. I'll make sure to document that. I've always found cubing lubes to feel like they're a bit of a scam, they can't be so special they're worth that much for that little, especially since I've been an outsider for so long. Never tried any of them tho so what do i know lol
If the molykote 44 light i have ends up working, that would be huge, since it's only 25-30$ for 150g.
Also, what's everyone's experience with buying cubes on aliexpress? Tengyun V1s are going for like 20$ including shipping there, so if they're legit I'll probably get one from there

I use the moyu lube on my rs3m and is really soft and quiet and keeps the cube quick and controllable. It's really cheap as well so I would recommend it

 

[Jennah]

ive been using my old main from ~2 years ago, the gan 11 m, which i dont like as much as i used to. i want a quiet and softer cube.
i immediately throught of the tengyun v1, which i can find on ebay pretty easily. have there been/are there any cubes that come close to the tengyun v1? anything i should look at?
really excited to start cubing again, and hopefully read this forum again

I use the Weilong WR M and it is a relatively quiet cube. And using lubes such as martian or weight 5 makes a cube quieter (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[DuckubingCuber347]

I use the Weilong WR M and it is a relatively quiet cube. (correct me if I'm wrong)

You are wrong.

The Weilong WR M is notoriously loud.

The two quietest cubes that I am aware of are the Tengyun V1 from Dayan and the Tornado V2 from the Qiyi sub-brand X-man Designs.

 

[Jennah]

You are wrong.

The Weilong WR M is notoriously loud.

The two quietest cubes that I am aware of are the Tengyun V1 from Dayan and the Tornado V2 from the Qiyi sub-brand X-man Designs.

okay then my version of quiet is loud I haven't had very many speedcubes so I can't tell

or it's just that martian makes it quieter for me lol I forgot to add that to my original message

 

[adventurous_penguin]

Thanks. I use Nebula or a Gan lube (orange label), both heavy. Do you know if they are silicone lubes?

They are both silicone lubes, specially made for cubes!

 

[Dan the Beginner]

They are both silicone lubes, specially made for cubes!

Thank you. Good to know they are not water based. I was worried that water based lubricant may damage my smartcubes.

 

[RoundUpCubing]

Thanks for all the info everyone! Haven't been using the internet since I'm on vacation and am using this time to live a bit and experience the real world lol
I got some used cubes for free from a kind soul on this forum who live in my town and quit cubing, as well as some lube. Included were 2 tengyun v2's, and I absolutely love them. A bit unstable imo, I'll probably end up tightening them even more. I visited an old friend of mine and tried out his tengyun V1 and I love the sound, super quiet and low pitched. The reverse cornercutting is horrible tho lol
My wrmaglev arrived 2 days after I left for a 5 week vacation so I'll have to wait to try it lol, but I've really enjoyed the weilong ai (which I can't get to connect lol rip) which is just a wrm2020 so I have a lot of faith in that cube. I'll probably use it as a competition main and practice on whatever quiet cube I end up choosing, whether that'll end up being the tengyun V1, v2 or xmt2. Thanks for all the advice and warm welcome back to this forum!