Virtue Spire IV vs Dye Rotor R2 | Paintball Hopper Comparison
What is going on, guys? It's Tony from Lone Wolf Paintball and today I am bringing you a battle of the Spire IV hopper versus the Dye R2 hopper.
[Mark] Oh, are they gonna battle to the death? Bang bang, boom boom?
They are. You're gonna see. It's gonna be a bloody one. Uh, you guys know the drill already though. Before I get into this, head on over to our website. Check out all the different selections that we have. Hopper selection, gun selection, mask selection. You'll find everything right on the website, lonewolfpaintball.com. All right, I'm jumping right into it. You've got the Graphic Emerald Spire IV versus the Black and Blue Ice Dye R2. Which one do you want me to start with, Mark?
[Mark] The R2.
R2? You want to go, uh, outside differences?
[Mark] Yeah, it looks very... Well, talk about similarities to start off.
Similarities of the Spire IV and the Dye R2
Similarities, let's go lids. Show you the lids. Quick change system there. And also, a push of a button, where the little gray piece is, Mark. You can push that, pop the ring lid off, throw on a speed feed. Same here. Push the little tab there. Pop the lid off real quick, without any tools and then throw on a speed feed as well. So, that's a similarity. I'm going to spin them around.
[Mark] Do they both have low paint indicated?
Uh, yes, they actually do. This one, the Spire IV, has it on the side here, where it lets you know. Blinks at you, lets you know when you need to reload, and actually both sides, whether you're shooting left handed or right handed, you have it there as well. And the R2 has a function that you can either turn on or off that will beep at you when you're getting low on paint as well. So same feature but just in a different variety, per se.
So this one will beep at you, this one shows you lights on the side of the hopper. Let's give a little profile view before we jump into the nitty-gritty here. Let me just spin them back around. What are your first thoughts on this, Mark? Let me get this stand the correct way.
[Mark] My honest first thought is Dye needs to update their platform, because the R2 has been out for quite a while.
OK. Fair.[Mark] But it's still a solid platform. And the Virtue Spire IV is a sexy looking beast, and everybody likes the new new, but is it really that much better? I'm not sure.
Differences Between the Spire IV and the Dye R2
Profile-wise, I think I'm going with the IV just due to the fact of its aerodynamic nature, Mark. Don't you like that? I mean, it's got nice grooves. It comes down to a point. Where the R2, it's definitely fatter.
[Mark] Yeah, when I dive into snake, I feel like I go an extra half a mile faster because of that aerodynamics.
You've got like the shark over here and then you're dealing with the sea lion over here. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. This one's like you said. They've kind of used the same rotor style platform for a long time. Just simple curves and rounded. This one's sleek and modern, I would say. Both great hoppers. So let's dive into that right now.
Spire vs Rotor Hopper Paintball Capacity Differences
Let's talk about ball capacity first. Spire IV, you're rocking around 200 paintball rounds. You can always buy the 280, and then you'll be at 280 rounds but we're talking the IV, around 200 paintballs can be inside. And then the Dye R2. Let's talk about that. You're at 200, and then this thing has the capability of actually going in the back, sliding this tab over, and now... Since they're brand new, they're a little hard. You slide the tab over, and now you can see the profile. You have 260 paint balls inside. So I like that. You don't have to buy an extra shell. You don't have to buy a different hopper to get more paintballs. If you're a back guy or a big scenario player, you want more paint either off the break or on a long scenario game, you don't want to have to keep reloading every two minutes. So it's a really cool feature for the R2. Wouldn't you say, Mark?
[Mark] It is a cool feature.
Dye Rotor vs Spire IV Feature to Reset Paintball Jams
I think before we dive into the boards, let's talk about the Spire IV claiming that it never, ever jams. I shot the III for a long time, it's been an excellent hopper for me. I literally don't think I've ever jammed the Spire III once. I haven't had a really good -I've shot the IV, it's excellent. I haven't really put it to the test out there too many times just yet, but I was showing you this because, notice there. Let me set it down.
[Mark] The bottom of the hopper.
It is the bottom of a hopper, but then on the R2, you might notice something there as well.
[Mark] You get a fidget spinner with it.
You get a fidget spinner, yes, for the good price of $189.95, you have a fidget spinner on the bottom. No, just kidding, guys. This is a… I always called it the shark tooth. It's an anti-unjam system. You get a bad paintball, you get some dirt or debris inside your hopper. What you can do -Oh, you won't be able to see it. I'll show it to you when I take this thing off. Get a ball, rock that bad boy back. Kind of resets it. Should be good to go. All right. Should we crack these bad boys open? No, let's throw them on the scale first, and then I'll crack them open.
Weight Difference between Spire IV and Dye R2
[Mark] OK.
How about that?
[Mark] Sounds good.
All right. You guys want to know weight differences. Let's do it. Boom.
[Mark] I think they're going to weigh 14 ounces.
No. Which one do you want there first?
[Mark] The Spire IV. That weighs 14 ounces.
Probably weighs a pound, I think.
[Mark] One pound.
It is one pound. The Spire IV.
[Mark] That's 16 ounces, for those of you that don't know.
Correct. That is 16 ounces. All right, let's tare it. Tared? Because I can't see it.
[Mark] It's cleared.
Here we go. Dye R2 going on the scale.
[Mark] Oh, one pound, two ounces. That's a big boy.
It is. I told you, it's hefty. It's like the sea lion, you know.
[Mark] It's all that extra plastics that expand it.
That's right. Two more ounces the R2 weighs than the Spire IV. So not the biggest deal. But you guys are gonna ask, so there we go. Turn that off. So I did the profiles, I did the lids.
[Mark] Can we see a side shot of both of those?
Sure. Do you wanna do one in front of the other?
[Mark] Well, next to each other first.
OK, OK.
[Mark] Got a little more bling on the side of the IV with that chromatic--
The new chromatic edging, and they actually put, what did they say... they're badges now instead of just stickers on the side where it says Virtue, and it's a stronger glass-filled nylon material that they're using on the Spire IV too.
Is the Dye logo thicker, or a badge?
These are both just stickers, yeah. So, stickers. And these guys actually have molded badges on here now as compared to the Spire III, they just had stickers too.
Electronics and Connectivity
All right. So we did the scale, we did that. Let's talk about electronics. I'll pop these bad boys open and we'll be done with this. So, if you guys didn't know, the Spire IV does have the iFI capable technology currently only available with the Virtue Ace Luxe X. If I can get it to come open. OK, open up. So this does have the iFI board in there. Like I said, I think Virtue in the future is going to be making boards for other guns that this hopper can actually Bluetooth sync up with. So this has the new iFI board in there, and the same feeding capability as the control loader in case your gun isn't a Virtue Ace Luxe, then this thing will obviously feed just like a normal hopper, just like the control loader.
With the R2, the same coveted technology, let me slide this thing over and get this thing off, as the original. I told you I'd show them on the shark board. Pretty much they've done a couple different upgrades on the inside, like the drive wheel, but it's the original rotor platform in my opinion, tried and true. I mean, when the rotor first came out, it was the best thing that has ever happened to paintball in a long time. So yeah, I mean, I like that. So the board, this thing, obviously both of these hoppers can feed 20 plus paintballs per second easily. If your gun's shooting that fast, then I pray for your wallet, because that's a lot of paintballs.
[Mark] AAs for both?
Hopper Accessibility Comparison
Correct, yup. Both of these hoppers are going to be operated on AAs. The only thing I don't... I'm not a huge fan of the rotor of the R2 is how to actually get in here. You've got two red tabs here. One and one. And then you've got a big giant red tab in the back that you also have to flip up to actually get the bottom tray to come off and the hopper to come apart. So that's, you've got more steps. Unless you've got long nails, you've got to pull those red tabs back. I always used to use a small flathead screwdriver. You pull those back, and then you can get the tray to come out.
As with the Spire IV, Mark, pop it open, and there's literally a little hinge button here in the back. Boom. And the entire tray just pulls out. You don't need to flip three different levers. And then you can access your batteries, your AAs, down here. Clean the tray out if necessary. So that's a good feature. Both of these in different ways. The Spire IV has a front ramp, so when your paint's getting low, the ramp rises up, drives the paint balls down into the drive cone and then out into your gun. As with the R2, they went with a little backwards technology. They have a ramp in the back, so when your paint gets low, it's forcing the paint up to the front. So you're feeding from the front on the R2, and you're feeding from the back on the Spire IV. So it's kinda what you guys want. They're both great hoppers, and they both feed a ton of paint balls per second.
[Mark] It's probably just the weight's slightly different. Probably not enough to really notice.
Price Differences between Spire IV and Dye R2
Correct. It's interesting how their, obviously, their R&D or design crew at different companies, kind of put it together in their brains. Price-wise, that's where I was going before we head on out of here and Mark asks me some questions. Price-wise, the Dye R2 hoppers, these things are $189?
[Mark] Yup. $189.95.
$189. And then the Virtue Spire IV hoppers are $264.95. So, $190 bucks, or $264.95. The choice is up to you. I hope this review helped you guys choose what hopper you guys want, and don't forget, they are available at lonewolfpaintball.com.
YouTube Question
[Mark] All right, we've got a question from YouTube.
Let's do it.
[Mark] This is probably the hardest question I've ever seen asked of you. Brutus Buckeye.
Oh god. Brutus Buckeye? Yup. I'm assuming because...
[Mark] That's their mascot, I think.
Because we always say, Lone Wolf colors, red and black, right?
[Mark] Yeah.
Red and black, red and black.
OK.
[Mark] Tony, isn't Ohio State your favorite team?
Man, I was born and raised in Michigan. Ohio State is definitely not my favorite team. I'm a Go Blue guy all the way, baby. So thanks for watching, guys. I hope this review helped you out, helped you choose whatever hopper you want. Take it easy.
[Mark] If you've got a question, leave it in the comments below. Maybe we'll pick you randomly.
That's right.