The accuracy of this review is disputed. Please see discussion on the comments page.
Period of Product Use:
Less than a month
18 of 70 people found this review helpful.
Paintball Experience:
3 years
Similar Products Used:
Smart Parts Full Freak, JT 2-piece barrels.
Marker Setup:
2002 Autococker, ShockTech Supafly, WGP Tickler, WGP Orracle 3-way, KAPP Fat Ram, KAPP Pro Series Exhaust Valve, System X Cradle, 12V Revvy w/ X-board and Vortex Impeller (agitator), JT 2-piece barrels.
Recommended Paintballs:
Ummmmm, I dunno.
Strengths:
Very good quality milling on the barrel backs, looks awesome, comes with an excellent carrying case, and is very versatile as far as barrel length is concerned.
Weaknesses:
The tip doesn't line up very well at all. In one case, it was so off that I'm sure it would've chopped anything I shot through it. The inside of the backs are not polished very well (if at all) and cause the paintballs to drag. The bore sizes indicated do not match the actual size at all. As a matter of fact, I pushed a ball through a 0.687 SP Freak insert and then a 0.687 Empire back piece. I met with similar resistance between the two, but not the same. Then I pushed the same ball through a 0.691 SP Freak insert and noted a lot less resistance. When I pushed the same ball through the 0.691 Empire back piece, it was tighter-fitting than the 0.687! Lastly, 4 out of 5 of the aluminum back pieces (chrome plated aluminum . . . not stainless steel) had corrosion inside.
Conclusion:
I was so sorely disappointed with the quality of the most important aspects of the barrel (the inside of the back piece and the alignment of the front piece to the back piece) that I didn't even bother to shoot any paint through it. Instead, I sent it back and got 3 JT back pieces and a tip instead. I'm sure Empire is a great company and I'm also sure they will most likely fix the problem in the future, but until the performance aspects match the beautiful looks, I would advise against buying this barrel kit. 3 out of 10 because it really does look awesome, but looks is only a small part of why we buy aftermarket barrels.
#1 ANS GX-3 w/ Mac Dev Conquest 88/4500
#2 Defiant w/ Mac Dev Regs and Pure energy 68/3000
#3 Phantom VSC Bone Stock and Lovin it!
#4 Pro Team Micro mag RT w/ level 10 bolt
#5 PGP - nuff said
#6 Spyder SE (loaner gun)
Recommended Paintballs:
RPS Evil
Strengths:
The Empire Kit is very versatile with all the different barrel combos. The included carry case is pretty nice also, for the money it's a great deal. Also the multiple barrel backs and fronts make for extra loaner barrels if your Friends (like mine) never seem to remember all their gear or are too poor to get new stuff.
Weaknesses:
The backs are aluminum instead of stainless steel, while this makes for a light barrel I just prefer the durability of stainless. Of the two sets I inspected and tested about 2-3 of the pieces (either backs or fronts) didn't line up real well. However out of the two sets if you could select the components and take the best ones this is not a real problem. Also there were some light machine marks on the bore surfaces in some of the components (oddly enough the same ones that didn't line up well...maybe made on a Friday?)
Conclusion:
Good (maybe great?) value for the money. lots of posabilities for combos and a slick over all presentation. Try to get a look at a couple of different kits and select the best matching pieces from them both or at least exchange any pieces that don't measure up.
When I got this barrel kit I found it was extremely beautiful. The face that you have 25 different combos to set yourself up is pure awesome. Keep in mind though, this is not the first time they had a 10 piece barrel kit. Custom Products has a similar barrel kit (well, it has 9 pieces). The only problem with the CP one is that it costs $300+ and that's something most of us can't afford. On top of that it's harder to find. The Empire 10-piece is on average about $200.
Beyond the appearance and relatively low cost, it performs very well. On par with other barrel kits, though in full honesty, pretty much all barrel kits perform equally. It seems the only difference is the name. Perhaps quality control.
Conclusion:
If you want a barrel kit and don't want the Freak, Titanium, Evil Pipe, and so on...you can't go wrong with this.
Any and all I tried every paint from PMI, Blaze... to every crappy field paint I could find.
Strengths:
Multiple bore sizes and multiple barrel lengths giving you an unlimited setup.
Weaknesses:
Not a single thing I was totaly impressed.
Review:
I was so impressed with this barrel kit and just wanted to thank all of you out there that gave it such high reviews. I spent a lot of time researching which barrel to purchase for my A5 and was a little nervous at first after reading the two bad reviews. The only thing I can think of is that their kit must have been damaged in shipping. I tested each and every barrel and bore size with every type of paint I could find, and man what a difference in my A5!! It went from being an OK marker to one accurate nasty machine!! We have a group of four of us that play together every week and all of us use the empire kit and haven't broken a paintball since.
I love it!!
Conclusion:
Forget about the two bad reviews and take it from someone who spent a lot of time and effort testing this kit out it's quality is excellent and accuracy outstanding. Maybe those two bad reviewers kits were damaged in shipping, but before you go bad mouthing a product try another one first.
Rating:
10 out of 10
Last edited on Wednesday, February 25th, 2004 at 6:24 am PST
Various barells (Quiet Riot, CP Barrels, Empire twister, etc...)
Marker Setup:
02 Autococker, CP Drop, Empire 10 Piece barrel system
Recommended Paintballs:
Any decent quality paint
Strengths:
Fits damn near any ball out there, accurate, comes with five backs and five fronts. If you want a ten in or an 18in you have all the fronts you need.
Weaknesses:
Difficult to clean the ports. Hard to get the barrel off of the back when your hands are greasy. No major problems as of yet, so I dont really have any bad things to say about it.
Conclusion:
The barrels prove them selfs, similar to the freak system, but with the extra fronts included for cheaper. Works well on markers that have problems keeping the ball inside the marker such as cockers.
Dye Boomstick ( Great barrel but not a kit which i need with an auto cockerer) Very Expensive***
Carbon Fiber ( Good for the money but tails off after 100 feet.
Whisper ( Quiet thats all )
Marker Setup:
MARS EVO Soon to have Venfgence Pro 2.0
Ricochet Ak hopper
68, 3000 psi nitro
14' dye boomstick barrell
Recommended Paintballs:
Whatever it all fits. Brass Eagles shoot just as well as Diablos with the right bore size.
Strengths:
Veryaccuract.You canmake morethan one size youcan have a 10inchbarrell ora an 18inchbarrel whateveryou prefer.
Weaknesses:
All the same color but it matches pretty well with anything.
Review:
All in all a damn great Barrell for the money. Much better than the freak not saying the freak is bad or anything but this kit is awsome. And its made by Evil so you know its good. I dont know what those other guys are saying about the inserts not matching up their fine for me. All my friends use my other barralls when we play . Im am very happy i chose this barel set over a single barreland over another set. Research it. it costs alot make the smart choice.
Conclusion:
Start mowing the lawn and taking out the trash to get this set. It is well worth it. The last tounry i played at i saw like 12 pro's with it. Hope this helped!!
-Extremely accurate w/matched up bore size
-Go from back to front playing in the middle of a game
-No inserts to break. That was the day my Freak became a very expensive (and ugly) Boomstick...
-Looks really cool
-Raid down there is full of crap... I agree with the guy below me that her review should be deleted. Then maybe she'd try using a product before she passed judgement on it.
Weaknesses:
-It might be a little bit heavy w/the 18 inch front. I don't use it much anyway. :-P
i got mine under 200
you can change the barrel length ( i use 10" 12" and 14" after that the balls dont go too far.)
nice carrying case
only had like 5 balls break
Weaknesses:
sometimes hard to unscrew the 2 pieces
empire needs to make smaller bore sizes like smart parts does
Conclusion:
great kit for the money
shoots very well
people at national paintball also felt the same about the kit
I have used the freak system and dye boomsticks, also tested the empire twister.
Marker Setup:
02 RF Autococker with 88ci 3000psi centerflag tank, dye stickys, kapp drop forward with on/off, SX beaver tail and cocking rod, empire barrel kit, shocktech front pneumatics kit, supafly bolt,12v revolution w/ x-board,the almighty black magic emblem
Recommended Paintballs:
most any high quality paint will be fine just stay away from cheap crap like brass eagle and such. i personally used diablo nightmare and blaze.
Strengths:
small to large bore sizes and different length fronts
Weaknesses:
none, it does whats it is supposed to.
Review:
this barrel is absolutely great it shoots extremely well and looks good on almost any marker. i got mine for 175 new from my home field and it was a steal at that price. the only thing wrong with it is that fact that the chroming on my .689 back piece started to come of in 1-2 spots but it is hardly noticeable. shoots very consistent especially if used on a cocker.
Conclusion:
overall a great barrel. i would recommend this to anyone but it works really well with cocker's. i give it a nine because of the chroming thing but other than that it is perfect.
Rating:
9 out of 10
Last edited on Sunday, March 23rd, 2003 at 3:23 pm PST
Tricked out Matrix & FreeFlow custom Matrix. Centerflag 68/45 and Crossfire 72/45 Empire 10 piece
Recommended Paintballs:
I've used Evil & Diablo
Strengths:
This system fits every situation conceivable! Extremely accurate. Very quiet. I have the option to snipe in the wood games, or I can play front on an sup-air ball fields. 2 parts vs 3. less stuff to loose.
Weaknesses:
The 18" barrel is a little long
Conclusion:
Can't beat the set-up for the price. The perfect set-up for the all around team player. With this system, you could go from playing back to playing front. I love my Freak, but I think this is more accurate and less parts to break.
