Received one of these yesterday...
I dont really like gaudy shaving brush handles and this definitely counts as such! I only went for it as they seem to be the most popular so I figured it would be relatively painless to move on compared to a vanilla ivory one.
Aesthetics aside, the handle is well made with a good heft... There are no machining marks or imperfections unlike every Maseto I've had! The knot has a small glue bump, is dense for a synthetic (coming from Muhle & Plisson) with medium backbone and good water retention, possibly the first synthetic I've used that doesnt dribble. There were 9 fibres upside down in the knot which I had to pluck out, nothing compared to RazoRock synthetics but still more than I'd like to see ideally.
After two uses I think its safe to say they are a bit of a bargain... They blow RR brushes out of the water, still not quite up to Muhle & Plisson handle quality wise but the Yaqi knots are in another league, the old European companies really need to catch up as they're still advertising 4 year old fibres as some kind of breakthrough... In reality they're barely fit for purpose compared to the latest generation.