Forward Well folks, this is my very first review on the SPPS website so please bear with me. I'll do my best to cover as many bases as possible involving this new to the market Azodin Zenith paintball marker. Azodin is a new company based out of California that has launched 3 new markers into the paintball community in November of 2008, the Kaos, Blitz and Zenith. The Kaos their mechanical, Blitz and Zenith their electro's. All parts of these markers are interchangeable including the triggerframes and all have Autococker threaded barrels. All are very Spyder like and I will get more into that later in this article. They are currently on the verge of releasing a pump marker called the Kaos Pump or AKA the 'KP' and a carbon fibre barrel as well. More info concerning these markers may be investigated at their website here: http://www.azodin.com/default.asp An old friend contacted me in October and mentioned he had been recently associated with a new company. Since he resides in California I assumed it was the Azodin company I had heard of and sure enough, it was. He asked if I would like to test drive one of these new markers out for him. Far be it from me to resist and pondering this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a reviews section on the SPPS website, I obliged with enthusiastic gratitude. Hence forth, the review.....

First Impression.....Let's Diggity In! Soon after receiving the Zenith and ripping the shipping box apart like a kid on Christmas morning, I expeditiously pulled the professionally done Zenith box from the container. Upon opening the box, contained was the Zenith marker, barrel, spare parts kit, o-ring kit with detents, Allen wrench kit, barrel condom and manual. Great, everything I need to get started, alright! Wait, there's something missing. Where's the battery? I know there's a battery somewhere in this box. Upon giving the box a total GI inspection, I think a danged battery troll stole the battery. Damn them trolls! OK, so there wasn't a battery but due to my packrat obsession of spare parts and everything else, I had a Duracell 9v close at hand. I'll rub that danged troll out later. When removing the Zenith from the box, I immediately noticed a substantial difference in the weight and size of the marker as opposed to any of my other stacked tube blowbacks. Comparing the length alone to my Imagine 'Spike' and RSX, the body is 1.5" shorter than both of these markers. I suspect it has something to do with the absence of a vertical adapter fitted into the front of the bottom tube. Instead, the VA is attached to the bottom front portion of the body with a single screw. Later when taking the Zenith completely apart, I noticed the walls of the body are super thin as opposed to these Spyder markers as well. Very nice for those of you concerned with carrying excess weight with you on the field. The milling looks impressionable for such an inexpensive marker. It has well designed body lines and I have personal regards for the halfbacked upper tube tail portion. It's something we've always wanted to see on a stacked tube blowback. The only one that has ever done that to my knowledge is Dragun on their TES markers and the '08 Electra. The anodizing is flawless with a cross between a matt and gloss finish. It appears to be bead blasted with a semi-gloss look to it. The feedneck? Well, it's a feedneck. I'd have to say the exact same feedneck you'll find on any new Spyder that has a threaded base. Impulse/Shocker/Ion threaded to be precise. It is a twist-lock design which is OK I suppose. Just a little tough to get your hand between the hopper and marker when tightening it if you don't have small hands. Certainly an improvement over the antiquated junk plastic adapter we've seen on older STBB's or even some still being sold today. With an abundance of aftermarket Impulse/Shocker/Ion threaded feednecks available, not much a worry for those of you that may opt to replace the stock neck. The barrel is decent for a marker so inexpensively attained. It's a 2 piece 14" barrel with 2 rows of short porting and 2 long rows most all the way down the length of the barrel. The bore is nice and shiny as though it's been well honed and smoothed. There's a slight .001-.002 step that may only be seen from the front view of the barrel bore. Though most enthusiasts choose to replace the barrel on any marker once they get it, I'd have to say this is an easy keeper for those of you that are on a budget. The very smooth looking bore should shoot any paint perfectly fine with no breakage or accuracy defects from ball spin due to bore machining flaws. The trigger frame looks very much similar to the newer Spyder frames all the way to the trigger itself. Speaking of trigger, it has a magnetic response trigger. Sounds very familiar if I may say so myself ha ha though it does not parallel exactly with the design of our SPPS magno-triggers. It may just be what I'm accustomed to but, I like the feel of the wave type triggers much better. I suppose that's just preference talking. The trigger is 3 way adjustable. It has a pre slack, back slack and magnet adjuster. When you open up the grips it really looks almost the same as the new Spyder setup all the way to the up/down orientated solenoid. Same microswitch, same attachment points for the wiring plugs, same integral dovetail mount at the bottom of the frame, same everything. Only thing that variates is the way the board activation buttons are set up and there is no charging port for a 9.6v battery option. Well I'd say that's about it for first impressions. From the box it's a nice looking lightweight marker that is very much Spyder like.

Taking Out The Magnifying Glass Now that I have given you a basic synopsis of this nice gat, let's get into the juice and pulp of the fruit with a bit more detail. I'll give you a look at the inside components of the Azodin Zenith and try to explain how it all works together as a whole. I will exhibit both positive and negative feedbeck concerning this marker to keep it as unbiased as possible. When depicting either, please keep in mind that these are simply my personal views. There are some design innovations of this marker that you may not have seen on other mass manufactured stacked tube blowbacks available. I will review a bit more information concerning the trigger frame as well.

The Bolt The bolt is comprised of lightweight delrin which as we all know, helps reduce felt recoil when shooting a marker. Delrin is also known as self-lubricating so no oil is needed when using it. It reduces the chance of leaving those scratches we've all seen in the upper tube for so many years of the past when using aluminum instead as well. They could have reduced the weight even further had they cut out some of the meat between the air through port and bolt pin area's of the bolt. That would have cost a little more for machining. It may have been negated for that reasoning. The front of the bolt has been cupped to better accept the shape of the paintball. There are 2 thin detent slots milled into the sides of the bolt to ease up on detent wear. Yes, this marker has 2 fang type detents as opposed to some of the 1 detent markers you have seen in the past. When reassembling the Zenith after this review, I replaced the stock buna detents with our clear polyurethane Timmy detents since they are a bit more durable than the rubber type. The back of the bolt has a bolt pin ball detent adjuster screw. The bolt pin itself stays as an integral part of the bolt so all you need to do to remove the bolt is pull up on the pin then slide the bolt out. The bolt pin always stays in the bolt so there no chance of losing it or it falling out during game play. There are a couple of ways I feel this bolt could be improved. They aren't really needs so much as possibly additions that I feel could increase the performance of this marker. First thing being o-rings. It's almost counterproductive to add o-rings to a delrin bolt as it adds a bit of drag to the flow of operation. The drag can be reduced by simply using a little silicone oil on them. This bolt has no o-rings so it follows that logic. Thing is, without o-rings there's an increased chance of bolt blowby. This is when the pressure being channeled from the valve to the bolt escapes around the bolt because there are no o-rings to contain it. The results are a slight decrease in velocity and the dreaded popcorning affect of balls being pushed back into the hopper especially at high rates of fire. On the other hand, most all delrin bolts you will see available don't come with o-rings so not having them isn't highly unusual. Second thing, the transformation point from the valve to the air channel through the bolt are on a 90 degree angle. By simply adding a relative 45 degree angle at this point can not only add velocity but as I found out in my Swoosh Air Bolt Mod article I typed out a few years ago, add consistency to velocity as well.

The Striker/Hammer System I'm really liking the new Feather Striker design Azodin has launched into this mass produced Zenith marker. It is a 2 piece striker comprised of a relative 3/4 stainless steel and 1/4 composite delrin. The delrin front screws onto the stainless back. The stainless back has a threaded shaft protruding that the composite front threads onto. The front of this stainless steel  shaft is what collides with the valve pin. Ha ha, it's not really light as a feather but Azodin claims it is 30% lighter than others comparable. They may have found same as we at Sundragon have with our Dragonfly striker that reducing the weight drastically only increases recocking concerns with stacked tube blowback markers because reducing the mass weight hitting the valve pin also reduces the dwell duration. If that sounds like some foreign language to you, what I'm saying is, if the striker is too light it won't open the valve long enough to supply ample pressure to shoot the ball at a decent velocity and recock the marker at the same time. The result is a lowered velocity with continual jackhammering. If you try to counter that by adding a heavier spring all you're really doing is adding more resistance when the encapsulated pressure needs to push the striker back. When reducing the weight to a rational minimum, these negative results become nil. Looking down the back of the striker I also noticed Azodin thinned out the inside of the striker by milling out any excess material from within making the walls a bit leaner than what you'd normally see. The Feather Striker also has a cupped face. This cupped face assists in recocking the marker especially at lower pressures. All in all, a nicely done job on the Feather Striker. Another component of this rear lower tube system I'm liking is the back cap. It is threaded so you just need to screw it on or screw it off. No more safety pins with locks or screws to deal with holding the back cap in. There's an o-ring at the bottom of the threads to aide holding the cap in place. This so simple, why hasn't anyone done this to a STBB before? The fact that the threads do not protrude into the marker as much as the older style back caps did, makes me think this is one way they shortened the length of the body. The back cap also has a fixed spring guide and velocity adjustment screw same as you may have seen on some of the more contemporary Spyder's available. The surface design of the back cap goes very well with the rest of the milling of this Zenith marker.

The Valve System I'm somewhat impressed with the whole valve system Azodin has devised for their new markers. It's a combination of convention and new idea's rolled into one new system. The valve body itself is nothing innovative. If I didn't know any better, I might even say it's a plain and simple Spyder valve body. The air passage to the bolt isn't even enlarged at all. It's a mere 1/4" wide where there's more than ample room to widen it at least another 1/16". The valve pin is similar to the old Magnaport or Turbo valves of the past. It's thick at the striker end and thinned out in the middle to a relative 1/8". This partial thinning of the pin free's up some space for a greater volume of pressure flow through the face of the valve. This is especially advantageous when applied to low pressure applications. The cup seal and what appears to be an LPC is where the innovation kicks in. The cup seal is comprised of a simple delrin material as most other STBB seals you'll see. It is no way conventional though. The portion that seals the pressure is about 3/8" in diameter and 1/4" long then steps down to around 1/4" in diameter and 1 3/4" long. All this is one piece that's 2" in total length. The part that appears to be an LPC is actually a housing for a valve spring adjustment assembly. Inside the housing is a spring and disk. The thin end of the cup seal fits into the spring adjustment assembly which Azodin labels as 'Zero Housing' Instead of having to remove the VA to change a spring to trial and error tuning, all you need to do is adjust the set screw in the end of the housing instead. No more purchasing different springs and tediously changing them out, just adjust and tune. How's that for innovation and convenience? This Zero Housing is held in place by the screw that holds the vertical adapter to the body. One other thing I noticed is there appears to be a purge hole in the housing. I suppose that if the pressure in the front portion of the valve is excessive, it pushes the disk inside the housing forward enough to purge the excess pressure. Same as the back cap, the outside milling of the housing is very well done and goes well with the design lines of the marker.

The Regulator, Vertical Adapter and Bottom Line On/Off ASA I've combined these 3 items together since they're all interrelated. The Azodin Zenith regulator's macroline fitting attachment point is very much similar to the Dye Hyper type regulators. The fitting screws into a swivel portion of the regulator body. This prevents any buckling of the macroline and you can swivel the macroline orientation into about any position the length of the macroline will allow. This way you don't need to worry about the orientation that the reg is in when screwing it into the vertical adapter. That's as close to the Hyper this reg will get. Internally I'd have to say it's very much the same design as the newer Spyder vertical regulators. If I didn't know any better, I might even suspect the internal components are interchangeable. It consists of a piston, heavy spring and a seat for pressure adjustment. To increase the pressure you turn the set screw at the bottom of the reg in(CW) or to decrease pressure turn it out(CCW). I'm not tearing it apart for you since you can just go to Azodin's website, download the manual and see all the parts for yourself. I won't make any comments at this time concerning consistency since mine has yet to be broken in. That might normally take between 2000-4000 shots which has not been attained at this time with this marker. I will say that if you were to purchase a new reg of this design you'd probably pay $50 or more for it. A substantial improvement from some of the cobbled junk regulators that may have been provided with markers of this price range in the past. The regulator threads are of the standard 3/4" x 14 NPT size so it may be used in place of or replaced with any other of this universal standard sized threads. The vertical adapter is somewhat interesting. Instead of a block fitting into the lower front portion of the lower tube as you'll see on most similarly designed stacked tube blowbacks, the VA block is attached directly to the lower front portion of the marker body by a single Allen head screw. The VA is sealed to the lower body by an o-ring that fits in a short well in the top of the VA. Unlike some others I have seen with this type of pressure channeling, the pressure is not channeled through the screw but through a gaping slot below the screw hole that I'm sure you can't miss in the photograph above. Ironically, though slightly different in VA designs, I've been using this same gaping slot on all of my LP Spyder VA's for years now so I'll say from the test of time, it works substantially for LP applications. To further this channel into the valve chamber area, there are 2 corresponding 3/16" holes milled into the lower front under portion of the body itself. Same as the regulator, the VA's well threads are of the standard 3/4" x 14 NPT size so any regulator on the market may be used as replacement if you should so choose. The Bottom line on/off ASA is simple and straight to the point. It has a knob with attached pin. You turn the knob and the pin depresses the valve pin on the tank to release the pressure from the tank. To remove the tank you simply turn the knob in the other direction and it purges the ASA through a hole in the bottom. Thing is, I noticed after doing this there is still excess pressure trapped in the marker's internal chamber. You'll need to shoot it a couple times from that point to purge this excess. This BL ASA has a dovetail groove milled into the top portion that slides onto the bottom of the trigger frame. The dovetail is held in place by a set screw accessible from inside lower portion of the trigger frame. From the box, the macroline fitting is fitted into the left side of the BL ASA. You have an option of removing and exchanging the fitting to the left side since there is yet another threaded hole in the right side that is plugged by a set screw.

The Trigger Frame & Electronics As I mentioned earlier, the trigger frame could be mistaken as a twin of the newer Spyder e-frames. Same bowed trigger design style, same type of casting, same bead blasted surface, same anodizing, same dovetail, same solenoid and noid orientation, same microswitch and same type of board setup. Same as the rest of the marker though, there are subtle aspects that differentiate it from a Spyder. The trigger has a magnetic response rebound that pushes it forward after each shot. It is an attracting magnetic response so that might be better put, pulling it forward. That is to say, the magnet is embedded into the top of the frame just above the end of the trigger. The trigger has a steel set screw in the very end portion. When you pull the trigger it breaks the magnetic bond and when you lift your finger from the trigger the magnetic field pulls them back together again. I had a slight concern with this though. Nothing at all to do with the trigger itself but there were no instructions in the manual to direct how to adjust the trigger. It was pretty much the first thing I wanted to do since the trigger was set a bit too far forward for my liking from the factory. I could see that there were 3 adjusters but had no idea which adjustment either of the upper 2 were for. I finally had to remove the trigger frame from the body and found out that the front adjuster was for the magnet adjustment and the rear adjuster was for the preplay swing adjustment which moves the trigger forward and backward. Of course the adjuster in the middle of the trigger is for the backstop adjustment which keeps the full back pull to a minimum. The board which Azodin labels the Zen board, has all the normal plugs; battery, solenoid, eyes and microswitch. I was a bit disappointed to see it had no charging port. It may be just what I've grown accustomed to but I like having the option of recharging the battery over having to sporadically purchase new ones as replacement. Azodin does brag that 1 alkaline battery should get you though 3 - 4 cases of paint. I cannot confirm that at this time but I suppose I'll see what becomes of that in the near future. To activate the board there are 2 buttons attached to it that are setting just behind a membrane type pad that's attached to the rear surface of the frame handle. These buttons have worked well for me thus far. Not so light that you might have a chance of inadvertently changing modes and such in the middle of a firefight or not so heavy you get frustrated trying to work the board through the programs. The LED's are 1 regular LED and the other is a wafer thin rectangle of plastic with a 1/2mm high LED in the center of it which I have never seen before. The board has 4 different mode settings; semi, PSP ramping, Millinium ramping and CFOA semi. Outside of that the board has a  battery power status and eye malfunction warning system. The eyes of the Azodin Zenith are ones I have yet to see on any marker thus far. They are basically a clear plastic square with a small metallic looking bead protruding from the center of each. This very small bead fits into a minute hole in the marker body. All the eyes I have seen to this point have a sender and receiver which one is black and the other clear, looking somewhat like a round LED. Both the eyes on the Zenith are of the exact same configuration and clear color. Maybe it's some new sort of technology I've yet to be exposed to. At any rate, the eyes seem to fit into the eye wells of the marker much better than the others I'm acquainted with. When you push them in place they stay there. The eye covers are straight to the point, easy on and easy off unlike the ones I've experienced with my VS and RS markers. The experience of separating the body from the triggerframe and putting them back together is much more simple now as well. The channeling of the eye wires and new eye covers are much less likely to pinch the eye wires.

Performance And Field Testing First Zenith Experience: At the time of this writing, I have yet to fully field test this marker. I had the Azodin Zenith with me at a big game a short while back but through all the excitement of the event, found little time to test and tinker with the marker since I received it just the same day as traveling to the event. I will reserve some space at the end of this portion of the review to insert a 'real time' field review once I use it in actual play on the field. The little time I did have in reserve at the event was just before dusk at the event chronograph station. I had a lot of feeding problems with my hopper that day so this short time for testing proved almost futile, especially trying to beat the clock as total darkness approached. I wasn't using the stock barrel during this portion of the test. I had the Autococker threaded J&J ceramic I use with my PMR and used that in replacement since I love my J&J's. When gassing the Zenith up, the velocity was slightly low on the big red chrono at a relative +/-250fps average with the factory setting. I increased the velocity by increasing the pressure of the regulator to attain a relative 280-290fps. The Zenith has no pressure gauge nor a spot to attach a gauge so there's no way to tell exactly what pressure it's operating at. This is one of my pet peeves concerning this marker. I suppose I'll need to either drill and tap a gauge port in either the VA or straight into the side of the body to find exactly what pressure it operates at. That, a distant future endeavor. The gauge isn't really a need so much a convenience while teching the marker or in this case, evaluating it. If there were at least a plugged port to add one, that would have been a great conciliation. So in retrospect, numers in this portion of the review will be minimal due to a lack of means to produce them. While shooting the Zenith in semi, it did very well hitting the targets repetitively with sporadic strings of field paint. No broken paint so the eyes worked perfectly. It did skip a few shots but I'm sure it was due to the feeding concerns I was having with the hopper that day and that I really hadn't taken much time fine tuning the trigger prior. I did not use any of the other modes since it was a bit too dark out to read the manual to set them. Though I really don't care if others use them in play, I'm not really an advocate of modes. I view them as a crutch for those that lack talent. While dry firing at home the modes worked just fine. All in all, the correlation of my first experience utilizing the Zenith was; it had a nice light compact feel providing on target shots with minimal recoil. Space reserved here for further performance testing...........

Final Thoughts What we have here is one of the smallest and lightest low pressure stacked tube blowbacks I've ever experienced. The recoil has been reduced substantially as opposed to most others of its kind. The Azodin Zenith has all the basic buzzers and bells with some impressive innovations you won't find on others available to this point. You might think I was trying to disguise the fact if I didn't mention that the Zenith appears very much similar to the most recent Spyder's Kingman has released to the market. Azodin does have a slight edge over that statement due to the additional technology their markers have over the newer Spyder's. With Azodin's feather striker, adjustable valve spring system, swivel attachment regulator, new configuration cross beam eyes and magnetic trigger, I'd have to say the Zenith has the technological edge over all stacked tube blowbacks of its kind at the time of writing this article. We in the STBB community have been asking the manufacturers for technological advancements for many years now. It seems that some of them like Azodin are finally listening to us and acting upon our requests. Providing us with all this new technology that's still modestly priced is like having our cake and eating it too. When using a stacked tube blowback on the field, there should be little guess work which I'll be throwing paint with following my recent pleasurable acquaintance with the Azodin Zenith.