Foppe,
My two cents. I see a lot of VGs and several Dynamic Powers in the Phoenix area and am of the opinion these are similar in reaction. No one I know that roll either of these two is disappointed. Two of my teammates roll Dynamic Powers as their first ball out of the bag and both see excellent reaction and carry on medium through heavy conditions.
I have a Black Diamond with close to 90 games on it. I won a scratch tournament with it shortly after picking it up and had at least as good a look on heavy conditions as anyone rolling Cells, Virtual Gravities, and whatever else those chose to roll on a pattern similar to shark. My BD is drilled close to stacked leverage and I use a 3M white pad (1200-grit ANSI/CAMI, ~3000-grit FEPA) on it about every 21 games. The ball gets good length and reads late in the midlane with a hard but controllable and easy to read turn to the pocket. Polished, I could see this skating but take the polish off and the ball is magic. Gold (ANSI/CAMI 1000 grit, FEPA 2000-grit) or white pads are the pads of choice for me. 2000-grit abralon also works for a look similar to the gold pad while 2000-grit with a quick hit of 4,000-grit abralon approximates the white pad. Unless you bowl on a flood, I wouldn't recommend the gray or burgundy pads: The BD sees the pattern too early and looks more like a DP.
One of the thing the Black Diamond has going for it is its coverstock versatility. It is more tunable than what was my experience with earlier particle balls: Lane Masters/Legends included.
There are several good reviews of the Black Diamond on this site. Pat Patterson owns two BDs and has good reviews of each with different surfaces and different drill patterns.
Foppe, There truly are a lot of excellent balls on the market. Anyone picking up the VG, Virtual Energy, Cell or Rogue Cell, or others won't go wrong. Just don't sell Lane Masters/Legends short as each of their releases in recent years has been a winner. I have both the Buzz Attack and the Black Diamond and have no regrets about picking up either of these.
golfnutFL: You owe it to yourself to knock off the polish on the Black Diamond and watch it show its stuff. As long you stay with the white and gold pads, you'll still get good length and back end even on heavier or longer patterns.
My opinion of factory finishes is that these finishes are usually tuned to medium conditions (the exception being balls marketed as "specialists" for heavy oil or light conditions which come dull and highly polished respectively). We bowl in different parts of the country with very different ideas about what constitutes a THS. In the desert, the houses are forced to put out relatively heavy patterns as the low humidity causes rapid evaporation of the conditioner. In more humid areas, the medium THS seems pretty dry to me but each locale holds its own surprises
One caution with the Black Diamond and other high differential RG pieces: If you have a lot of hand, don't drill it leverage as it will flare more than you can imagine.
