The Virtue Spire 5 has a bunch of new features that make it unique compared to its predecessor, the Virtue Spire 4. The Spire 5 loader has an upgraded dual shell lock. This locking lid has a locking lid button. Push the button up and it's locked. You are not able to separate the shell which was a large problem before with the Spire 3 and Spire 4 while diving and playing. The hinged shell would occasionally come apart causing players to lose all their paintballs. You cannot separate this while locked! Simply open up the hinged shell by pulling the button down and push it in like normal, opens right up!
Purchase the Virtue Spire 5 here!!
The Spire 5 comes with a matching rain lid and a matching speed feed. Right now, it's at a retail price point of $250 but with a speed feed running around $50 bucks... think about it, a brand new loader at $200? Yeah, that's a great deal.
The race track and the motor are about the same but what's new is the lighter and smaller board. With the Spire 3 and Spire 4, the board used to be all under the front of the tray under the battery. Now it's up under the race track and there's a couple of new technologies. It uses three red infrared vision eyes in this cone here and it also has the accelerometer. So the accelerometer is Virtue's older technology from the Spire 3 and Spire 4.
Now the shot signature of a lot of paintball guns are getting softer and softer, quieter and quieter. With that, there's no question with the eyes and the accelerometer working together you don't have any issues. So if the accelerometer is not picking up from the shot signature then the eyes will. So it's way more reliable for feeding.
Is it bluetooth compatible? No, Virtue decided to go away from bluetooth capabilities with the Spire 5. The Spire 4 had bluetooth which allowed players to sync their bluetooth marker to the loader and activate loader agitation by simply pulling the trigger. The Spire 5 does not have this anymore because Virtue felt it was unneccesary and was not used as much with the Spire 4.
Check out the bluetooth technology of the Spire 4 here!
It also does not have the lights on the side anymore. The power button has a small spot where you can see if the loader is turned on as compared to the sides.
It still will take the Virtue N-charge rechargeable battery which is a nice feature. Installing this N-charge is also easier with moving the Spire 5 board away from the front of the tray to the back. It will also be easier for cleaning too because you don't realize how much paint you can actually get on the electronics. So if you leave the paint on there for a while it could potentially cause the electronic board to fail.
Check out our YouTube overview video here!
Overall, we do feel that the Spire 5 is the best loader that Virtue has ever created. There are a few things that we wish Virtue had incorporated into the loader. The main thing being the bluetooth capability as many high end markers have bluetooth capability (Planet Eclipse CS3, Virtue Luxe Ace, LV2, etc.). If the Spire 5 had bluetooth capability then the software issues with the Geo R5 when it was release would have not been a problem. Another thing that was nice with the older Spire 3 & 4 was the LED lights on the side of the loader. The LED is now retained in the power button which is not as visible compared to the side lights. Other than these 2 things, we feel this loader is the most reliable loader on the market with the dual sensor technology. The upgraded dual shell lock is also an important upgrade that players wanted to see from this loader. So with that, the Spire 5 earns our "Best Spire Loader Ever" ribbon and we feel is well worth the value!
