Here’s my long form review of the new HK Army Sonic loader. The first post will contain a product overview with lots of pictures and my impressions & interpretations of what I’m seeing. Hopefully this can answer some questions that may otherwise be more difficult to find answers to without buying it. The second post will have my impressions from backyard & field testing. Field testing will likely not happen for a couple days at least, so feel free to check this thread periodically.
The item: HK Army Sonic loader
Price: $99.95 (purchased from Lone Wolf Paintball)
For a little overview & background, the HK Army Sonic loader is a redesign of the Pinokio/HK Army Speed loader, placing it in the midrange loader market. I would classify it as a semi-force feed loader due to it’s design, being that the impellor is nested inside of a raceway (lining up paintballs for the feedneck) but does not put pressure on the ball stack. It feeds only when a sensor in the feedneck sends a signal to the board to tell the motor to turn. There is also a spring ramp that helps funnel paint to the impellor as the paint is used.
Basically, this is a refined eVLution hopper. I prefer this type of electric loader over true force feed loaders, as they are easier on paint and I don’t usually shoot fast enough to require a force feed loader.
First, the package. It includes a startup & teardown double-sided instructional sheet (other side not shown). Pretty standard fare.
Now for some views of the loader from various angles.
The hopper is balanced so it can stand on it’s feedneck. This is a big difference between it & other high end loaders with a rear drive cone.
The backside, showing off the locking latch & low-ish profile. Here’s also a picture of the latch when undone. It’s rather stiff & the tab that it rests over is fairly large. I do not see this latch ever coming undone during normal gameplay.
The underside, where the power button & single LED are located. This button is rubberized. The instructions say to double-press that button in the event of a jam. There are no other buttons or indicators on this entire loader. Very simple, which I like.
The front, showing where the top shell hooks into the bottom shell.
The top of the loader. The mouth on this loader is pretty large. The only loader I’ve used that had a mouth larger than this one is the Protoyz Speedster loader, and it’s not larger by much. Note the location of the impellor & raceway. This helps put more of the paint/weight toward the front of the loader. This loader also includes a spring ramp, which funnels the paint to the impellor as it’s used. This is a very welcome thing for me, as the HK Army Speed loader has a VERY shallow back end which, when used with a speedfeed, makes it difficult to reload when you shove a tube in it, depressing the fingers almost to the floor of the loader. The spring ramp in the Sonic allows for more depth in the back end while doing it’s job of funneling paint to the front.
This loader takes Virtue Crown & HK Army Evo speedfeeds. This view shows the hinge & disconnect mechanism. Simply press the tab & pull the hard lid out of the mount/hinge & replace with a speedfeed.
Now for pictures of the guts. Remove the top shell by pulling the latch on the loader’s rear until it releases. Remove the top shell. Here’s a view with the top shell removed, showing the funnel-shaped tray.
And a few views of the tray itself. To remove the tray push it toward the nose, pop the back out and pull the tray out. There’s even a sticker on the front of the tray telling you which way to push the tray to remove it. The tray seems very funnel-shaped and I don’t think there are any dead spots where paint will get stuck or not move. Backyard & field testing will tell me more later on.
The underside, showing the power button, LED & tongue sensor. The tongue sensor is what is used to tell the board & motor to feed paintballs into the feedneck. There are no eyes and no pressure is applied to the ball stack. This is very similar to the Pinokio/HK Army Speed and the old Ricochet loaders. Those are fairly well-regarded loaders, so I’m not too worried about sensor failure or breakage.
And the rear. This only requires one 9V battery. When placing a battery in it, it feels firmly placed in there. There also seems to be a little tab of sorts in the bottom shell that could help support the battery from the underside (forgot a picture of it, apologies). I’m confident that the battery will not move much, if at all.
I am not sure how the battery life will be. The Ricochet AK, which had a similar sensor mechanism, ran on one 9V just fine. However, the packaging for the Sonic claims a 22+ BPS feed rate. This makes me very curious/concerned with the battery life in this loader, as well as VERY skeptical of it’s actual feed rate. This board would be an incredible piece of technology if it can do both, which I am very doubtful of. Again, actual testing will tell me more.
To reassemble, simply reverse the disassembly process.
This is where I have a concern. When you put the front of the tray in you’re supposed to press the rear of the tray down into the bottom shell until it clicks into place. Mine does not click. In fact, I can lift the tray out just by lifting up on the spring ramp.
See these little tabs? There’s one on each rear corner. Those are supposed to help keep the tray in place.
When I press the tray in it does not want to click into place, despite the fact the tray is all the way in (it’s hitting the bottom shell). These tabs are too short to do their supposed job.
However… I also noticed this: on the back end of the tray there’s a large vertical tab, as well as a tab protruding downward from the top shell. When the loader is fully assembled those tabs meet. This, in theory, should keep the back of the tray in place. I’m not impressed with the tabs in the bottom shell, but I’m hoping these vertical tabs are all that’s needed to keep the tray from shifting around. And it does seem like it works. It’s a shame that the entire tray locking situation doesn’t work like it should though.
Now for some comparison pictures. These aren’t the greatest views due to the angles of some of the loaders but these pictures, along with my own info, should be enough to ballpark some size comparisons.
Here’s a top-down comparison of 5 loaders: the Dye LTR, Protoyz Speedster, HK Army Sonic, HK Army Speed & Viewloader Revolution. For length, it’s about on-par with other current loaders. The wings on the Speed loader lid make it seem longer than it actually is. The Revolution is the longest loader in this picture, but it’s also the narrowest.
Speaking of width, the Sonic is fairly wide but not overly so. The Speedster & Speed loaders are slightly wider. Also note the size of the mouths. As I stated earlier, the Speedster is the only loader I have with a mouth larger than the Sonic, and it’s not by much. This is one of my favorite features of the Sonic and Speedster loaders.
Some views from behind. This picture has the LTR, Speedster & Sonic. The rear profile of the Sonic is not as bulky or obtrusive as the back end of the other two loaders. This is likely due to the LTR’s drive cone location (in the rear) and the overall general size of the Speedster. However, the overall heights are similar. I had to hold the LTR upright to get a good look at the backside, which indicates how backheavy it is compared to the others.
Here’s a rear view of the Speed, Revolution & Sonic. The Sonic is based on the Speed, with the impellor & raceway up front to make the back end smaller & lighter. This changed with the Sonic when depth & a spring ramp were added to the back end. But while the Sonic is more obstructive than the Speed (and subjectively, the Revolution), it’s still better than many of the other loaders I’ve compared it to. If you usually use a Revolution, the height difference might be of note.
I took some weights with a digital food scale. Weights (WITH batteries) are as follows and in descending order:
Protoyz Speedster: 1lb, 6.7oz
Dye LTR*: 1lb, 5.5oz
HK Army Speed: 15.3oz
HK Army Sonic: 13.3oz
Viewloader Revolution**: 12.9oz
*LTR is with a speedfeed. I can’t locate my hard lid for this test.
**Revolution has the old black indestructible shells with a Vortex impellor & X-Board. Not in any factory stock configuration.
Out of curiosity, I also took weights of the Sonic and Revolution WITHOUT batteries. Those are as follows:
HK Army Sonic: 11.8oz
Viewloader Revolution: 9.7oz
So the Revolution is still the lightest mass-produced electronic loader on the market. However, the Sonic is not far behind. And again, the Sonic only needs one 9V battery as opposed to the two the Revolution & Speed requires. Capacity may be an issue for some though, which I will touch on later.
Now for some setup pictures. Here are both side & rear views of the loader on my Emek and Etek 5. I purposely used these markers to illustrate single tube vs. stacked tube differences. Note how far forward the loader sits, with the feedneck being basically in the middle of the overall length. The back end is out of my face and the forward weight of the loader helps keep the setup from being too backheavy.
On to capacity. The merchant I purchased mine through advertised the loader as being able to hold 200 rounds. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT true. Here is an image of the Sonic with one 140 round tube dumped into it.
I filled it to the max and did both a drop/speed test and to get a count. I used some previously unopened HK Army paint I acquired at ICPL last October, kept in my basement at about 60*F since then. So the paint was in good shape.
My count was 174 rounds. This is a FAR cry from the advertised capacity. It is outright false advertising. But that’s the tradeoff for the smaller size and lighter weight, and this is indeed a small & lightweight loader. This is where I like the Revolution better- it’s still lightweight and has a large-ish capacity. However, the Sonic’s feed rate & smaller profile may make this an even or perhaps beneficial trade for some people.
On drop speed, it seems pretty quick. Not as consistent as a true force feeding loader, but seemingly fast enough for the majority of applications. I will be doing some backyard testing to get an idea of the actual to-the-marker feed rate. I’ll likely use my Emek and Etek 5, one being a fast mech and one having ramping & uncapped semi-auto.
Other thoughts: I’m not sure what material this loader is made of. If it’s GRN it’s thinner than the Dye LTR and Protoyz Speedster. The Sonic top shell flexes a tad more than those other two (when detached from the bottom shell). But based on my initial handling of the loader & impressions of the rear latch I’m fairly confident that this loader will not open up or “explode” (lol) unless you fall on it. However it doesn’t seem like it would be quite as durable as the LTR or Speedster. But we got by on eVLution and Halo loaders years ago, so I’d think as long as you don’t beat the snot out of it you’ll be fine.
Overall, I’m very interested in using this loader. It’s smaller size and lighter weight are something I’ve been pursuing for some time now, since I play mainly scenarios & have some low back issues. While lacking in capacity I think this might be a good fit for my play style. But I assure you- I won’t be using this for hopper ball. In my opinion, capacity is very important for hopperball and this loader is ill-suited for it.
Speaking of size, I find the design of this hopper to be somewhat counterintuitive for serious/tournament play. My line of thinking is that a loader of this size is suited for a front player. However, in my experience front players snapshoot and tend to shoot in bursts, which a force-feed loader would be best suited for due to constant pressure on the ball stack. I worry that this loader may not feed the best for fast burst-fire mech play. But for most general purposes I think this loader will feed just fine.
It's also worth noting that, again, this is not a high-end loader. It’s not going to have all the bells & whistles or feed quite as quickly as, say, a Dye Rotor/R2 or even the evenly-priced Dye LTR. You get what you pay for. But I’ll say that for the price this may very well be a fantastic loader for someone looking for a super lightweight option. For me, the weight difference between other high-end & midrange loaders and this one makes this an attractive option. I'm very excited to try this with my Emek & 45/4500 air bottle just to see how fast & easily I can move around with it.
Again, this first post just contains my initial thoughts and findings. I have not used it on any markers yet. Some backyard testing will likely happen in the coming days. I will report back with my results in the post below and as time goes on.
The item: HK Army Sonic loader
Price: $99.95 (purchased from Lone Wolf Paintball)
For a little overview & background, the HK Army Sonic loader is a redesign of the Pinokio/HK Army Speed loader, placing it in the midrange loader market. I would classify it as a semi-force feed loader due to it’s design, being that the impellor is nested inside of a raceway (lining up paintballs for the feedneck) but does not put pressure on the ball stack. It feeds only when a sensor in the feedneck sends a signal to the board to tell the motor to turn. There is also a spring ramp that helps funnel paint to the impellor as the paint is used.
Basically, this is a refined eVLution hopper. I prefer this type of electric loader over true force feed loaders, as they are easier on paint and I don’t usually shoot fast enough to require a force feed loader.
First, the package. It includes a startup & teardown double-sided instructional sheet (other side not shown). Pretty standard fare.
Now for some views of the loader from various angles.
The hopper is balanced so it can stand on it’s feedneck. This is a big difference between it & other high end loaders with a rear drive cone.
The backside, showing off the locking latch & low-ish profile. Here’s also a picture of the latch when undone. It’s rather stiff & the tab that it rests over is fairly large. I do not see this latch ever coming undone during normal gameplay.
The underside, where the power button & single LED are located. This button is rubberized. The instructions say to double-press that button in the event of a jam. There are no other buttons or indicators on this entire loader. Very simple, which I like.
The front, showing where the top shell hooks into the bottom shell.
The top of the loader. The mouth on this loader is pretty large. The only loader I’ve used that had a mouth larger than this one is the Protoyz Speedster loader, and it’s not larger by much. Note the location of the impellor & raceway. This helps put more of the paint/weight toward the front of the loader. This loader also includes a spring ramp, which funnels the paint to the impellor as it’s used. This is a very welcome thing for me, as the HK Army Speed loader has a VERY shallow back end which, when used with a speedfeed, makes it difficult to reload when you shove a tube in it, depressing the fingers almost to the floor of the loader. The spring ramp in the Sonic allows for more depth in the back end while doing it’s job of funneling paint to the front.
This loader takes Virtue Crown & HK Army Evo speedfeeds. This view shows the hinge & disconnect mechanism. Simply press the tab & pull the hard lid out of the mount/hinge & replace with a speedfeed.
Now for pictures of the guts. Remove the top shell by pulling the latch on the loader’s rear until it releases. Remove the top shell. Here’s a view with the top shell removed, showing the funnel-shaped tray.
And a few views of the tray itself. To remove the tray push it toward the nose, pop the back out and pull the tray out. There’s even a sticker on the front of the tray telling you which way to push the tray to remove it. The tray seems very funnel-shaped and I don’t think there are any dead spots where paint will get stuck or not move. Backyard & field testing will tell me more later on.
The underside, showing the power button, LED & tongue sensor. The tongue sensor is what is used to tell the board & motor to feed paintballs into the feedneck. There are no eyes and no pressure is applied to the ball stack. This is very similar to the Pinokio/HK Army Speed and the old Ricochet loaders. Those are fairly well-regarded loaders, so I’m not too worried about sensor failure or breakage.
And the rear. This only requires one 9V battery. When placing a battery in it, it feels firmly placed in there. There also seems to be a little tab of sorts in the bottom shell that could help support the battery from the underside (forgot a picture of it, apologies). I’m confident that the battery will not move much, if at all.
I am not sure how the battery life will be. The Ricochet AK, which had a similar sensor mechanism, ran on one 9V just fine. However, the packaging for the Sonic claims a 22+ BPS feed rate. This makes me very curious/concerned with the battery life in this loader, as well as VERY skeptical of it’s actual feed rate. This board would be an incredible piece of technology if it can do both, which I am very doubtful of. Again, actual testing will tell me more.
To reassemble, simply reverse the disassembly process.
This is where I have a concern. When you put the front of the tray in you’re supposed to press the rear of the tray down into the bottom shell until it clicks into place. Mine does not click. In fact, I can lift the tray out just by lifting up on the spring ramp.
See these little tabs? There’s one on each rear corner. Those are supposed to help keep the tray in place.
When I press the tray in it does not want to click into place, despite the fact the tray is all the way in (it’s hitting the bottom shell). These tabs are too short to do their supposed job.
However… I also noticed this: on the back end of the tray there’s a large vertical tab, as well as a tab protruding downward from the top shell. When the loader is fully assembled those tabs meet. This, in theory, should keep the back of the tray in place. I’m not impressed with the tabs in the bottom shell, but I’m hoping these vertical tabs are all that’s needed to keep the tray from shifting around. And it does seem like it works. It’s a shame that the entire tray locking situation doesn’t work like it should though.
Now for some comparison pictures. These aren’t the greatest views due to the angles of some of the loaders but these pictures, along with my own info, should be enough to ballpark some size comparisons.
Here’s a top-down comparison of 5 loaders: the Dye LTR, Protoyz Speedster, HK Army Sonic, HK Army Speed & Viewloader Revolution. For length, it’s about on-par with other current loaders. The wings on the Speed loader lid make it seem longer than it actually is. The Revolution is the longest loader in this picture, but it’s also the narrowest.
Speaking of width, the Sonic is fairly wide but not overly so. The Speedster & Speed loaders are slightly wider. Also note the size of the mouths. As I stated earlier, the Speedster is the only loader I have with a mouth larger than the Sonic, and it’s not by much. This is one of my favorite features of the Sonic and Speedster loaders.
Some views from behind. This picture has the LTR, Speedster & Sonic. The rear profile of the Sonic is not as bulky or obtrusive as the back end of the other two loaders. This is likely due to the LTR’s drive cone location (in the rear) and the overall general size of the Speedster. However, the overall heights are similar. I had to hold the LTR upright to get a good look at the backside, which indicates how backheavy it is compared to the others.
Here’s a rear view of the Speed, Revolution & Sonic. The Sonic is based on the Speed, with the impellor & raceway up front to make the back end smaller & lighter. This changed with the Sonic when depth & a spring ramp were added to the back end. But while the Sonic is more obstructive than the Speed (and subjectively, the Revolution), it’s still better than many of the other loaders I’ve compared it to. If you usually use a Revolution, the height difference might be of note.
I took some weights with a digital food scale. Weights (WITH batteries) are as follows and in descending order:
Protoyz Speedster: 1lb, 6.7oz
Dye LTR*: 1lb, 5.5oz
HK Army Speed: 15.3oz
HK Army Sonic: 13.3oz
Viewloader Revolution**: 12.9oz
*LTR is with a speedfeed. I can’t locate my hard lid for this test.
**Revolution has the old black indestructible shells with a Vortex impellor & X-Board. Not in any factory stock configuration.
Out of curiosity, I also took weights of the Sonic and Revolution WITHOUT batteries. Those are as follows:
HK Army Sonic: 11.8oz
Viewloader Revolution: 9.7oz
So the Revolution is still the lightest mass-produced electronic loader on the market. However, the Sonic is not far behind. And again, the Sonic only needs one 9V battery as opposed to the two the Revolution & Speed requires. Capacity may be an issue for some though, which I will touch on later.
Now for some setup pictures. Here are both side & rear views of the loader on my Emek and Etek 5. I purposely used these markers to illustrate single tube vs. stacked tube differences. Note how far forward the loader sits, with the feedneck being basically in the middle of the overall length. The back end is out of my face and the forward weight of the loader helps keep the setup from being too backheavy.
On to capacity. The merchant I purchased mine through advertised the loader as being able to hold 200 rounds. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT true. Here is an image of the Sonic with one 140 round tube dumped into it.
I filled it to the max and did both a drop/speed test and to get a count. I used some previously unopened HK Army paint I acquired at ICPL last October, kept in my basement at about 60*F since then. So the paint was in good shape.
My count was 174 rounds. This is a FAR cry from the advertised capacity. It is outright false advertising. But that’s the tradeoff for the smaller size and lighter weight, and this is indeed a small & lightweight loader. This is where I like the Revolution better- it’s still lightweight and has a large-ish capacity. However, the Sonic’s feed rate & smaller profile may make this an even or perhaps beneficial trade for some people.
On drop speed, it seems pretty quick. Not as consistent as a true force feeding loader, but seemingly fast enough for the majority of applications. I will be doing some backyard testing to get an idea of the actual to-the-marker feed rate. I’ll likely use my Emek and Etek 5, one being a fast mech and one having ramping & uncapped semi-auto.
Other thoughts: I’m not sure what material this loader is made of. If it’s GRN it’s thinner than the Dye LTR and Protoyz Speedster. The Sonic top shell flexes a tad more than those other two (when detached from the bottom shell). But based on my initial handling of the loader & impressions of the rear latch I’m fairly confident that this loader will not open up or “explode” (lol) unless you fall on it. However it doesn’t seem like it would be quite as durable as the LTR or Speedster. But we got by on eVLution and Halo loaders years ago, so I’d think as long as you don’t beat the snot out of it you’ll be fine.
Overall, I’m very interested in using this loader. It’s smaller size and lighter weight are something I’ve been pursuing for some time now, since I play mainly scenarios & have some low back issues. While lacking in capacity I think this might be a good fit for my play style. But I assure you- I won’t be using this for hopper ball. In my opinion, capacity is very important for hopperball and this loader is ill-suited for it.
Speaking of size, I find the design of this hopper to be somewhat counterintuitive for serious/tournament play. My line of thinking is that a loader of this size is suited for a front player. However, in my experience front players snapshoot and tend to shoot in bursts, which a force-feed loader would be best suited for due to constant pressure on the ball stack. I worry that this loader may not feed the best for fast burst-fire mech play. But for most general purposes I think this loader will feed just fine.
It's also worth noting that, again, this is not a high-end loader. It’s not going to have all the bells & whistles or feed quite as quickly as, say, a Dye Rotor/R2 or even the evenly-priced Dye LTR. You get what you pay for. But I’ll say that for the price this may very well be a fantastic loader for someone looking for a super lightweight option. For me, the weight difference between other high-end & midrange loaders and this one makes this an attractive option. I'm very excited to try this with my Emek & 45/4500 air bottle just to see how fast & easily I can move around with it.
Again, this first post just contains my initial thoughts and findings. I have not used it on any markers yet. Some backyard testing will likely happen in the coming days. I will report back with my results in the post below and as time goes on.
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