It's been awhile since I purchased any new braided lines.  The last batch of lines was a bunch of Diawa J-Braid x8 and J-Braid Grand x8, a couple of Fireline Ultra 8, and Nanofil lines.  On my list would be YGK G-Soul Upgrade X8 line and YGK G-Soul SS112 Sinking Braid line.  Well, shopping cart, submitted.  Well I ordered a few lines but I stayed with the small diameters again and keeping them under .200 mm for the most part.  This will put it in the same frame as most of the other lines I've used in the past for ice fishing.  So my impulsive line order came through and I ordered a variety of line tests. 

YGK G-Soul Upgrade X-8
14# at .131 mm
16# at .153 mm
22# at .171 mm
25# at .185 mm

YGK G-Soul SS112 Sinking Braid
10# at .165 mm
14# at .185 mm

All I can say is wow this line is thin.  It feels significantly much thinner than anything I've felt.  Even more thin than the J-Braid x8 Grand.  Will have to give it some line break test and some side to side comparison later.  The clear package spool is a great visual product.  One can really see how nice the line is and how little room it takes.  The appearance is so uniform and even as a braid, it looks like a single monofilament.

Some preliminary line break test on the G-Soul Upgrade X-8 with all knot break failures.
14# listed with four trials: 6#15, 6#12, 7#0, 6#15
16# listed with four trials: 9#0, 9#15, 8#15, 8#15
22# listed with three trials: 13#10, 12#15, 12#10

YGK G-Soul SS112 Sinking Braid:

10# listed with three trials: knot break 9# 10, 9#1, 9#8
14# listed with three trials: knot break 10# 10, 9#15, 10#8

It's been a while since I've tied and manipulated the knot on thin PE lines.  I can't remember what I did to achieve a higher strength.  However, I'm glad to see a rather consistent breakage.  It means two contributing factor.  First I may be tying a rather consistent knot with how I'm tying.  Second, the line is consistent in uniformity strength with the extrusion process.  As much as I expected that I was not going to get the manufacture listed line break strength, after all that's not what I'm after.  I'm after my real world use of the line and how the knot will hold for me. 

I tried looking for my 6# Diawa J-Braid to make a line to line comparison but couldn't find it at the moment.  I did find some 10# J-Braid X8 and the 4# Berkley Nanofil line.  The 14# G-Soul Upgrade looked thinner than 10# J-Braid while the 16# looked very much alike in diameter.  The 4# Nanofil was just about equal in turns of line diameter thickness.  The line is very pliable.  Compare to Nanofil, it feels very much like it.  The line feels so smooth and has a good body feel almost as if it is one single thread.  There is also a self support and while holding about 4 to 5 inches horizontal of line material.  That's quite amazing and almost feels like a levitation trick.  Getting to about 6 to 7 inches it will be pull down by gravity and is no longer able to self support horizontally.  Compressing the line by pinching and pushing together did not yield any strand separations.  The weave is just too uniform and well packed.  I was only able to see a sign of thread separation after multiple line break of the same sample.  Even then I was not able separate the thread weave.

Further note is that this time I did a really crude line test method.  I kept using the same line even after the first break.  Typically I expect that the sequent test should have yield less results.  After all there were obvious signs of line damage even after the first line break test.  I could see that the thread fluffed up where the fibers broke in multiple spots throughout the sample test line.  Another telltale sign was how the line had contracted into a somewhat bunched deformity of random compressed doodle.  This means that the fibers were stretched and rebounded.  However it's odd that later test of the same sample would yield a higher break strength.  This could hint that the line is still very strong even after some light stressed breakage. 

Similar line diameter .13mm comparison: 14# G-Soul Upgrade X-8 is within same break threshold and is below average.
Diawa J-Braid Grand x8 .13 mm 8# knot break 10# 12 oz.
Berkley NanoFil 6# .13mm knot break 9# 14 oz.
Berkley Fireline Original .13 mm 4# knot break 6# 12 oz.

Similar line diameter .15mm comparison: 16# G-Soul Upgrade X-8 is within same break threshold and is just below average.
Diawa J-Braid x8 .15 mm 10# knot break 13#
Diawa J-Braid Grand x8 .15 mm 10# knot break 16# 14 oz.
Berkley Fireline Crystal .15 mm 6# knot break 8# 8 oz.

Similar line diameter .171mm comparison: 22# G-Soul Upgrade X-8 is average break and slightly above.
ASSO Sinking Braid .16mm 10# knot break 12# 5 oz.
ASSO Sinking Braid .18mm 12# knot break 13# 10 oz.
Berkley Fireline Original .18 mm 8# knot break 11# 6 oz.