Hub is not of the same quality as hope and the spokes a bit thinner but if your are light on your wheels these are very light for the cash. They will be my next wheel set for racing.
Stans NoTubes Crest 26in Wheel Set - $574.95 : Online Bike Store | TBSM The Bike Shed Mortdale
And the Aussie distrubutors are great guys.
I’d, without any hesistation, reconmend the hubs.
I run a Pro2/some dt db spokes/pro lock nipples/apline rims on my hardtail. Very light.
I really don’t like noisy hubs and having the SS means 2x the sound of the normal one (twice the engagment due to offset pawls) but when I’m riding them I really don’t notice. Front hub is pretty good too seeing as the endcaps swap out for different axle sizes.
Durability wise they should be fine. I’ve serviced them once after a very muddy dirtworks 100k (which included a hub deep river crossing) last year and prior to that they copped 2 very muddy laps at the mont24 early that year.
Most importantly they come in many pretty colours.
I really like Hope hubs as well. I’ve got Hadley, Chris King, Industry Nine and Hope, of them all the Industry Nine sounds the best, I put the rest of them as second, but not far off.
Chris King: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FKKLy2L9UQ
Hadley: (It’s louder now, this vid was taken when it was really new.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY5S5-P_oKo
Industry Nine: (needed a rebuild as you can see the cranks moving for a bit.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxwBAZ4qJ1c
I prefer the sound of the Hadley. You can quieten down the Hopes and other pawl-operated freehubs by lubing the pawls with Fox Float Fluid (heavy oil with tends to stick around longer than normal mineral oils, you can get 5cc pillows of it from your mtb-lbs).
The Kings aren’t that loud if you use the king lube in the Ringdrive.