I think this is worth repeating in a topic of its own (thanks Squid Lips)
(copied from
www.unifiber.net/masts-selector):
Key questions are:
. why hard versus soft top - that is, is one better for some things than the other?
. how incompatible can you get before its really noticeable (that is, one square or ten out of sync on the unifiber diagram)?
Apologies for the cross posting if you have seen it already.