I had a waggle of a 15' 6" Sphere yesterday, after my mates funeral,at Benwick Sports,great tackle shop,with helpful knowledgeable staff,anyway it was very nice,very light for a 15'+ rod,i picked up a 17' Acolyte,it felt bloody awful to me,anyway i wont be buying one anytime soon,but can understand the appeal and the Sphere seems worth the cash to me....
I prefer my Spheres, but the 15' Acolyte (even with it being 6" shorter taken into account) is lighter than the 15' 6" Sphere. The 17' Acolyte is unbelievably light, but it has a really strange action. It's awful in a tackle shop waggle, but better in use. However, it does make anything over 4oz hoop the tip over like it was huge.
The following figures should demonstrate nicely that if it has been anything approaching ten years since you picked up a longer rod, there's a chance that your opinions on long rods no longer hold much water. The 15' Acolytes are actually lighter than plenty of 13' rods, regardless of whether they are new and expensive.
15' Drennan Acolyte Ultra ---------------- 168g
15' Drennan Acolyte Plus ----------------- 169g
15' Maver Signature Pro Classic ---------- 179g
15'6" Browning Sphere Splice Tip River - 184g
17' Drennan Acolyte Float ---------------- 199g
15' Shimano Speedcast ------------------- 225g
15' Shimano Aerocast Specimen Match -- 280g
16/18' Abu Suveran ----------------------- 333/377g
(I do expect that I'd be able to pole vault with the last two. There's nothing typical about either)
Just to compare and contrast, the following are all 13' rods (except the 13' 6" Sphere).
Browning Sphere Match --------------------------- 144g
Drennan Acolyte Ultra ----------------------------- 146g
Drennan Acolyte Plus ------------------------------ 150g
Tri-Cast Allerton Waggler -------------------------- 156g
Tri-Cast Allerton (spliced tip) --------------------- 162g
13'6" Browning Sphere Spliced Tip River -------- 162g
Maver Matchwinner Liquid Crystal ---------------- 177g
Normark Microlight II ------------------------------ 177g
Normark Titan II ----------------------------------- 178g
Shimano Speedcast ------------------------------- 193g
Daiwa (Tom Pickering) Matchwinner-S Waggler - 195g
Daiwa (Tom Pickering Matchwinner Waggler ----- 195g
Daiwa Air AGS ------------------------------------- 205g
Shimano Aerocast --------------------------------- 219g