Pesonally I wouldn't go to carbon for the gain in speed and I wouldn't shy away from them because of the loss of energy. For me these differencesjust aren't large enough to be significant.I switched to carbonsimply because of their durability. Iused to do aLOT of shooting (still shoot a fair amount) and I've found the carbons hold up much better. They are a bit pricywhen compared to aluminum inthe straightness category though. I've also foundsome cheaper carbons are much more variable in axial spine andI can tell you for certain that it is significant enough to hurt if you are into competition. I guess you have to weigh what's important to you. Like I said, durability is big for me. I can be pretty rough on arrows. I still do a fair amount of rabbit hunting in the winter months and I wind up ruining a lot less carbon arrows than I did when I was using aluminum.