Dave,
Every RS Ive ever owned broke. Not sure I owned any of the XST series but plenty of RX7's have failed. Mostely due to improper tapers and such near the ferrels. Batson has always been great about the warrenty, but Ive got GL3's that are 7, 8 and 9 years old that have been thru allot harder abuse over alot more time and still are perfect.

With the extensive time testing Ive put both thru nothing has compared to the Loomis line. But thats just me. Ill pay the extra for the sound mind and sound warrenty.

However, with Loomis's patented blends, I doubt RS XST's are the same blends. I think it would take allot of luck for RS to hit it perfect...these are only my opinions though.