The Titleist 716 CB iron has come in for the same tungsten treatment as the 716 AP1 and AP2 irons, which is unusual in what is essentially a hybrid blade iron.
What the tungsten does is to lower the sweet spot in the longer irons and increase the stability to make them a little more resistant to twisting at impact, thereby increasing their MOI and hence their forgiveness.
In the 716 CB set it is just the 3 to 7 irons that feature a tungsten weight on the toe of the club, which is co-forged into the head as part of the manufacturing process.
The shorter irons from 8 to PW are deemed not worthy due to their increased loft resulting in the impact point being a little higher on the face, so that there is no need to drop the sweet spot by using the tungsten.
The result is a low handicapper's forged iron that is very playable and Titleist say that the MOI of the 716 CB is almost the same as the previous Titleist AP2 714 irons which has a larger head.
Having used the AP2 714 irons regularly I can vouch for this, however the new AP2 716 irons with their tungsten injection have also moved up the MOI scale, so it will just depend on how much forgiveness you need as to which model you prefer.
The advantage the CB iron has over the AP2 is the feel, which is much sharper from the forged heads and with the extra tungsten it all feels more solid too. This goes right through the set and even in the short irons without the tungsten the balance is very good and the feel excellent.
The 716 CB heads are not much smaller than the AP2 and for low single players who are good ball strikers either would be a great choice.
At address the head frames the ball very well with a re-assuring top line that does not look too thin.
The muscle back is a little more pronounced on the 716 CB compared to the 714 CB to get that sweet spot lower and this creates a lovely balance of sound, feel and forgiveness for a head of this size.
As usual with Titleist there is a wide range of shafts to go with the 716 CB irons, but there is a new stock shaft called the Dynamic Gold AMT or Ascending Mass Technology shaft from True Temper and Titleist are the first to bring it to market.
Basically the weight of the shaft is lighter in the long irons and increases by 3g in each club so that it ends up about the traditional weight for a Dynamic Gold in the short irons. This makes the longer irons easier to swing faster and launch higher, whilst giving more control in the shorter irons.
If you are used to standard weight Dynamic Golds then I think you will like the lighter long iron shafts as it makes the 4 and 5 irons a joy to hit.
I probably have to declare now that I use Dynamic Gold SL Superlight shafts and the weight of these are similar to the lighter long iron shafts. However when I went to the standard weight in the wedge I found it too heavy and did not like it for all the reasons I went to the SL in the first place.
It is just an option and makes sense as your wood shafts get heavier as they get shorter so try it out. It does create a different feel through the set, but there is nothing wrong with different weights or swing weights if it feels good to you and delivers consistent results.
The 716 AP1 and AP2 irons really move forgiveness and speed up a level, but for me the Titleist 716 CB irons have probably gained the most from the tungsten infusion. I can't think of many forged irons that have used this material to such good effect and if you are a category one player who likes a blade style iron, then this is definitely one to consider.