I'm going to take back a little about my Sage comments. I owned a Sage DS2 5wt, and that was a fine rod. My next experience with Sage was a 9' 6wt FLi. I did not cast that rod before buying, but when I did cast it, it was dead-dead-dead. I returned it immediately. That was when I went to Cabelas to buy a St. Croix Legend Ultra, and the salesman convinced me to try the Z-Axis. It was everything the FLi wasn't: crisp, light, attractive, and had a nice soft tip. I also bought a 4wt ZXL, and have cast (on a stream) the Vantage 690. The ZXL is about as soft as I'd ever want a rod, and the Vantage was fine for a 6wt.
When George Anderson did the first 5 Weight Shootout, he said that the Sage XP was too stiff by at least one line weight, and the tip was too stiff for casting in close. George said that the Z-Axis was the rod that Sage should have made instead of the XP, and loved it. Yellowstone Anglers has done a few articles, blurbs, and a mini-shootout with the 5wt Sage One. They don't like for the same reason they didn't like the XP, and George said that if you liked the XP, you'll probably like the One. When they compared the 5wt One with the Hardy Zenith, they liked the Zenith much more: easier to cast in close, felt lighter while casting, and was more accurate in close. When Anderson compared the One and Zenith in a 6wt configuration, the tables had turned completely. They said the Sage One felt much lighter than the Zenith while casting, and that the One was the better overall rod. I've often wondered why a manufacturer offers the same rod model in 3-12 weight, and that there must be some rods that perform better than others within all those weights and lengths. Anderson said that Sage seemed more intent on making a power cannon with the One, rather than an improvement on the Sage Z-Axis 5wt. He had nothing but praise about the 690 One, however, so I guess it's a case-by-case thing.