I never tried the Academy. I did try the upscale Taylor nylons, and liked them, However, several contacts here warned me that Taylors didn't do well in this climate (it's 110 degrees as I'm writing this).

I do have an interesting Taylor story. While cruising through every guitar store in San Diego I ran across a beautiful Chinese guitar; Good wood, great sound, $300. It looked familiar and I bought it and took it to a shop where I knew the sales staff and we played the guitar against a Taylor. We took turns playing and doing blind comparisons--it was a wash. And then we started looking more closely and realized that the two guitars were identical other than the specific woods used. I then went on line to look up the migrant instrument and it was nowhere to be found. My supposition is that the guitar was imported with no fanfare along with the well-known company's other known offerings. I sold the guitar to a friend who still has and loves it. I have never found another one.

As kramster says, just saying..........................