My bass always felt very tense with all strings I've tried except for the Velvet ones.
For me, the only problem with the Velvets, apart from the price and reliability (which are by far very much compensated by an excellent customer service) is that they develop a very large movement that requires a much higher setup.
With this strings tuned in standard tuning, I achieved the best of all worlds, light tension for my bass top allowing it to bring more volume out, very low action adding comfort and speed for my left hand and they are also extremely easy to bow, although I only do it for practice mainly.
The A and D strings felt right from the beginning but the E was sounding too dull and the G too "twangy" and thin but now, about 1 month latter, the E string is sounding very strong and the G string has already lost all of that metallic sound and is still progressively growing closer to the rest of the set.
About the reliability, well they are Spirocores after all, there are guys who buy them only after they are well beaten and "dead" witch sometimes means they are already 4 years old or more...