I am old and slow and any help is greatly appreciated. I only have one set of wheels with db spokes and it is the set of 27" that I built a few years ago. I was not aware of the oval spokes and would not have thought that they would be more areo but then I have never seen them either. The areas that I have lived in have not exactly been bicycle mecca's. I doubt that I ever own a wheel set of either but it doesn't hurt to 'want'.