Latest reviews

Tibhar Kinetic Speed
Thickness: 5.9mm
Plies: 7 (limba outer plies - CZ composite -? - kiri or koto?)
Weight 84-85 grams
Speed: OFF

The Tibhar Kinetic Speed blade gave me a mixed feeling of holding a blade that feels like ZJK ALC Blue Dragon blade and the ZJK ZLC blade. The shape of the handle vaguely resembles the ZJK ZLC blade but they just do not play the same way. THE KS is a finely crafted blade with good quality and good looks. The handle feels very comfortable and I prefer the KS' handle over the Cedric Nuytinck's shape. The KS handle is similar to the shape of ZJK ZLC compared to the Cedric's handle which has an almost oblong shape. The blade head shape is also like that of the Cedric Nuytinck which has a semi-egg shaped design. The KS is faster than the Nuytinck but the Drinkhall power carbon is still faster. The speed of the KS will not exceed the speed of Viscaria or Timo Boll ALC. The blade has plenty of speed but still not too fast that it is not on the level of Samsonov Carbon.

The Kinetic Speed has good feel despite having a more stiff construction. The Viscaria feels a tad harder and more crisp while the KS maintains a semi soft feel on impact. Despite having a composite make-up, the Kinetic Speed does not feel too hard and feels a little bit woody. The feel really reminded me of the ZJK ALC and also being a light blade it felt like it only that the KS feels a bit more solid. It has a typical feel of composite blades. It does not feel like it is close to that of the Viscaria's feel but it does not feel hard but not too soft at the same time. The Kinetic Speed is a very predictable blade which offers a player exactly what he applies on the blade. It has good gears. You can have it slow if you wanted it slow and you can have it fast if you apply more power. It is slightly faster than the Nuytinck but almost the same control because the speed difference is not that big. It is well suited for powershots like loop drives, smashes and counter loops middle distance and up to far distance from the table depending on the rubber used. Some players would find it very bouncy near the table and would prefer to use it mid-distance but skilled players have no problem using near the table. The power slightly decreases at far distance from the table. The MX-P would be excellent in the Kinetic force because despite being a fast blade you will still be able to control MX-P on this one. Actually, I think you will not have any problems looping with MX-P on this blade. While the Cedric Nuytinck can be used by intermediate players due to its high level of control despite being a carbon blade, I would recommend the Kinetic Force for more advanced players.

Tibhar Cedric Nuytinck
Speed: OFF
Plies: 7 (limba outer-ZC composite -?-kiri?)
Thickness: 5.8mm

Finally this blade that I have been waiting for so long to test arrived. I was intrigued with this blade because Samsonov used this blade. The blade's handle was shown to be wrapped with handle grip covering the entire length but the single black or blue stripe at the middle of the handle gave us a clue that this was the blade he was using. I think he covered it only to protect the identity of the blade as this blade was designed and advertised for another player with the same name. I think Vladi uses the VS Unlimited blade nowadays but he spend significant time using this blade in tournaments. The blade is encased in a big and better looking box unlike other Tibhar blades with their small boxes this one has a better packaging. The blade itself has a high quality finish like the Unlimited Blade series before. The blade surface seem to have a very thin layer of sealing or the blade is just smooth. The head shape seem to be semi-egg shaped. it is not as profound as those Waldner egg shaped blades. The blade weighs about 87 grams and the weight tilts towards the head but it never felt head heavy when I used the Aurus Prime and Select rubbers at maxed thickness. The neck and wing part need only a little bit of sanding. If only they have pre-sanded the neck part of the blade, this would have been perfect. The handle is very comfortable but the Unlimited series seem to be my personal choice for their handles and they feel bigger to the hands.

When I bounced the ball onto the bare blade, the ball bounced on a medium height. It is surprising that Tibhar did not release any OFF+ blades in their latest set of blades. They would usually make 2-3 blades with one being very fast, one medium speed and the other is a typical all around blade. I would probably attribute this to the fact that the new generation tensor rubbers nowadays when even paired with off- blades only can already compensate to the blade's lack very fast of speed. In short, blade's power can be increased by using fast rubbers like Aurus Prime or MX-P. I did not have a chance to test this with an MX-P. The Cedric blade has enough speed but it is not too fast. In fact it is slower than the CCA Unlimited before and the past blades such as Paul Drinkhall Carbon and Samsonov Carbon blade (the one with the blue handle). If I compare it to other brands, the Cedric Nuytinck blade is closer to the Carbonado 145 in terms of speed and maybe feel except that the Carbonado feel more stiff.

What I like about the Cedric blade is that it is a high performance blade despite being not too fast at all. The blade excels close to the table and mid distance from the table. It has enough power that will let the player feel it is not a slow blade. However when it is paired with an MXP- or Aurus Prime it is good even at far distance from the table. The blade feels medium soft. It has this flex that you need when you loop the ball and looping with it is very easy. The Cedric blade has very good control and seems to be as good as the Samsonov Stratus carbon in terms of handling however I like the Cedric better because it feels a bit softer if my memory does not betray me. This would be one of the best control carbon blades in the market if paired with the right rubber. I suggest to pair this more with MX-S if you are a pure looper and with Aurus Prime or MX-P if you hit more or need more power in your shots. It is just easy to handle that even an intermediate level of player can use this probably with slower rubbers like a 2.0 MX-S or 2.0 EL-P. The blade also provides good control in blocking and when you want to use long pips in the back either for pure blocking or attacking long pips style, the blade is good enough to use. I would assume it would also pair well with Chinese rubbers because of the limba outer plies and the woody feeling due to the very thin carbon layers.

I think Baal's review covered everything and yeah these balls play very close to Nittaku like you can easily switch between the two without noticing any difference. Everyone who I know who tried them said they were like the Nittakus and these are like half the price. The only difference I notice is that the D40 feels slightly lighter and has a slightly less glossy finish with less powder. In terms of durability, I've been using one ball for around 3 weeks and its still going. These balls also don't get as dirty as the Nittakus.

Before I post the review of this amazing blade, here is the list of blades that I have and played with during my EJing time:

Premade Bats:
- GKI KungFu Dx
- GKI Offensive XX
- Donic schildkrot Carbotec 7000

Assembled:
- Stiga Offensive Classic WRB [GKI Hybrid GX(Max) + GKI Hybrid GX(Max)]
- Stiga Allround Evolution [Vega Pro(Max) + Vega Pro(Max)]
- Nittaku Septear [Evolution MXP(1.9-2.0) + Gold Arc 5 42.5(2.0)]
- Xiom Feel ZX1 [Evolution MXP(Max) + Omega V Pro(Max)]
- Stiga Arctic Wood [Rakza X(Max) + Omega V Asia(Max)]
- Nittaku Ma Long 7 [Hurricane 3 Turbo(Max) + (Hurricane 3 Turbo(Max)]
- Yinhe U1 VB [Palio Drunken Dragon(2.2) + Palio Conqueror(2.2)]
- BBCharlie 9-10-9 [Yinhe Sun(Max) + Yinhe Moon Speed(Max)]
- Xiom Feel ZX3 [Omega V Euro(Max) + Hurricane 3 Neo National(Max)]
- Drinkhall Powerspin Carbon [Aurus Prime(Max) + Omega VII pro(Max)]

And finally, my EJing days came to an end with this master piece.

Blade Composition:

Limba + Arylate-Carbon (ALC) + Limba + Ayous + Limba + Arylate-Carbon (ALC) + Limba


First Impressions:

Excellent Craftsmanship and Extremely comfortable handle. Once you get this blade out of the box, the first thing I noticed was the looks. Damn!
I paired them with Evolution MXP on both the sides. During warmup, I was astonished to get this feeling of ball grab + a slight vibration which tells you where did the ball contact blade.

Speed:

I noticed from free point forehand rallies that the speed of this blade is similar to Viscaria. Precision shots were like a piece of cake and easy to execute.

Spin:

Spin is one of the best qualities of this blade. If your game is focused on spin, your search for "my blade" ends here.

Control:

Controlling offensive shots close to the table was very easy; however, away from table, I had to focus on brushing the ball well to generate extreme power.
p.s. this does not mean that the blade is slow.


Counterloop and blocking:
This is the area where I am currently focusing on with this blade and I had to adjust my technique to get the ball on the table.


Which rubbers should you consider pairing with?
The throw angle of this blade is medium and you should pair hard rubbers to make sure you get that precise powerloop near the edge of the table.
MXP
Omega VII Pro
Omega V Pro
Gold Arc 8
Rasanter R 47

Conclusion:
If you are looking a blade which will give you the perfect balance between speed, spin and control without loosing the feeling; stop searching and get this one.

For me for now the only downside with this blade is that my playing level is too low to control this beast to the level that I have some stability in my play, especially so when someone return my first or second attack, I just too slow to react, the faster ball (and the more rotation it have) I loop to my opponent, the faster and with more rotation it return to me... I played with Apolonia ZLC blade before, and still play with it sometimes, IMO Apolonia and Mizutani ZLC is quite alike, but Apolonia ZLC is slower and have more vibrations, but Apolonia ZLC not create so much power and spin that can produce Mizutani ZLC, so now I have a dilemma, with Apolonia I have more stability, but Mizutani is more dangerous for my opponents and I like the "feel" of it more, for now overall on tournaments my results is quite the same when I use Apolonia ZLC or Mizutani ZLC, so I think that with Mizutani ZLC my play have more potential, but only if I manage to "tame" it a bit more, if I can't then will probably go back to Apolonia ZLC blade...

As for general "type of play" cons, IMHO Mizutani ZLC (as well as Apolonia ZLC) not for a close to the table type of play, it's a blade for a loop and counter loop play in the middle and far from the table zones with a lot of rotation involved...

When I tried to play in defence with long pimples on BH I found that I'm not very found of slow def blades, so tried to found off- blade for myself... So I found Hadraw SK, it's really very good allrounder, inverded rubbers, long or short pimples (long/short chops or close to the table attack), all plays nice with this blade, it's have great control on any type of play... So overall it's IMHO a blade for a players that want to keep ball in play as long as possible, it's not a blade for total attack style at all...

The Xiom Zeta Offensive all wood blade is koto 7 ply blade from Xiom. The ZOC is about 87 grams in weight and about 6.2mm thick. It feels harder than the Xiom Solo which has an identical composition. The Xiom Solo despite being a 7 ply blade, the feel and flex is a that of a 5 ply blade and the speed is only at OFF- and not a true OFF blade. The ZOC feels a tad harder than a Clipper CR with more speed and power. The blade is an attacking blade but offers very good control slightly lower than that of the Solo. The blade feels like having a semi-hard feel with some flex. When paired with a a powerful rubber like Omega 7 Pro, it is excellent away from the table while maintaining control. This is also a cheap blade priced at about 50USD.

Musa 3

The Musa 3 is a very under rated rubber in the market today. Much attention has been given on newer and faster ESN rubbers, the Musa 3 seem to be not given much attention by players. There are ESN rubbers that were released by TT companies with rubbers like Roxxon, GTT rubbers that are in the mid-ranged cost of 30-35usd but they have older generation topsheets with newer sponges glued to them. The Musa 3 looks different that the topsheet is unlike rubbers before it and that it is not a slow rubber with less spin but rather it is surprisingly fast and bouncy. Upon checking, the Musa 3 is a medium soft rubber. You can feel the softness when you are pressing lightly against the topsheet but not as soft as a Vega Elite. It is closer to the softness of Vega Europe. The Musa 3 is very fast and bouncy that people who have tried it seem to think that it is faster than the Acuda S2 or Bluefire M2 but slower than MXP or Rhyzm 48. It feels like a classic Japanese rubber that is spin-elastic. You can say it is like an improved classic rubber like Mark V but the spin and speed are marginally higher. The spin is very good and it has a high amount of spin. If the likes of the Omega V pro or Euro and even the Omega VII Pro have very high or extreme level of spin, the Musa 3 has high amount of spin. I would put it as having the same level of spin with Acuda S2 or Bluefire M2 but feels softer. The arc is medium to medium high arc when looping. The ball digs deep into the sponge and topsheet when looping producing a very good amount of spin. The power is good up to middle distance from the table. I feel the power diminish at about 6 feet away from the table. It is better as a close to the table rubber that is very good for quick attacks, blocking, flicking and drop shots. The Musa 3 is an all around rubber that can basically do any type of shot being an offensive rubber. If the Vega Series like Europe, Asia, Japan and Pro versions were o be phased out in the market, the Musa 3 can actually replace all of them because it is as good as those rubbers mentioned. I would suggest this to players are budget conscious that want to have the best value their limited budget can buy. Even higher level players can actually use this effectively as a backhand rubber. This was tested with the Zeta Offensive Carbon blade. Uncut Weight is 64-65 grams

The Vega SPO is already in the market for a long time when I tested it. Tony of Tony's Table Tennis informed me that the Vega SPO is a best -selling short pimpled rubber in Japan but seem no to have caught the attention of people outside Japan. It has a medium soft sponge. The sponge feels like a Vega Europe but when combined with the topsheet, the Vega SPO feels like a medium hardness pips out rubber. The pip structure is arranged in a diagonal manner and they feel grippy. The pimple structure feel they have some softness like the Royal and when you compare it to the TSP Super Spin Pips, the Super Spin Pips seems a bit harder. It is closer to the feel of Stiga Royal. The Vega SPO has a similar black carbo sponge similar to that of the Omega series rubbers especially the Omega V sponge in particular. If you compare it to the Xiom Zava short pips before, the Vega SPO has a more firm feel while the Zava has like a medium soft feel. The ball sinks deeper into the sponge with the Zava compared to the Vega SPO.
The pip structure is very grippy but not tacky like the Stiga Radical. When doing push-chops, you can push-chop with it with heavy amount of spin and it feels it has more spin than TSP Super Spin Pips and RICT 802-40. Backhand topspin opening against underspin seem to be very good both in the forehand and backhand. A friend of mine who is not a short pips user tried the Vega SPO as his forehand rubber because he is usually inclined to slap and contact the ball deeply against the sponge. He being a beginner in using short pips as a forehand rubber, was able to easily use the SPO as a forehand rubber because he could easily slap the incoming balls with underspin. I can say that this shows that the SPO is not hard to use. I like it as a backhand rubber because it is easier to use than the RITC 802-40 and Stiga Radical because of the RITC 802-40's lesser grip and the Stiga Radical's unpredictability. The SPO's effect is more predictable when to expect heavy pin or no spin from it. It could attack really well because the pips can grab the ball better compared to common short pip rubbers that has lesser grip. A good knuckle effect is also observed with punch blocking and the ball sometimes float low and slows down when you are blocking against it sometimes disrupting your timing. ​​The speed is fast at 2.0mm and much more at max sponge thickness. There is a big gap with the their speed. If you compare the speed, Royal and SPO seem to have equal speed but I am not sure enough comparing the speed with the Raystorm.

Testing was done with Xiom Omega VII Pro, Vega Intro, Vega SPO and Musa 3 rubbers. The ZOC+ blade weighs 84 grams but the range of weight is85-87 grams. The blade has a medium stiff feel. It feels stiffer than the Feel AX blade and a tad faster but it almost has the same feel. I am not sure if the top ply is made of Walnut or colored Limba. Central ply looks like Kiri. The ZOC+ feels light, balanced but never hollow. Even if it is labelled as OFF+, it should be rated it as OFF only because it is not faster than Viscaria. I say it is as fast as Viscaria. On a bare blade doing ball- bouncing, the height of the ball bouncing against the bare blade is medium high and a little bit higher than Feel AX or almost the same bounce as Viscaria or Xiom Stradivarius. The Zeta Offensive Carbon+ is a "can-do all" all-around offensive blade. I still love the Feel Ax, I switched to the ZOC+ immediately because the control never really decreased in my part but I felt an increased in speed by a few notches indicating that the ZOC is a faster blade than the Feel AX. The ball feedback with the ZOC+ is excellent to feel in the hand and it does not feel too hard nor too soft. The blade has enough hardness to give you the power and speed but it has a softness innate to the blade when you are hitting with it so it has a combination of balanced softness and hardness. The Zeta series blades have actually one of the best handles in the line of blades for Xiom. The handle is just right including the wing part. If I compare it with the Feel Series blades, the wing part of the AX and other blades are wider and you need to sand them. The Omega series have also good handles but they feel too slender at times and with the Zeta blade handles, they feel just right.
The Zeta Offensive Carbon+ is an excellent attacking blade with balance on looping and driving. Looping the ball is as easy as looping with the Feel AX but it feels much faster. The blade feels bouncy but not too fast. It has more than enough speed that you need for powerful shot but it has control like that of an off- blade. Smashing is very good but the best qualities of the ZOC+ is looping, blocking and inside the table strokes like flicks and drops are all easy to execute with it. The ZOC+ has been my main blade with much preference compared to the Feel AX, both have the good flex in looping but the Zeta Offensive + blade is just a step better. In terms of power ZOC+ is limited to the middle distance from the table and farther from the table it loses some amount of power on your shots unless you place a very fast rubber with it like Omega VII Pro. The Zeta Offensive + can be used by players that are in the intermediate level when it is paired with the Vega Intro 2.0mm or Vega Elite 2.0mm rubbers in which control is really abundant. Advanced and even elite players will greatly love the Zeta Offensive Carbon + because it is dynamic, fast, controllable and excellent in every shot. It is about 60-65usd so the price for its performance is really good.

I changed to this blade after seeing Dan's review with Aruna and thought it would suit my game. Its not the lightest of blades, but the combination of woods and carbon give control and feel, lots of spin and speed with a heavy arm speed when looping and smashing. All in all it was a good choice for my playing style. I've used european rubbers and chinese and both work well in their own way. I've stuck to chinese tacky rubbers as I use alot of arm and wrist speed to loop and attack.

Hey guys,
I have decided to write a review on a blade I like very much but do not longer play. So the Nittaku Violin is just beautiful, it looks really nice, especially the outer ply and its quality is just amazing. What I liked was how easy it was to impart spin, the blade is super flexy on slow opening loops and you can't really not bring the ball on the table with it.
The flex did however create some problems for shots I put a lot of power into: The strong flex did not give me a lot of control on high impact shots, becoming a bit unstable. This also happened when blocking hard shots, I like the stiffness of a Clipper a lot better for those strokes.
The speed nowadays with the 40+ balls is not that great, I would say it's more like All+ than Off- even and so I can recommend it even for beginners.
The handle was a bit too small for my taste but I could live with that.

All in all a great blade but if you advance and do harder strokes you should probably go for something a bit stiffer nowadays.

This blade is good for starters, you have excellent control with this blade and is good for learning and developing your stroke.

Hi all.
I am playing this blade, i will just call it NMLC here, for about five training sessions now, each between 2-3 Hours.
Although i have the feeling that i haven't fully experienced all it's secrets and potenzial, because here and there i hit shots i never thought i would. I couldn't wait any longer to share my experience so far.

The specifications of my NMLC are:
blade head size is 162x152mm overall size is 262x152mm. Manufacturer says could vary +/- 1mm
weight on the digital kitchen scale says 94g. Manufacturer says varies from 92-96g.
I am aware that weight is a concern for many people.
For me 94g is just right. I always play with 93-95g blades. I actually need this.
Everybody has to choose for her-/himself. I contacted the shop and asked for the specific size and weight. Most customer services are
that polite to search and measure for you. You just need to ask.
The thickness of my NMLC is 5.7mm
The blade's composition is as following; Koto(outer)-Ayous-GlassCarbon-Ayous(Core)-GlassCarbon-Ayous-Koto

For the first session i used following rubbers;
DHS Hurricane 3 Provincial Blue Sponge #20, 41degree, 2.2mm
DHS Hurricane 3 Provincial Orange Sponge #20, 39degree, 2.2mm
FH prepared with 3 layers Fine Zip and 3 layers Falco
BH prepared with 3layers Fine Zip and 3 layers KaiLin (softens Sponge more than Falco)

The next 4 sessions i played with the main rubbers which were not ready while first session.
I use these rubbers since then and they fit the NMLC really well;
DHS Neo Hurricane 3 Provincial Blue Sponge, 40 degree, 2.15mm, using the prott.vip boosting method for Neo rubbers.
(it's waiting for you to be found on their webside)
DHS Goldarc 8, 50 degree(ESN scale), max.

The fiberglass-Carbon composite gives the NMLC great power on strong impact, especially in combination with the koto outer ply but it doesn't feel as hard as you might expect from that.
The fact that the composite layer is next to the Core plus the slighty larger head size resulting in a very pleasant feel and direct response with nearly no Vibration.

The larger head in combination with only 5.6-5.9mm thickness allows great dwell time which makes it very easy to put spin on the Ball in general.
I have no problems to vary the ratio of Speed and Spin, so i would say it is easy to 'choose or change gears' and bring versatility and change of pace and rhythm
into your game. I recommend this Blade for all versatile attackers who are aiming for great feeling, awesome control, high speed and spin, all at the same time.
This Blade does it all.

I bought the A40+ and have played a couple of hours with it. This ball should be manufactured for Butterfly by DHS, its plays almost exactly the same as the DHS D40+. On a drop test from the same height when comparing the A40+ to the D40+, the first couple of bounces are almost indentical. But the Dhs stops bouncing earlier while you may get 1 or 2 more bounces from the A40+. While in play the A40+ feels a tad lighter but if you mixed up the balls, you may not even know the difference. I suspect that Dhs adjusted the specifications for Butterfly to make the ball feel a tad lighter and have a bit more spin. Overall the A40+ is a very good ball, its pretty much a rebranded Dhs D40+.

- this is a very under rated beginenr's rubber although the characteristics of this rubber is even good enough for advanced and intermediate level of players. Speed is OFF-, it is slightly faster than the Yasaka Mark V but it has the classic feel of Japanese rubbers in older times. The Vega Intro is a user friendly rubber to develop strokes. The rubber is not too fast but it offers high level of control. The topsheet is very grippy and is spinnier than Mark V or Sriver EL. Beginners can use the 2.0 version of the Intro and intermediate players can use the max version with no difficulty.

- 66 grams uncut
- medium to medium soft
- off+
The Rhyzer 43 is a toned down version of the Rhyzer 48. It is labeled as 43 degrees but the total hardness with the sponge seems to be medium and sometimes even harder than the usual 45 degree rubbers that I have tried like the Joola s Maxxx 450, Rakza 7 or Adidas P7. With the Rhyzer 43, at tleast you could feel the softer topsheet compared to the Rhyzer 48 rubber which has an overall hard feeling. What I like about the Rhyzer 43 is that it easier to use than the 48 version. In my case, I choose to place it in a slower blade like the Xiom Feel Ax because when I placed it with the Rhyzer 48 in the Pro Spin Power blade, the Rhyzer 43 still goes off the table easily. So I placed it with in a slower blade which is the Feel AX and then the magical moment happened. The rubber is very good and the speed is more than enough even with a slower blade. The Rhyzer 43 is still very fast and the speed is equal to that of the MX-P. If people are looking for a substitute of the Adidas P7 then this rubber will suffice. It has the control and feel of the P7 but the speed and spin is marginally bigger. The topsheet is very grippy like the 48 version but the softer sponge allowas the ball to sink into the sponge easier. The rubber is very bouncy that it is easy to slap and drive low flying balls. At least the Rhyzer 43 is a little bit controllable compared to the 48 degree version. Nevertheless, the 48 and 43 Rhyzers are excellent both as forehand and backhand rubbers.I am currently using the Rhyzer 43 as my forehand rubber in one of my rackets because the 48 is not just for my level.