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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.

The Joola Rhyzer 48 is hands down the fastest ESN rubber in the market right now. I have tested it bought with a not-so-known Pro Spin Power blade which is an off+ balsa-carbon blade and the Xiom Feel Ax which is a softer Viscaria blade. People have asked me to compare this with the Xiom Omega VII Pro and there is quite a big difference and in my opinion they are in a different class. I think the upcoming Omega VII Tour should be the equivalent of the Rhyzer 48 and not the Pro version because they feel really different and the VII Pro is marginally softer and lighter. The Rhyzer 48 being 68-69 grams uncut and the Omega VII Pro being 65-66 grams uncut. The Rhyzer 48 is medium hard. It feels a lot firmer than Omega VII Pro. Even the topsheet of the Rhyzer 48 is not as soft as the VII Pro.
The Rhyzer 48 is a beast waiting to be tamed. I think it is not for the untrained. The speed is ridiculously fast. I would boldly rate it as faster than the MX-P rubber. I have used the MX-P on a similar blade with balsa-carbon composition but the at least the MX-P is controllable. The Rhyzer on a very fast carbon blade just goes off the table with a long and high trajectory. I would think maybe because of the trend today of not using blades that are too fast, the Rhyzer is enough to use that you will not lack the speed or power that you need in your shots even if you will just use it on an all+ blade. It should be paired with an all wood blade or if you choose to have a composite blade then the speed of the blade should not exceed that of the Viscaria or Timo Boll ALC blade. Its speed should rival Bryce Speed or even faster by a few notches. The good side is, if you have the training or the skill, the Rhyzer48 is a powerful rubber to use. If I compare it to the the Rhyzm 48 before, the Rhyzm 48 is a mild version with lesser amount of spin. When you are in the receiving end of the Rhyzer 48, you could feel how heavy and spinny the balls are when somebody is using it against you. The very long trajectory of the Rhyzer 48 ensures you that even at 4 meters away from the table, yours shots will not fall short. Also, at close to the table distance, very short swings will handle the ball more than enough to attack it with good amount of speed.
If in terms of spin , the potential level of Rhyzer 48 is much higher than any other rubber in the market with the exception of maybe Tenergy 05 but the level of spin between the 2 seem to be very minute. The ESN rubbers, over the years, have been inching closer to Tenergy in terms of spin. Speed is not a problem for ESn rubber as a lot of ESN rubbers are faster than Tenergy 05 but it is the rubbers grip towards the ball that ESN rubbers are trying to catch up to and I think with Rhyzer, the topsheet’s grip can compete with T05 and give it a run for its money. If you compare it to Xiom Omega VII Pro, the O7P is easier to produce spin probably because the sponge is softer and the rubber is easier to use but the Rhyzer if used correctly can have a higher level of spin. I would wait for the Omega VII Tour to fully compare rubbers in terms of spin and speed.
The Rhyzer is an excellent offensive rubber that does not need an off+ blade to be used. In fact, it needs a slower blade to be fully utilized by players like me who are not pros or not on elite level of playing style. In my opinion, this will be the hot selling rubber early 2018 unless newer and better rubbers will come out later this year.

Before I start, this is my first time doing a review so I'm not very good. When I tested this blade I was using H3P blue sponge in 39 degrees and 2.2 mm thick on forehand and Rozena in 1.9mm thickness on backhand. Also I am a Cpen player. And finally, I do not have the weight of my blade sorry.

So, after 1-2 hours of testing, I found this as an truly amazing blade. First of all, this is a very affordable blade and great for its price. Secondly,there was no difficulties at all switching from an all wood blade to this. That is because of its structure, It has the same construction as a Long5 blade except for the fact that the ALC layer is thinner and the top ply is koto instead of limba. So on soft shots it has the great feeling of a wood blade with a little less dwell time and on medium/hard shots, has the crisp feeling of Carbon. None of my shots went out of the table because of this switch. The sweetspot by the way, is pretty big kind of like the carbonado 190 but overall a little smaller.

This blade is stiff but not so much as to other ALC blades. On topspins I barely found any difference between this and my old blade( however, part of that is maybe due to the fact that I haven't had that much experience with equipment). On topspin against backspin, it was really smooth and I had no difficulties doing it. When flicking, because you do not use as much power as your other shots, you are basically only flicking with the two outer wood layers and that actually helps a lot, because it gives more dwell time. Block was great and counter hitting is the best part. Because of the sheer speed of your blade combined with the power from your opponent, the return is very fast and still has quite some spin in it. On hard shots, you can feel the vibrations pass through just like a wood blade. It offers a lot of control along with spin and speed. This blade also has many gears unlike some other composite blades when the ball just shoots out immediately.

SO, on with the negative part of this blade. When I opened the package, a part of the side of the blade has a crack in it. It doesn't affect the game much but just looks bad. And later when I was walking to get some water I accidentally banged it on a chair and a bit of the blade chipped off. This blade definitely is not that durable but we kind of have to forgive DHS for that because of the price. If you do not want this to happen you can actually purchase a national version of this blade and from what I've heard the quality just skyrockets and the performance improves too. I personally suggest this blade to someone who is still improving their techniques and was using an all wood blade.

I like this rubber but then main cons for me its weight. I have 3 rubbers with 38 and 39 hardness. all 3 rubbers weight between 50 to 54g cut to regular size shakehand blade
it very fast. faster then T05. very durable. after many hours of play and moving between different blades it still looks like brand new

Hi All!

I tried some chinese FH rubbers and Sanwei Target National was my choice. The box looks great and simple, the initial squishing of the rubber felt good. But despite that I gave it some booster to get it more lively.

Due to the sticky nature of the rubber I had to adjust a lot. But the loops were very accurate from the start. Also, all of my hits were slow on an OFF-/OFF blade.
When I tried to hit hard I felt this spongy behaviour, which I did not like. On full swing strokes ESN rubbers are faster.

I would prefer BigDipper instead.

Hi guys/girls!

I thought to myself to test a chinese FH rubber just for fun. So to my friends advise I chose the 40 degree BigDipper instead of the 39 and boosted it right before gluing. I removed the factory glue and used Revolution Nr. 3 WBG.

My initial impressions were mixed but good. The sound of the setup was very loud and clappy. Like the ball was broken, or the entire blade was broken. The rubber is a fast rubber with no catapult compared to an ESN rubber. At normal tempo the speed is identical. At high end shots the rubber is fast, faster, than an MX-P. Control wise, first I made some adjustments with the drives and counterdrives. But my loops were always there where I wanted them, and they were even faster. Because of my technique I had to impart more brushing, but It did not matter. My opening loops were fast but had less spin, but my finishing loops were monsters with lightning speed and terrifying spin. All my balls bounced flat. I noticed that my game became more flat hit oriented, due to the shear speed. The rubber surface is not so sticky, it grabs the ball well. After 20 hours it looks like brand new. I clean it every time.

But I had to put it down because I am not strong enough for this rubber, my opening loops needed more power and brushing. So while I tried the Yinhe Moon and said that is an absolute beginners rubber, these are very good professional rubbers, that can do anything. But I'm an euro/jap looping player so my "old" Bluestorm Z2 serves me better.

For $16 this is a no brainer. Way better than MX-S.

I bought my first TBALC in 2009 after I played with Primorac Carbon and Schlager Carbon, played with TB ALC until mid 2011, moved to Sardius, Gergely, and stick with M.Maze ALC in the end of 2011 until 2016. Come Back to TB ALC in mid 2015, 2016 changed with TB ZLC and Viscaria.. and in 2017 ended up with only TB ALC. It is the Third TB ALC I bought, it has quite consistent production through the years, mine now with that pearl at the back handle (The two Previous were the original kind of shield emblem / plate).

I have put a lot of different kinds of rubbers onto this blade for FH and BH, surpisingly it always have good speed, good spin. My Best Setup for this are T05, T80, Evolution ELS and FXS.. those are the best rubbers for this blade in my opinion and trials. Not too heavy and balanced weight with these rubbers.

Chinese Rubbers like Hurricane 350, 8 are good with Forehand but it needs more power and stamina to play.. Chinese rubbers fits better with M.Maze ALC in my opinion, felt softer.

Very good in attacking with loop from both wings, close, and mid distance from table, great in blocking passive or even active, the ball lands short or deep table depends on the opponents attack and my hand. Good also for lobbing from far from table.

The balance of speed and spin TB ALC produced during my shots are my favorite compared to other Butterfly Blades I have owned and used.

TB ZLC has more speed and power but great control with higher throw angle, this suits for mid-far from table loop and Chinese Rubbers are suitable for it. My position mostly close to the table so TB ALC fits better.
Viscaria has a bigger handle, and more weight in the handle. Has quicker rebound, so it is fast but not that spinny, worked well with Bryce Highspeed.

TB ALC is not too fast and hard as Tamca Sardius, Gergely, Primorac..

This is good in serving and receiving for short balls.

I will suggest it for players for has good transitions for attack and defence, play close to mid distance, focus on spin, prefer to hit the ball when it drops to the net or table height with this blade, it has great arc and lands near the lines..

So, try it out

2020 Updates:
I use it with Dignics 05 for FH and Tenergy 80 For BH. I loveee this setup.. more psinn, more accurate..

Blade: Butterfly Timo Boll ALC
Weight: 88g
Thickness: 5.8mm
Type: Carbon OFF
Composition: 7 ply (Koto, ALC, Limba, Kiri, Limba, ALC, Koto)
Rubbers used with the blade: Tenergy 05

Hi guys, it’s Dan here from TableTennisDaily. Finally, after years of waiting and thousands of requests we are reviewing The Butterfly Timo Boll ALC, with none other than the legend himself Timo Boll. In November we were lucky enough to visit Borussia Dusseldorf to film the review using their unbelievable facility, where Timo Boll trains and represents his club in the German Bundesliga.



Written Review

Sweetspot and Control

The Timo Boll ALC is one of Butterfly’s flagship carbon blades and you can instantly feel the large crisp sweet spot on contact which helps to produce a very stable medium to high throw angle when playing topspins. I like this a lot about the Timo Boll ALC the feeling and sweetspot is crisp.

The amazing stand out quality of the Boll ALC is the sheer amount of spin it gives you on both your forehand and backhand. This is due to a large sweet spot, that offers incredible dwell time and feeling when you contact the ball.

Although the dwell is fantastic, the blade is still relatively hard which allows for powerful shots which work very well away from the table. Another great attribute about the Boll ALC is that it's so easy to control at high speeds.


Speed

Because the Boll ALC is very responsive you need to have good timing in order to make use of its full effects. However if you do time the ball correctly it is almost effortless to produce high amounts of speed, spin and control. I personally love the amounts of speed the Boll ALC gave me as for me, it's the right amount of speed where it's easy to play outright winners, without being so fast that it requires massive amounts of precision, like with the super ZLC series. In a sense the Boll ALC does a lot of the work for you, which gives you confidence in your strokes.


Spin

The Boll ALC excels when opening up against backspin, The dwell time and throw angle the blade produces is optimised for this type of shot.
The blade not only allows you to open up well but also lets you play hard on the follow up ball. The blade also has many gears which allows you to vary your spin and speed effortlessly when playing topspins.

Timo was getting some serious amount of spin and depth in his shots against my backspin. I have to say I struggled at times with blocking his shots, but I mainly put this down to the difficulty of playing against Timo. As you may be able to tell in the video above he really didn’t go easy on me. I think if I had a slower blade with softer rubbers I would have been able to control slightly easier, but having said that the Boll ALC, for an offensive carbon blade, still has a lot of control.


Counter Topspin

The Boll ALC is superb for countering, the hard outer koto layer helps to direct the ball quick. Sometimes the ball can fly out as like most carbon blades they are fast, the Boll has good stability in this area.


Serving and Flicks

The Boll ALC is great for generating spin whilst serving, as it gives you good feeling. However, due to the fact it is a fast blade, if you do not time the ball correctly it can drift long, giving your opponent the chance to capitalise on your mistake.

The crispness of the Boll ALC really helps when playing flicks and long digs, as the ball really bites into the blades surface. This also gives you the ability to really direct where you want the ball to go.


Away from the table

As mentioned previously the Boll ALC is superb when playing from mid distance to away from the table. The combination of arylate carbon and the harder wood outer plys gives you high end speed but enough flex to produce high arc which results in great depth. Landing the ball deep on the table being a key element when competing in top to top rallies.


Conclusion

A huge thanks to Timo Boll for his time to review his own personal blade, it really was an honour, and also to Borussia Dusseldorf for letting them use their incredible facility. And finally a thanks to Butterfly for providing us with the equipment to review.

The Boll ALC has an incredible balance of spin, speed and control. Butterfly and Timo have found a fantastic ratio for a carbon blade and it really goes to show why this blade is so widely used. It’s dwell and crisp feeling allows for superb stability in your strokes. This blades X factor is that its fast, but very controllable. That’s what I really like about the Boll ALC. This control is due to the blade ability in allowing you to produce vast amounts of spin making the ball dip quickly after it reaches your opponent's side of the table. Although this blade is quick, It’s not as fast as an OFF+ carbon blade like a primorac carbon or the Garaydia ZLC but is still a touch faster than an Innerforce or the Apolonia ZLC.

This Boll ALC is definitely not recommended for beginners as it would be too responsive. However a player who has developed efficient strokes and is on the intermediate to advanced spectrum would benefit most from this blade, especially if carbon blades are your thing.

I completely agree with ControlledSpin's review. I am a two-winged penholder with a USATT rating of 1650, and I was using the Tenergy 05 on my backhand. With the Tenergy 05, I could not commit to a full backhand proper stroke because the rubber was too bouncy and hard to control. With the GoldArc 8 (47.5 hardness), I feel more confident with my backhand loops. I recommend this rubber if you feel that the Tenergy 05 is too hard to control for you. If you are comfortable with the Tenergy 05, I think you should stay with it because it is faster and has more spin.

I'm using a Joola Aruna Off blade and have this rubber on both sides. The rubber I had before was Hexer Duro and I feel that this is both faster but has better touch?? My touch and control game have dramatically improved. I think that these rubbers are a lot more forgiving of variation and spin. While I feel like I get enough spin, I think I got more out of my Hexer Duro's. I think these rubbers keep the ball on the table more and I can add more variation to my spin because of the forgiving nature. I tried the 47 and I felt that they were even faster and I wanted more spin. I am very pleased with this rubber and will most definitely be using it for a while. Also, a point I should make, I play in a German league that still uses Celluloid balls. This could be a large reason why it's not as effective. These rubbers are designed with the plastic ball in mind.