Latest reviews

Hello everyone! I've just purchased a couple of Xiom Vegas: Asia DF and Europe DF, both have "max" thickness. After a couple of Butterfly Flextras (2.0mm) these feel really fast! It's like there are lots of little springs in there instead of sponge
Very grippy surface, very springy sponge - these rubbers are NOT for beginners. You MUST play with it making topspin after topspin after topspin, the rubber seems to be not suted for simple pushing (the ball goes way too strong and far at first). But all of these feelings may be just because of my beginner's manner of playing. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Europe DF should be fine. Asia DF is faster and harder to get used to.
Speed: 7.5 - maybe more, maybe less, Idk. Europe DF is certainly faster than my old Flextras.
Spin: 8 - the new rubber always gives more spin than when it gets older. I have little experience to judge but in comparison with Butterfly Flextra 2.0mm Europe DF gives more speed as well as Asia DF.
Control: 7 - maybe I consider "control" to be different thing but to my mind the ability to play some blocking defence with this rubber is poor. But to be fair I haven't got used to it yet so I may misjudge it.
Durability - Idk. Let's make it "7.5" for now.
When I get used to it I will write something more.

Hello everyone! I've just purchased a couple of Xiom Vegas: Asia DF and Europe DF, both have "max" thickness. After a couple of Butterfly Flextras (2.0mm) these feel really fast! Especially Asia DF - it's like there are lots of little springs in there instead of sponge
Very grippy surface, very springy sponge - these rubbers are NOT for beginners. You MUST play with it making topspin after topspin after topspin, the rubber is not suted for simple pushing (the ball goes way too strong and far). Also it seemed to me like it's not easy to play short. But all of these feelings may be just because of my beginner's manner of playing.
Speed: 8 - maybe more, maybe less, Idk, but it seems to give a lot of speed (Asia especially). Many people say it's like OFF-.
Spin: 7.5 - the new rubber always gives more spin than when it gets older. I have little experience to judge but in comparison with Butterfly Flextra 2.0mm Asia DF gives more speed as well as Europe DF.
Control: 6.5 - maybe I consider "control" to be different thing but to my mind the ability to play some blocking defence with this rubber is poor. But to be fair I haven't got used to it yet so I may misjudge it.
Durability - Idk. Let's make it "7.5" for now.
When I get used to it I will write something more.

The weight of my carbonado 145 is 98gr. from [h=3]schoeler-micke.tabletennis-shop.de[/h]

Hi All!

I have been waiting for ages to try this blade. I also would like to tell you, that I only used this blade with T64 and EL-P for 3 hours, so this is not my final opinion, I will update the post!

The box was redesigned and it look nice. The blade is a fine craftmanship, sanded down edges, even butterfly does not sand down the edges of the blade. The handle is a chinese style hangle, no matter which type you choose, it will be small. Even smaller than the ZJK or Shiwen blade, but it is comfortable for me. The surface of the blade is totally flat, the veeners of the blade have even thickness all across the whole body. The design of the blade is solid, but great. The shape of the head is waterdrop shaped, so the upper part is a bit narrower, than the regular Butterfly shape, lenght is the same 158-159 mm. The blade is head heavy, which I personally prefer. The composite layers in the blade are next to the kiri core, dark grey in colour. Texalium is a glass fiber, which is covered with a very thin layer of aluminium, and the grey colour is because of additional graphite colouring. This material is weaker than the regular carbon and resonates more. Middle layer of the blade is ayous/samba/abachi, which is nice. Top veener is kiso-hinoki (200 years old), which is perfectly sanded, no visible pores or uneven surfaces, where you glue would stick in.

So the blade was designed to loop, but also have a bit more power. It is marked OFF-/OFF by the manufacturer, which I think is reasonable. This blade resonates, which gives the optimal feedback from the contact of the ball. The blade is predictable in every situation. Sweet spot is suprisingly large, I would say that the 1,5 cm margain of the head is not usable. When looping the arc of the ball is med/low, but this I will try with other rubbers. Also the feeling of the loop is very pleasant, no resonations. On direct flat hits the blade resonates on low tempo, but this resonance fades when hitting harder. Some say there is no spin in this blade, which I would not support. With the rubbers mentioned above I was able to produce very spinny balls, more spinnier, than a Liu Shiwen blade. This was also tested and confirmed by my girlfriend, who also tested it, and currently uses a Liu Shiwen blade with the same setup. The arc of the loop is less pronounced, but the spin is there with both rubbers, very aggressive and very flat loops. I did like dropshots due to the heavier head and the rubbers.

Today I go to thest this setup a bit more and then I will glue MXP and M2 on it (my fav. setup) to see what this blade does with higher throw rubbers.

At this point I would recommend this blade to allwood blade lovers who want speed and control around 80-85 grams. This is a controlled to aggressive looper blade which has the power for smashing. To be honest it definetly feels like Jun Mizutani ZLC, with a bit more power and better feeling in flat contacts.

Really good wood blade. Pairs well with tenergy 05. Good dwell, spin, control and speed

My Thought process:
Planning on buying Graydia ZLC
but it is too fast for me
i thought i can slow it down with a def rubber

I thought i could compensate it with an Off Blade
but i was wrong i was dead wrong.
Blade used: Ross Leidy Custom Off Blade

Here is a quick summary(All my honest opinions about the rubber):


Loop: Slow spiny loops are achievable. it is quite low throw rubber. Spiny low topspins

Drive: Forget about long distance. Forget about Short Distance as well. it is too slow. Drives were easily countered.
rally to rally it is like your giving out (example only) 50 kph while your opponent returns 100 kph since im only handing out 50 kph, it can easily be countered

Flicks: It is easy to flick(Banana flick as well) but its slow

Blocks: Give it a bit of punch so that it goes back to your opponents side.

Chops: It is where this rubber truly shines( Well it is a Def Rubber Lol). Opponents are having a hard time lifting the backspin. Chop Blocks are easy and heavy as well. Most Fast Balls can be chopped Back, Short or Long.

well thats all folks.

Not having too much reference, these are all observations not based on any valid comparison. This is my backhand rubber. I use the blue sponge variant on my forehand, which aside from a little more speed, is mostly the same in performance. There are more differences but I just can't feel them.

The best things about this rubber are that although the tackiness will wear out without extensive care, the topsheet and sponge will stay very much so playable for at least three months or more. It's easy to use in the short game and the better your technique and higher the spin, the easier it seems to control. I'm not too sure how it stacks up to other rubber in terms of serve spin, but serves are easy to control overall.

Blocking is easy, as long as you angle the racket down appropriately and block actively, because I feel it's a bit spin sensitive for a beginner's rubber. However that has been good for technique development. The rubber responds well to more racket head speed and gives good feedback on how well you're hitting.

Control overall is good and it easily allows for stronger shots even with a beginner's skill level. It's also very cheap.

My only gripe with the rubber's performance is that especially on the backhand, you need to be very active to produce faster shots and it's easy to spin shots into the net if you play too slow. However I feel that every time I've netted the ball due to slow speed has been a technique issue, not a rubber issue. From a beginner's standpoint this is good but I think for competition you would want something more forgiving.

Overall I've been satisfied with my purchase.

If you are looking for a harder rubber spend a bit more money and buy tenergy. It's ok but I wouldn't recommend it.

Normally I don't like Stiga rubbers and found the airoc to be disappointing however it finally looks like stiga have come up with a very good offensive rubber. It's not as fast as tenergy 05/64 and just a tad less spinny but I find it to have more control. I really like blocking with this rubber as it soaks incoming spin up well. I'd definitely recommend it for players that find tenergy slightly too fast and want a bit more control without compromising on spin any great deal. Overall a great product from stiga I just hope they continue producing rubbers like this instead of the pretty poor airoc and Calibra tour series.

I really won't recommend these balls because they are everything you don't want (except if you're really strange)
they take no spin, they bounce randomly, they are really slow.
conclusion:
go find something else, save your money

Hello ALL!

I was interested in this rubber since I saw some video test of it on Youtube and also played with TinArc3, 2-3 years ago. Now thanks to a discount I could get a sheet for €13. Te other reason was, that nowdays Evolution P and S series came out with a more robust topsheet, and I liked MX-P, MX-S. To be honest Tinarc3 was a mix of those two with a bit less power. I predicted Tinarc to be a bit stiffer and more of a chinese feel, but sort of euroean hibrid rubber, but still mailny a chinese sheet.



Packaging is simple, the graphics are fine, the text is well done by google translate. The sheet is covered with a protective film. The paper box is in a resealable plastic, which is nice. There is slight curve to the sheet, unfortunately the rubber is on the upper side of the dome. Smell is definetly chinese burned rubber odour. Package clearly instructs not to smell... did it anyway. Sponge is hard a bit more elastic than standard brick hard chinese sponges, there are pores inside, faint yellow colour. Topsheet is protected with an adhesive foil, design is the usual. Surface is shiny tacky. Can lift the ball, but can not hold it. So I can throw the ball up to 0,5 meter from the table. Bluefire M throws the ball 0,2 meter when out of the package. My sheet was black, max thickness, weighing 63 g uncut.





Because my friend ordered one in red, which he intended to use as is, I boosted my black sheet just a little. So I added enough oil to streighten it out, nothing more, but for shure I can tell you the rubber could intake a lot more, because the oil was soaked immediately. My racket for this rubber was my spare, a Yinhe/Galaxy Venus 14 (TBS clone).

Counterhits
First few hits went into the net. No problem. Overall throw was lowish on slow motion shots. When applying more force the rubber comes to life, making all the balls fly low over the net, but the feeling of contact is reassuring. Stepping away from the table to do some longer strokes the balls find the other side of the table. Control is noticable immediatelly, but speed also. The topsheet feels a bit rigid chinese style, but not that an intermediate can't handle immediately. So from far away there was no bottoming out, with M2 and EL-P, you may feel the knock on the wood, but not with this rubber. So after a short excercises and flat hits you recognise, that there is absolutely no catapult effect on the rubber, but there is power in the sponge, you just have to ask for it. Contact time is generally good.

Smashing
Due to the tacky surface, there is no need to loopdrive balls, simply smash them, the rubber will grab the ball. Speed is sufficient, aiming is fully predictable.

Looping
So this is where I came in because I consider myself a looper. Loop mechanics have to be adjusted. In case of normal looping the ball has to be a bit lower, to get the desired effect. This was not really a problem, the arc of the ball is medium, medium-low. The rubber is very consistent but in this case a bit more lifting is needed to engane the sponge. On opening loops, the traditional chinese brush loop is finely executable with decent spin on the ball. European style loops are harder to execute, because you have to engage the sponge and in some cases you may not have sufficient space and time to do that move. Counterlooping heavy spin or no spin balls are a breeze. Topshhet grabs the ball, the sponge kicks it out, I hav to experiment with the angles and the line of the stroke. As far as I see, a bit more linear, then curved blade trajectory will give the most spin and speed when countering, which is nice, because it requires a less polished technique to execute. On the other hand, you can just simply smash that ball. With a non catapult rubber you have to engage the sponge if you want a decent spin with speed or else you must brush fast. As an european style player who is always there to loop the ball when it comes, I did not find this rubber hard to handle, it even teaches and demands the right force to be applied in a shot.

Dropshots
Low trajectory. Even heavy spin balls can be tossed back, but if you are experienced you can kill every shot with it. Because of the lack of the catapult every ball can be placed short, heavy shots can be blocked back down the line. It really give the control back in your hand.

Over the table
When serving, I mostly used the topsheet and was not disappointed by the spin I generated. Somewhere near MX-P, but the sponge won't kick the ball long. On serve recieve it was relaxing to push the ball very short and low. Flipping was not demanding, but required a bit more forward momentum. Slow motion heavy spin over the table openings can be done with this rubber.

Chopping
Hey man this rubber works fine . Like a defender, just have to take the swing early, and a monster underspin will be the result. Have done some fun chops, but I am no defender.

Overall
This rubber is a mirror. It will show you how much you worth, it will only give you power if you ask it with correct technique. It is a nice blend of Euro and Chinese style more to the latter. I tried it with and without boosting and I must say it behaves linear. Boosting gives more softness and more elastic power and base tempo to the soft, maybe later I will try to soften the topsheet with some oil too and give a nice boost to the sponge. Many advanced players use it boosted, because it can be fast when you want and it can be slow too. When dry it is not a fast rubber, on normal stroke it is similar to an M3 or S3 on my scale is around 7,5-8, but when you hit with power the rubber will not bottom out and transfers it to the ball. So yes I could hit off the table and loop long balls with this with 70% and with full power also.

The playing style of this rubber is an aggressive allround, where you can manipulate the ball as you wish, but you intend to smash it or loop it when you can. I personaly don't feel that an opening loop is a killer with this, maybe a high spin loop, that comes back for a finishing hit. When boosted it is an offensive rubber. For normal price I would not buy this rubber, Acuda and Baracuda is at the same price range in my country.



If boosted use any ALL+ blade, preferrably nearly stiff or speed elastic. If unboosted use at least an OFF- stiff or speed elastic blade.

I played for a year with my MX-P, 2.0.
I used on FH around 3 month, but then on BH.
What's the best about this rubber, is it's speed and spin potential. I will compare it to Tenergy series. Speedwise it's around the T64, but it behaves differently. On strong loops throw angle is higher than T64, but lower than T05. On slow loops Tenergys perform better, I think due to the softer topsheet. On stronger shots it's sponge kicks the ball like spring sponge, but it is more linear than T series. Easier to make punch-shots. In general, performance of MX-P is very similar to Tenergy. It's a very good substitution, as it's much cheaper. BUT, it requires good skills. It feels very hard and due it's speed - hard to control. Tenergy is much more easy to use. MX-P lacks the feel, that's it.
Playing elements compared to T64 and T05:
Slow opening loop: T05>T64>MX-P
Strong opening loop (FH): MX-P>T05>T64 MX-P is faster than T05 and somehow I didn't liked the T64 in this case.
Strong opening loop (BH): T64>MX-P I didn't used T05 on BH side enough to speak about.
Short push and drop-shot: MX-P>T05=T64 Tackiness really helps there.
Long push: T64>=T05=MX-P With T64 easier to vary the spin, but maybe that's just my memory.
BH flick (fast, long): T64>MX-P T64 really shines here.
BH flick (short, slower): MX-P=T64
FH flip-kill: MX-P>T64=T05 Hardness, speed and slight tackiness makes MX-P perfect for this shot.
BH flip-kill: T64>MX-P
Counterloop (FH/BH) close to mid range: T05=T64>MX-P With MX-P easier to miss the table than T05. T64 generates lower arc than both, but still easy to land it on the table.
Counterloop (FH) long range: MX-P>=T64>=T05: Faster rubbers are better at long range.
Counterloop (BH) mid to long range: T64>>MX-P Think to the BH loops of ZJK and Zhou Yu! T64 is the best in this, even commercial version.
Passive block (BH): T64>MX-P
Active block: T64=MX-P
Smash: MX-P<=T64=T05 There isn't too much difference.

I first had this rubber and I couldn't control it easily and it took some time this rubber is really good as a backhand rubber but aside from that thats the only thing good with it

Tibhar Evolution MX-P
Weight: 73 grams uncut, 49 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 45.7°
Hardness: Medium
Speed: High
Spin: Medium
Blade used: Tibhar Stratus Carbon blade


Written Review

After many requests from users on the TableTennisDaily website, we have teamed up with TableTennis11.com to review Tibhar’s most popular rubber series.

Initial inspection

The Evolution rubber is ESN based and has a firm glossy topsheet. What's interesting about the Evolution series is that the rubbers all have a strong smell which is evident right out the packaging. Other rubbers do not seem to possess this same strong glue smell.

The rubbers vary in sponge hardness with the FX-P being the softest in the range coming in at 41.1 degrees. The El-P has a sponge hardness of 42.4 degrees. The Evolution MX-P has a sponge hardness of 45.7 degrees. and finally the MX-S which is the hardest rubber in the series with a sponge hardness of 46.3 degrees.

The rubbers have slight variations in weight. Uncut The FX-P weighs 68 grams and cut 47 grams, the EL-P uncut weighs 72 grams and cut weighs 50 grams, the MX-P uncut weighs 73 grams and cut 49 grams and the MX-S uncut weighs 75 grams and cut weighs 51 grams.

I used the Tibhar Samsonov Stratus Carbon blade throughout the review whilst Tom used this and his regular bat, switching between the two setups to get a better understanding of how the evolution rubber series performs.

Topspins

We started out with the MX-P which is widely regarded as the most popular rubber in the series and has been highly praised by the table tennis tennis community, and you can tell why almost immediately. The rubber feels alive and you get a loud clicking sound on contact. Another quality that becomes apparent as soon as you start using the MX-P is the sheer amount of speed it produces. The strong catapult effect propels the plastic ball with minimal effort.

Although the speed is impressive with the MX-P we did sometimes find that the ball would fly out long due to just how fast it was, so you need good control and feeling to use this rubber to full effect. This rubber is also very responsive to incoming speed and spin and we both made a fair amount of mistakes initially before we got used to it.

Spin

When opening up against backspin using my backhand, for example, I felt I had a lot of grip and a fair amount of dwell for such a fast offensive rubber. Again sometimes due to the high speed of the MXP, my 3rd and 5th ball attacks went just off the end of the table so I had to close my bat angle to adjust and maintain consistency.

We both really liked the MX-P on the forehand side when trying to lift backspin and were both able to produce great amounts spin when playing aggressively. As this is a rubber for advanced players those with sufficient technique will be able to use this speed and spin to full effect.

Flicks

In the serve and receive game the MX-P worked exceptionally when playing a backhand flick. The evolution rubber gripped the ball well and, combined with its speed excelled in this area. I found that I could follow up with an effective backhand punch shot which, in general, is very effective with the entire evolution range.

Counters

Due to the crisp, clean feel and contact, countering with this rubber was fantastic. With little effort we were both able to produce consistent and effective counter topspins.

We also found that from mid distance and away from the table the MXP’s speed allowed us to impart strong shots.

Conclusion

Tibhar’s flagship evolution rubbers are superb, and have a range of different characteristics to suit different players needs. We found all the rubbers have a good spring, responsive feel, but all differ in terms of sponge hardness, speed and spin.

I personally preferred the MXP on my forehand and the MXS on my backhand. I felt I was able to control and handle the speed. This speed allowed me to pressure Tom in match play. For strong attacking players the MXP would be of a good choice as the hard sponge propels the ball forward with its extreme catapult effect with great spin. Players who take a bit more time in their shots and want control and dwell over speed would prefer the FXP or the ELP.

Alternatively players who struggle for speed and want that extra bit of kick in their forehand the MXP would be of a good choice of rubber. Players who want something a touch slower than the MXP but with more grip, slightly more spin and a harder sponge, the MXS would suit. The MXS is also slightly faster than the two softer evolution rubbers

The spin produced is not quite as much as a Tenergy 05 or a Chinese Hurricane rubber but easily effective enough to lift heavy backspin balls to put your opponent under pressure. Serving with all 4 variants of the evolution series did not give us any problems as the surface of the rubber grabbed the ball well producing good spin and gave us good precision and placement .

Tibhar Evolution MX-S
Weight: 75 grams uncut, 51 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 45.7°
Hardness: Medium/Hard
Speed: Medium/High
Spin: Medium/High
Blade used: Tibhar Stratus Carbon blade


The MXS is the hardest rubber of the 4 in the Evolution Series. You can see initially the ball flew of the table as we found it a little difficult after using the ELP and FXP which have much softer sponges.

I was a little skeptical about using the MXS rubber on the backhand side beforehand thinking the sponge would be to hard, however I was pleasantly surprised. The direct nature of the rubber gave me the accuracy I needed to play strong attacking strokes mixing up the direction of play with ease.

When playing against backspin the MXS gripped the ball very well and produced slightly more spin than the other rubbers in the series. The topsheet of the MXS seems to be tackier than all other evolution rubbers which helps create more spin. To produce significant spin with this rubber however requires a fast arm and body speed with efficient technique.

For more in depth information about the Evolution MS-S click here.

I think is one of the best blades that i used in my career. Have a lot of speed and control in the same time..

I think it's very good!

So i've used this rubber forehand and backhand on my first blade and recently when making up 5 blades for my dad and his friends from old pre-mades i used 10 sheets i aquired for £35 or 3.50 per sheet .
It is really good for forehand for a beginner as its slow, but unlike a lot of very cheap rubbers that come bundled with blade provided good spin when used with proper technique (i'm looking at you pan-Asia)
It is workable on backhand due to the controlled nature but again not optimal, really its an improvers fh rubber or a beginner rubber.
Looping: well i usually use H3 Neo or H3 50, and after using those for almost 2 years looping with 729fx was different, much slower so you have to adjust the stroke, but once adjusted it works fine, slow but fine.

Driving: really the best stroke with this rubber is driving, its more of a close to the table rubber. Not speedy but fast enough.

Serve: quite good really, it produced good spin and keeps low enough and controlled enough for good serve placement.

Blocking: hard, very hard compared to most rubbers, its spin sensitive like H3 Neo but slower so you have to actively block a lot more than usual. if youre coming from pan asia or any europian style rubber it will take some adjustment

Chopping: well it can do backspin well but its not IMO a chopping rubber as its too spin sensitive.

All in all get it if you're new or have no money, its similar to globe 999 but softer and slower and often cheaper. If you can afford H3 neo its better at every stroke and still slow enough for a beginner, but an excellent way into the sport.

Hi All!

I was happy to switch to this rubber on my FH and soon I will try it on my BH. I was searching for a nice FH rubber after trying Baracuda, M2, T05, MX-P, EL-P, JP01, MAXXX 500. Lastly I sticked with MX-P for a long time, but I found lack of control in countertopspins and some blocking. So I searched for something similar ESN rubber, then came up with the M1, because they have the same sponge hardness, a bit different pore size, but still very similar sponge. The only big difference is the topsheet, because M1 has a softer topsheet. In previous reviews I read that M1 is better in counterspinning. Since M2 is my all time favourite BH rubber and I played with it on FH in the last 2 months, I was finally convinced, that I need more power but keeping the same characterictics of the Bluefire M series. My blade is a Walnder World Champion '89 OFF FL with 92 gr weight.

They say a blade is responsible for 20% of the characterictics of the complete bat. So I must speak of the blade first just a few words, if you wish to learn more search my review on the blade section. Waldner WC '89 has an interesting soft feel to it making it possible to play a fine ALL+ tempo touch play when needed, but has the speed of an OFF blade. With M1 you can really sink the ball into the rubber and the sponge, which generates awsome spin besides the prolonged ball contact time.

Counterhits
During counterhits the rubber is quite linear, and very easy to control. The ball clearly engages the sponge and jumps off it with a decent speed. But the topsheet of the rubber does not kick the ball fast, it let's the ball sink towards the sponge, which gives time for error correction. Some people who are XIOM Omega and Butterfly Tenergy fans/users don't really like this kind of lack of catapult, despite the speed of the ball is the same. I think this feature helps less experienced players.

Smashes
This is where the rubber shines, fast and precise balls with a distinctive feel of the contact. Many players mentioned above complain about that, but the blue sponge transfers more vibrations, which comes in handy when using composite blades.

Looping and Counterlooping
If a rubber is a good hitter it is probably a shameful looper. I must say 'A-A', wrong! The rubber has a nice topsheet which is grippy and after some abrasion it is still grippy and lifts the ball high. Heavy underspin balls can be lifted with ease and huge spin. Due to the soft topsheet it does not matter if you do a slow or a fast topspin, rhe rubber will help. I can also confirm that this rubber is more stable when counterlooping or when powerlooping, than MX-P. Some times during these shots I often hit the ball into the net without any distictive feeling or feedback why my shot failed. The blue sponge gives the feedback way more clear then the red one. Speed of the loop is at the top end. The arc is maybe a bit less pronounced, but still high. I found that the bluefire sponge has some unique characteristics, which can be observed when looping:

1. The uneven pore size of the sponge gives an 'extra kick' feeling. Even when the rubber is worn or 'dead', so the booster evaporated, you can still get this kick, which always ensures you, that you applied enough force for the loop.

2. Arc of the ball is different, because it is not so symmetrical and dome shaped, like Tenergy 05. It's peak is more over the opponent's side, not over the net like Tenergy 05, but over the center of the opponents side or over the first third of the table. From that point the ball falls to the table with unpleasant speed and spin. Also the ball jumps off the table just like looping with any other professional rubbers. This forces them a bit more further or simply the miscalculate the ball as a long shot.

But still the rubber topsheet catapult is less pronounced, so it remains controllable, some don't like this, because they want explosive power.

Blocking these shots is just like a normal counterhit with the same circumstances like counterlooping with MX-P. I believe the feedback is stronger so I can adjust better.

Over the table
Short game is where this rubber can outshine catapult rubbers. There is plenty spin generaion in the rubber over the net, so small pushes will be loaded with underspin, and flicks will be easy to lift and spin also. Serving is funny, because you must have some developed technique and serves. I mostly use the topsheet only to generate spin, which I still find enough. With M2 I could engage the sponge also, but I am still able to do heavy and low underspin, that my opponent pushes into the net or it simply bounces 3 times on their side. I don't really do chops or chop blocks and this rubber is not really a defensive one.

Summary
The Bluefire M series (excluding Big Slam) is a very linear and easy to play rubber family if you consider their sponge hardness and playing capabilities. M1 is almost the fastest (M1 Turbo is a bit faster) rubber with the speed and spin capabilities of a modern offensive rubber. The Bluefire gives a bit more control and feel to the game, not to mention the sound of the sponge. Blade selection for the rubbers are wide, I found out that these rubbers can tolerate many types of materials. Cover layer of the blade should be medium hard to soft, Valnut covered Ovtcharov Senso Soft Carbon was playable but the looping was less pronounced, but smashes and hits worked fine. On Koto and Limba they were an offensive yet controllable miracle. On Hinoki and Spruce use M2 or M1 because these are soft woods and the blade will feel mushy, but the spin is awsome with more control. Most times I use Carbon, Arylate Carbon, Kevlar Carbon, Zylon Carbon blades, which do give more power to the shots and combine well with these rubbers. For me ALC blades with Tenergy 05 are a bit numb, can play with them effectively, but I miss the feeling. Well with the Bluefire I loved to play on ALC blades, because they had some feeling after all. Most times I use Kiri core ply looping blades, because you know... I loop. For advanced players ideal for both sides, thor intermediate players try it on FH first. Durability is at the top from my perspective, let me tell you why. I use Bluefire more than 4 years now and all I can say they are up for 200 hours of gameplay at least, mine Black M3 lasted 300 hours (incl training camps so I calculated the actual playing time). Some pro players who regulary have new sheets every 3 months can say that XX brand is better because most of them only wipe their rubbers with their hand and vapor from their breath. (I do this also during play). But at home I also apply rubber cleaner to remove dust, fat and oil from the surface. So it is easy to come to a conclusion if you see abrasion that the rubber is worn out, because the other brand does not look like that. I played with an MX-P for 3 years reboostering it from time to time, at the end it was like an FX-P with more power and still loops with tons of spin, but it looks like trash... I would say that is durability, performance over time! The M series is durable just like any other top brands. I use a sheet for a year, with 2-3 reglueing and 2 reboostering (to original size) to keep it at maximum performance. Black topsheet is harder, than the red one.

Price here is ~26€ so I will stick with it.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps.

Genius sound is the softer version of Tibhar Genius.
This rubber excels at control and spin. It can produce a great arc on topspin, and this what makes this rubber fun to play!
Compared to the normal Genius, it has less speed and more control (but feels a bit more spin sensitive).

Topspinning is easy and fun (high arc), but the rubber produces less dangerous balls than normal Genius due to lesser speed. With genius sound your shots become dangerous with better placement. (sharp angles, high arc, ... ).

Works well (for me) on FH on stiff blades and as BH on blades with more flex.

STIGA Genesis S Rubber
Weight: 66 grams uncut, 42.5 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 45°
Hardness: Medium
Speed: Medium
Spin: High
Blade used: STIGA Carbonado 90 and STIGA Infinity blade (Dan), STIGA Hybrid NCT Wood blade (Tom)


Written Review

Read the full written review of the Genesis here.

We found the soft version was slightly better when taking the ball late, helping pick up low balls with lots of rotation. The flight path of the ball that this rubber creates stays low, allowing for control even when going for maximum power. This helps in situations under pressure when you need to active block.

The soft version produces a loud clicky sound which me and tom both liked. It gives you confidence in your strokes and you can feel the ball sink into the sponge.