Latest reviews

Pros
  • Nice speed
  • Great feeling & control
  • Nice grip
Hi everyone,

I'd like to give my opinion about the softest version of Evolution rubber, Tibhar Evolution FX-P. I'm pretty curious to how this rubber perform since I've heard and seen many good reviews about this rubber, so I decided to buy one sheet from tt-shop on my neighborhood and start to replace my old Mark V rubber with Tibhar Evolution FX-P. The result of my experiment is like this :

Speed
The speed is not really shining, but i found that it's good enough for me to control the game. Tibhar Evolution FX-P offer almost the same speed of Mark V but with more catapult effect on it. I felt the rubber has a longer trajectory compared to Mark V rubber I used before.

Spin
The soft sponge help me to generate a lot of spin without too much effort either from close or mid distance. The amount of spin I can generate also increasing using this rubber. It's also very easy for me to do a very short spinny serve without too much brushing action. Thanks to great soft sponge.

Control
I think this rubber is very forgiving. One of my weakness is I'm really easy to get out of position. Using Tibhar Evolution FX-P I can return the ball with higher percentage event though I slightly mishit the ball. The amount of consistency also incredible and it's so fun to play with. Pushing & blocking also good because this rubber is not sensitive to incoming spin. I found that i can control the incoming spin from my opponent serve easier with this rubber.

To sum up, I think this is a very great rubber for someone who looking for a faster rubber with great control and spin. Very user friendly and suitable for both FH and BH side. A little by litte of my friends starts to change to this rubber because of it's extraordinary performance.
Speed
8
Spin
9.1
Durability
8
Control
8.2
Is one of the better plastic balls at the moment but still improvements to be made as it does break in half sometimes mid air, and is often quite wobbly as it is soft, will be interesting to see DHS bring out a better ball...hopefully soon!
Roundness
7
Hardness
5
Speed
6
Durability
3.1
Pros
  • Very Consistent
  • Easy to lift backspin
  • Speed & Spin balance
Cons
  • Not durable
  • Not for flat hitters
Very good looping rubber and I'm really happy using it. I can loop all backspin easily. DHS H3 Neo is a very good rubber to produce a very consistent forehand topspin. It's tacky surface helps me in getting a better control. Recommended for advanced players who really seeking balance in speed and spin. But one of the downside of this rubber is it cannot generate the speed by itself. I need to produce the speed with of own body and it takes a lot of physical efforts to do that. I think this rubber is good for a topspin offensive player with strong physical capability. I don't recommend this rubber if you like to smash the ball flat because of its tacky surface, flat hitters will struggle to adjust their stroke.
Speed
8.1
Spin
9.5
Durability
7
Control
8.6
Pros
  • Balance in speed & control
  • Cheap price for such quality
  • Large sweet spot
Cons
  • Thin layer
Hi everyone,

In this review, I will review my first ever carbon blade Donic Baum Esprit. The setup I'm using is Donic Baum Esprit with DHS Neo Hurricane 3 on FH side and Tibhar Evolution FX-P on BH side. And after playing with this blade for a week, here's my review :

Donic Baum Esprit is my first carbon blade since I played table tennis in 2014. Usually, I'm using an all-wood blade, but I'd like to experiment a little bit by moving to a carbon blade. I'm an attacking player who likes to loop the ball very often. For me, Donic Baum Esprit helps me to loop the ball more consistently. The speed I can generate is great enough and the amount of control & spin is very good. It also has very large sweet spot which give you more forgiveness even if you slightly mishit the ball.

Short game is so smooth. I can control the short game easier. The amount of dwell time that this blade has also good for flicking the ball. My short push is getting better now and my forehand also my backhand flick become more deadly.

In looping and counter-top spin rally, my shot also getting more consistent. The amount of control from Donic Baum Esprit also good when you're playing far from the table. I found that I need an extra effort to create a long arc when I played far from the table, but when using Donic Baum Esprit I can do a very big swing without worrying the ball come out of the table. Blocking also quiet easy to do with this blade I can do both active and passive block without too much effort. For me this blade is very balance in short-distance, mid-distance, and long-distance game.

Things I don't really like from Donic Baum Esprit is the wood quality issue. It seems the wood pretty easy to get damaged. The layer is pretty thin and sometimes it makes me really nervous to play aggresively from close the table.

In my opinion, this blade good for player who really love to top-spin the ball a lot. I will not recommend Donic Baum Esprit for direct hitters because the blade is not so hard so you won't get any benefit by hitting the ball flat.
Speed
8.8
Control
8.2
Hardness
6.5
Durability
7.6
Pros
  • Sounds like Cell
  • Fast
  • Seemed
Here is my video preview on the Butterfly Easy Ball with Tom.

Butterfly have released this new ball made in Germany to combat current issues with many plastic balls. The material used in this plastic ball is unique and actually feels like celluloid. The sound is a lot crisper than I was expecting. When we compared the Easy Ball in comparison to a traditional plastic ball in the bounce test, the Easy ball bounced longer. Impressively when comparing this new ball to a celluloid ball, the Easy Ball still managed to do the same with a higher and longer bounce. As this is a training/youth ball, I am looking forward to the 3* competition ball, this will be interesting.


Conclusion: The easy ball has been developed for youth training, casual play and for robots. This ball will be the first of a new line of products from Butterfly, from a training balls to 3 star balls. This new material certainly has a new feel and sound.

The manufacturing process of this ball is different whereby the ball is made by creating two halves. You can see this on the ball in its raw material colour (see footage).

Butterfly's future 3 star balls will be coloured white like traditional balls. The seam of this new ball has the same thickness as the two halves on the inside and out which creates a very round, high bounce stable ball.
Roundness
7
Hardness
8.8
Speed
8.8
Pros
  • Durable
  • Cheap
Cons
  • Egg shape
The price for the balls is good and they are durable, i haven't broken one after couple weeks of training, i bought 200 of them and only 50-70 of them were worth keeping, now I'm going to start using them with a robot and see how they do and how long would they last. so over all they are cheap but i won't recommended them because of the egg shape.
Roundness
2.1
Hardness
6.7
Speed
8
Durability
9
Pros
  • Great Touch
  • Weight
Cons
  • Durability
The Viscaria light combines power with feeling like no other blade does. It´s not that hard (you can feel the ball) but it is also not too soft (no vibration)!
In my opinion the blade is perfect for offensive players who are also searching for a great feeling for blocking and service/receive!
One problem is the durability of the supreme wood layer. If there is a little lack, the supreme layer frays of with every time you change your rubber, but maybe this problem exists also with other blades.
The Viscaria light fits well to every butterfly rubber but also to others (for example RASANT turbo). It´s a very good decision if you are searching for a light blade which has enough power to keep the pressure high without losing the feeling for passive situations.
Speed
8.5
Control
9
Hardness
8.5
Durability
7.5
Pros
  • Block
  • Versatility
The Rasant Turbo is a very good alternative to the Tenergy 05. It´s also very spinny but in my opinion the flight curve of this rubber is not as high than the flight curve of the Tenergy 05. Your topspins are very powerfull and allow you to keep the pressure on your opponent very high.
In my opinion you get a great offensive rubber at a fraction of the price of a Tenergy!
Speed
8.5
Spin
8
Durability
8
Control
8.5
Pros
  • Counter Spin
  • Power
  • Feeling
Cons
  • Price
  • Equality
In my opinion the Tenergy 05 is the best rubber for offensive players you can get. The power and spin is unmatched!
But there two big problems. At first the price, of course. The prices of other rubbers are similar but there is always a chance to get them cheaper than regular...with tenergys this is not possible in most cases.
The second big problem is the equality of the rubber. Some tenergys are softer than others and there are also very hard ones. I decided to weigh them before i buy a new one. I found my personal favourite weight (96 gram inclusive package) and so I can solve this problem.
The fact, that "the same" rubbers have a weight difference between 89 gram and 98 gram proves, that you don´t get the same rubber all the time!
Tenergy is not like Tenergy!!!!
Speed
8.5
Spin
9.5
Durability
9
Control
9.5
Pros
  • Durable
  • Affordable
  • All Round
Mark V is one of the best all round rubber for all players. It's durable, medium hard sponge, and has many gears. But then it's kinda slow nowadays after post speed glue ban.
Pros
  • Nice Feeling
  • Good Control
  • Crisp sound
Cons
  • Price?
A great 7 plies composite blade from butterfly,Materials: Koto-ALC-Limba-Kiri-Limba-Alc-Koto. TBS is one of the best selling composite blade by butterfly. It has the same construction as Timo Boll Alc, Viscaria and zjk blade. Although there will be differences due to different thickness of each ply from those other blade but over all it's great. Medium Feeling, Crisp sound, less vibration due to arylate carbon and also It's more cheaper compare to other ALC blades out there c:. Suggested for players that's demanding for power but control at the same time too
Pros
  • Looping machine
  • Great control
  • Good feeling
http://www.yasaka.se/products/sweden-extra/

This is a relatively "new" blade by Yasaka (more on "new" later) - I got it by an error of sorts. I wanted a Yasaka Extra and tried to order a pair of blades with the same weight from Megaspin. They told me they had a pair of Yasaka Extras and then sent me this. I was like "oh, well, at least I am getting it for $2 less per blade than it would have cost...". My guess is that it is the Yasaka Extra with a different handle. The handle on this is very flat and squarish in straight and it fits well with my intuitions on how the stroke angle works. I am a Straight handle guy though I can play with flares.

Since Yasaka calls it one of their best selling blades of all time, I suspect it is similar to a Gatien Extra or regular Extra but just has a slight design change. So it is not fully new. I found out that it was a redesigned Yasaka Extra after my first draft of this review.

It's a fairly thin blade and definitely all round in design- definitely in that ALL+/OFF- range but easily at the upper end - I would put it at a very controllable OFF-. Here is the Yasaka Web page. Mine for the record both weigh 88g.

http://www.yasaka.se/productcategory/blades-compare/

I've played with a lot of blades the past couple of months because I wanted to settle on something that went very well with MX-S for my close to the table game. The search is over and this is the winner. In fact, this blade was the winner in June, but I decided to try a couple of well regarded Tibhar blades after seeing some players whom I respected using those blades because I was still trying to decide between T05 and MX-S - I settled on MX-S but for some reason didn't go back to the Extra. And entirely by accident, one of those Tibhar blades gave me a calloused thumb with my grip so I was so irritated in the moment while losing that match that I picked up my Yasaka Sweden Extra - it had some Victas rubbers and I lost the match even though my opponent permitted the switch. After, I stripped the MX-S rubbers from the Tibhar blade and just stuck them to the Sweden Extra... and proceeded to destroy my opponents mercilessly after that, blanking out my previous opponent in two subsequent rematches. And then I was entirely puzzled and tried to figure out why I left the blade in the first place... and realized that it wasn't anything to do with dissatisfaction and I had played many great matches with it, both with T05 and with MX-S!

With T05, I would consider the blade a bit slower than I would ideally like, though still quite usable for all out offense. But since I have put T05 to bed for now, I won't be researching that question anytime soon.

MX-S plays relatively better IMO on slower, thinner blades and becomes a high level loop drive machine from close to mid distance. The benefit of the Yasaka Sweden Extra is that it has a slightly harder outer play than the usual Limba (I suspect Anegre since it is similar to another blade I have like that). This makes it play slightly faster with hard contact when looping.

Because of the thin upper and the flat handle, which is very unlikely to be hollow, it feels more balanced towards the handle than equally heavy blades, like an ALL+ blade should, but again, with the speed of an OFF- blade.

So for people looking for ALL+/OFF- blades and who might be looking for a different kind of handle, I can recommend this blade highly. I am probably the only person I know who uses it right now, but I think there should be more, especially if you are looking for an OFF- blade with high control or a faster than usual ALL+ blade.

It may not be powerful enough for some off the table styles. But for an off the bounce style, it works great.

For off-the-bounce close to the table/mid distance offensive loopers and blockers. Reviewer is an allround offensive USATT 1950-2050 player.
Speed
8.2
Control
8.2
Hardness
5.5
Durability
8.1
I've used quite a few of the tenergy rubbers and this was my personal favourite. slightly less speed than 80 but more spin was generated and more control as well.
would definitely recommend despite the price!
Speed
1
for the price these balls should definitely be better, after a couple of sessions many are turning egg-shaped and even breaking, the speed and consistency are generally okay however occasionally the ball just seems to dip after bounce
Roundness
4.3
Hardness
3.8
Speed
5.1
Durability
2.1
I've used quite a few rubbers in the tenergy series, I found 80fx the best! I felt it was slightly slower than 80 but produced more spin and control.
will definitely be using for a while!
Speed
9
Spin
9.5
Durability
7.5
Control
8.4
quality blade, quite fast but still good consistency and control. Would recommend to any all round attacking player!
Been using mine for a while now and still performing well :)
Speed
8.4
Control
9.5
Hardness
7.5
Durability
9.3
For Zealot in Blades
Pros
  • Controlled
  • Balanced
  • Flexible
Cons
  • Boring
o describe it in one word, I would just say it's balanced. All of the Nexy blades I've used stood out in some way, making them feel very unique. However, the zealot feels so balanced that i can't say its extraordinary in any one aspect. With that being said, it also doesn't feel like it's lacking in any area.

The zealot is a 5ply all wood blade with a mystery new surface veneer made for the polyball. Although it's a 5ply blade, it feels more like a 7ply blade.

Blocking

When blocking with the zealot it's very easy to do aggressive blocks or "punch" blocks. However if you're the type of player who prefers the loose-grip passive blocking style this is going to be more of a struggle for you. The control on the blocks is superb but it's very hard to block the ball short. A player using this blade will find it to be a much easier time blocking this quickly.

Close Loops

In my opinion this is where the blade struggles the most. When doing a very close to the table loop, it's very difficult to get the ball to drop quicker and i found every loop going long and off the table. This made me extremely uncomfortable looping a ball that was close to the table and i lost confidence in even attempting these loops. The best way i found to solve this problem is to do a very hard push instead of loop at the short range. This caused the next ball to come off the table longer for an easier loop.

Mid-range Loops

Mid range loops are where this blade truly shines. I was able to get quite a bit of power off these loops, almost as if it had carbon in the blade. It provided a slightly lower throw angle than you would expect from a 5ply all wood blade, but it still maintained the ease of looping that you would have come to love from them.

Flicks

There was quite a bit of dwell time on the the blade so flicks seemed fairly easy. The only issue i found from the flicks was that they seemed a bit slow. Although they were slow they more than made up for the speed with a lot of spin. This allowed you to get ready for the next shot.
Speed
7
Control
8
Hardness
6.5
Durability
10
Pros
  • Consistent
  • Extreme control
  • Fast and direct
Hi.

I've been playing with the Carbonado 190 for two month now, and I'm plesantly surprised. I made the switch to the Carbonado from the Timo Boll ALC after it broke during a backhand smash. I paired the 190 with the same rubbers as the ALC- Tenergy 05 for forehand and 80 for backhand.
I thought that the TeExtreme carbon giving a wider sweetspot was nothing but marketing and that it would be of almost no significance, I was wrong.
It's a little faster than the Timo Boll ALC but a lot more controlable, making blocking and accurate placed loops and drives a lot easier, almost too easy.

I noticed the increased contol immediately during my first training session, even during my first few hits.

Now, for some stats.

Speed: This is certainly a fast blade, about 8.5 out of 10.

Control: I knew I was getting a very fast blade, and was afraid that I'd lose a lot of control, I didn't. Blocking, looping, driving, lobbing, cutting, serving, no problem at all.

Throw: The throw angle i relatively low, which is part of the rason blocks and counter hits on loops is so easy. You just land the balls fast and with a direct trajectory on the table. This makes short and mid-distance loops drives and blocks easy, but far from the table requires a lot of effort and an open bat angle, or you'll hit the ball in the net. This is part of the reason I'm pairing it with T05 for forehand, as it has a medium to high throw.

Stiffness: The blade is very stiff, which is something I really like, as it gives you great feeling when hitting the ball.

Looping: Looping with this blade is a dream. The amount of contol and spin which can be generated is incredible. But be aware, it has a low throw, which gives a very flat and direct trajectory, so I recommend you to pair it with rubbers that has a medium to high throw as it evens it out perfectly.

Driving: Giving the blades wide sweet spot and direct trajectory, driving with this blade is a dream. I felt like I had a lot more room for error with this blade than I had with the Timo Boll ALC.

Blocking: I fell like I've said this man times now, but blocking is a dream. The wide sweet spot allows you to have much room for error, making your blocks consistent, almost anywhere the ball hits your blade. Accurate plaement with a lot of speed and feeling is what this blade offers.

Conterhitting: Amazing!! The amount of speed combined with the control combined with the high speed results in devestating counter loops and drives. This is where the the 190 outshines anything I've played with before.

Close to the table: This is where the blade truly shines. Close to the table loops, counter loops and blocks are so effortless with this blade. It truly is as good as it gets.

Mid distance: The Carbonado 190 is also great for mid distance play, as it gives you excellent speed and spin. But, it requires a little more effort because of the low throw.

Long range: This is the the only raal weakspot I can think of when it comes to the 190. Long rage loops and drives requires a lot of effort combined with a very open angle of the racket. It also requires very precise timing as it's really difficult to get that nice "wide" trajectory that you need to lift the ball from under the table.

Serving: The blade is allows precise serves with a lot of spin, but it requires a bit of finesse to keep the serves short, as the blade is very fast and "active".



Summary

The Stiga Carbonado 190 is the perfect for the player who relies on fast, direct shots combined with a lot of control. If you're a close to mid distance player who like to play fast and spinny counter loops, this blade is for you. I you need a blade with a little higher throw and wider trajectory the Carbonado 145 is more likely better suited for you.
The Carbonado 190 is a high quality blade, made for world class play, but the wide sweetspot is also great for learning players.
The handle is also great and gives you a amazing grip, but it's not as comfortable as the Boll ALC handle, but nothing really is.
Overall I prefer this blade to the Timo Boll ALC, but it all comes down to your playing style.


Excuse me for any misspellings, weird formulations and a weird summary order. I'm a new reviewer and english is not my main language.
Speed
8.5
Control
9.5
Hardness
10
Durability
0
For Violin in Blades
Pros
  • Flexible
  • Spin monster
  • Fabulous control
Cons
  • Little slow
  • small handle
  • price
I'm suprised there's no reviews on this blade, as its one that I recommend to virtually everybody. The violin is a fantastic 5ply blade, it's the slowest of the instrumental series (violin, accoustic, tenor). but it's also the spinniest

This blade is sent from the heavens for a player that likes to load up on spin on their loops. It's the easiest blade of any that I've used for looping. The limba outer plies make it very soft and easy to use. However, since the blade is so soft and flexible, I wouldn't recommend ever using a soft rubber with it. I recommend this blade over all others for new developing players. If you have any questions about this blade I'd be glad to answer you, send me a pm or an email!
Speed
7
Control
10
Hardness
5.5
Durability
9
Pros
  • Hard
  • Round
  • Durable
Cons
  • Not Nittaku Prem
The nexy poly ball is among the best of the non nittaku premium polyballs. It's an exact clone of the XSF ball. If you're a U.S. Resident, you're lucky. You'll be able to order these through nexyusa which has the best customer service of any reputable dealer.
Roundness
10
Hardness
7
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