Latest reviews

Pros
  • counterloop
  • spinny
Cons
  • expensive
  • sensitive
Overall this is the best rubber out there.. I find it very good for counter loop and for getting lots of spin! Everyone should try this (If you have more budget that is)
Speed
8
Spin
9.2
Durability
8.4
Control
8.6
Excellent blade. The feel and control is outstanding; makes you feel fearless when blocking. The speed isn't the fastest, but is more than enough to wallop the ball past your opponent. Mates well with medium tensor rubbers (T80, Razaka 7, Boost TX etc). It is also exceptionally good value, I pick up mine online for 32 Euros!

A slight snag is the softish wood makes it fragile. SPW chips easily and repeated gluing also caused the surface of the blade to splitter on mine. Lacquering the bat and using tape to protect the edges is recommended.
Speed
8.9
Control
9.6
Hardness
5.1
Durability
7.2
Quality rubber. Does almost everything well and has great control. But, for me, it was tough to generate sufficient spin when serving. Long fast backspin serves were easy to return for opponents, where as with Razaka 7 or Boost TX they are a handy way of picking up quick points. Shame. If it hadn't been for this I would have kept it.
Speed
8.8
Spin
8.6
Durability
8.9
Control
9.2
Pros
  • Controlable
  • durable
Cons
  • too slow
I played with this rubber when i was beginner and now its on my spare blade. Pretty solid rubber for someone who is learning basic strokes. Controlable,medium- hard sponge and is slightly medium tacky rubber
Speed
6.1
Spin
8
Durability
8.6
Control
9.5
Pros
  • A Ton of Dwell
  • Great Spin
  • Flex for Looping
Cons
  • Could be Faster
This is an amazing blade for those interested in a controlled offensive (Off-) blade that has good flex and amazing feeling. I love this blade and am happy with it.

My Virtuoso Off-, I have to say, is pretty much the perfect blade. The blade is soft. It has a really high throw angle so it is really easy to loop backspin with this blade. It has a ton of dwell time. The ball stays on for long enough to really generate a lot of spin. It felt that way to me. But people who were on the other side of the table started asking, “how are you getting so much more spin?” The flex of the blade also helps with dwell time and extra spin. It loops like a dream. And to me, this is the biggest asset, it has the best wood feel and the most sensitive wood feel I have ever played with. The delicate, sensitive wood feel is there but there are no unwanted vibrations. You can easily feel different kinds of ball contact. It is like a fine tuned instrument.


Part of this has to do with the woods being used and the thickness of the different plies. Part of this has to do with the gluing process when OSP laminated the plies.


This particular blade has the plies: Limba-Limba-Ayous-Limba-Limba. The outer ply is very thin. that also goes into why the blade gives you such an ability to feel the ball so well.


In reviews I had read this blade is supposed to be very good at close to the table. I heard it loses something as you go farther back. I found this blade to be amazing close to the table. I know my level went up because of how well this blade performs in short game and over the table. I know this is not the fastest blade I have used. Not even close. And when I switched to it I was coming from a blade that is considerably faster. So for the first few days it felt on the slow side. But once I got used to it and really felt in sync with the blade, it felt to me like it performed quite well from all distances.


This blade also a really nice sound on contact which I love. It is a nice, fairly deep, snapping sound, almost a crunching sound when you get good solid contact. It is part of the feedback of the blade, but, to me the sound is important and affects to feel. I love the sound that you get from this blade. It gives so much feedback that it did take a few days for me to get used to it though. Then I fell in love with the feedback and the sound.


With this blade OSP offers a variety of head sizes. 150mm x 157mm (small), 150mm x 158mm (medium) or 150mm x 159mm (large). The medium and large head sizes are going to give you more wood feeling, a faster pace and a larger sweet spot. They are also going to perform better for backhand centered play. But they will also cause the blade to have a bit more weight in the head. I chose the “small” head size. Although they call 150mm x 157mm a small head size, that is a very standard head size. Some blades that have that head size are Stiga Clipper, Stiga Offensive Classic, Stiga Allround Evolution, Timo Boll ALC, ZLF, ZLC, Spirit, Viscaria. The list goes on.
Speed
6.5
Control
9.5
Hardness
4.4
Durability
8.9
Pros
  • Control
Cons
  • Speed
I used to use Stigma boost tc on both sides with this blade, the boost tc makes up for the lack of spin and it already has good control but there is a lack of speed in the hits of this blade. I could not generate as much power as I would have liked.
Speed
5
Control
7.5
Hardness
4
Durability
5
Pros
  • nice logo
Cons
  • bad durability
  • not round
i just follow all the others reviews from the above. tried a friends butterfly ball and was very disapointed. i expected more from butterfly. maybe it was a bad ball that we tried but when reading the above statements i fell more convinced that it was not just our ball that was bad. ball was nice designed but that dont help when the durability is bad and the roundness.
Roundness
3.2
Hardness
2
Speed
1
Durability
2.1
Pros
  • Very Fast
  • Good spin
  • Durable
Evolution EL-P is the most elastic rubber of the Evolution rubber series. EL-P with its medium sponge perfectly fits in between the harder MX-P and the softer FX-P.
I use this rubber on backhand is very precise and powerful strokes can be realised at half distance or at the table.
Evolution EL-P: chosen by most of the Topspin players for whom the MX version is too hard and the FX version too soft, however putting the emphasis on rotation and power]
Speed
8.4
Spin
9.2
Durability
9
Control
8.1
Pros
  • Great spin
  • Good control
Cons
  • Slow
  • Durability
  • Price
I use this rubber a little time, has a good control and is fast but not fast enought, but has a great spin, is very good for counter.

]This rubber is for the attacker who plays for the offensive play in a middle distance.
Speed
7.9
Spin
8.9
Durability
7.5
Control
8.9
Pros
  • Incredible grip
  • Easy to use
  • Non-bouncy
Cons
  • Not the fastest
  • Medium arc
  • Heavy
Just had my sheet arrive - Black, Max, 73g uncut, 179x168mm (same vital stats as MX-P really) . Cut to 151x156 the weight is 48.88g, which is around the standard for max thickness, hard ESN rubbers these days. Many thanks to Matthias Landfried over at tt-shop.net for the help in getting a sheet sorted!

This is a different beast to the rest of the Evo range. The sponge is different - smaller-pored, and without the booster smell which was so obvious on the original Evolutions and Bluefire Ms. It's obviously still a hard sponge though. The topsheet is monstrously grippy when you run a finger down it, and reasonably stiff. It feels like the grippiest ESN topsheet I've ever experienced. For comparison, I have a sheet of Omega V Asia here which has a far softer topsheet, less grip to the finger, and feels softer than MX-S overall despite having a harder sponge. I guess it's going to be very stable.


Once on the blade, MX-S has a hard, definite feel when bouncing a ball, with a dull "thock" sound. It feels fairly fast without feeling overly bouncy. The spin test is the headline news though - massive. Small wrist movement = big reaction on the following bounce.


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Full-size pics are available here.


I gave it the full 3 hour treatment last night with Stiga's 40+ seamed ball. It wasn't long enough for a full review because it was more of a coaching session and I didn't play a wide enough range of strokes in the depth I want. I'll be back with a more formal review next week, so I'll just give some rambling comments for now.


MX-S was on the FH side of my regular Samsonov Pure Wood blade, and on my backup Pure Woods I had Big Dipper and Tenzone Ultra (BH rubbers on all 3 are Airoc M).


Warm-Up


I was slightly disappointed for the first 10 minutes. During the initial loop-counterhit warm-up MX-S didn't feel particularly "special" at all (meaning that no overriding quality jumped out at me). It was incredibly stable and easy to use, the arc was medium and nothing dramatic happened. At this point the only thing that jumped out at me was how easy the counterhit was, even against heavy loop. For comparison, I had a higher arc with both BD and TZU on the backup blades, but counterhits and blocks were more difficult.


Serve, Loop Against Backspin, Loop against Block Exercise


I then switched to a serve, push long, loop against backspin, block, loop/drive against block, free exercise. This is where MX-S made a lot more sense.


On the serve, you notice a real lack of bounce. This helps to keep serves short and tight, and also encourages you to add a lot more wrist action, which in turn results in big spin. This is an excellent rubber for serving, and all the associated other short game bits.


Then the long push comes in, and you loop against backspin. I'm not overstating things here when I say that this is the easiest rubber for lifting backspin that I've ever tried. It absolutely eats pushes and chops alive. I usually have to warm up my backspin-lifting strokes for a few minutes to get my bat angles adjusted after a counterhit warm-up, but not this time. I genuinely didn't miss a single one during the exercise.


And then the loop/drive against block, which revealed another interesting point. Driving the ball is very easy with MX-S, but it is noticeably slower than hard ESN rubbers from previous generations (MX-P and M1 are the obvious touchstones). You have to generate some power yourself on basic drives or you can offer up an easy ball. There were times when I stepped around to use FH from the BH wing and I ran out of room to get a full stroke in. The drive produced was a bit weak, and the court was obviously totally opened up. You need to be fully committed to get the rewards in this scenario. However, looping the ball against block is easy and very effective. In fact, taking a more Chinese approach and loop-driving more often than not was the most efficient and consistent approach for me in general during the session.


I stuck with this exercise (and slight variations in placement) for a full hour. I felt that it was giving me a good insight into how MX-S was working. After that we did some matchplay...


Matchplay


The qualities I'd seen during the exercises stayed true during the match. Short game was truly great, counter hits and blocks excellent. The FH flick isn't my best shot (needs work), but MX-S seemed good here too, although the lack of extreme arc did mean that I needed to get to the peak of the bounce - there wasn't a lot of leeway if the ball dropped. The main points worth talking about were during open play. Basic topspin drives had a medium arc, and the arc then doesn't change much when you start to load the ball up with topspin. With this comes the ability to disguise the level of topspin to some degree - the arc doesn't give the game away. Adding wrist to a loop brings heavy spin with ease.


Summary so far


Positives? Solidity and control - it's very easy to use, predictable, low catapult and linear. Good (but not wild) pace. High spin potential. Zero feeling of slippage with 40+. Super easy to vary spin, depth and placement during loop-loop play. Autopilot when lifting backspin.


Downsides? The medium arc isn't forgiving of positional problems, so recovery strokes on the run aren't as easy as some rubbers. And it isn't the fastest rubber around, which makes drives a little weaker (although that will be related to my blade choice to some degree - a faster blade will make this less obvious). I'm nitpicking here though.
Speed
8
Spin
9.2
Durability
9
Control
9.7
Pros
  • Design
  • Beautiful
Cons
  • Soft
  • Slow
  • Consistency
Okay, so I bought a pack of these balls. Visually they look very good, nice pink logo, cool design. However when I tried the Butterfly balls they felt a lot softer than other plastic balls I have tried. Also the speed was not up to scratch either. I tried my friends Butterfly Plastic ball and his felt okay so perhaps I had a bad batch. Not to sure how the plastic balls are regulated but I much prefer balls without a seam. They are faster and break less.

Lets hope these balls get better fast!

They are using this Butterfly plastic ball at the World Championships this month...
Roundness
4
Hardness
4
Speed
5
Durability
4
For 3 star 40+ in Balls
Pros
  • Looks
  • Durability
Cons
  • Slow
  • Floats
  • Wobbles
OMG ! I really don't like this ball, you just don't know where you are with it, after trying the DHS plastic ball and being quite happy with it , I thought I'd try a quality butterfly ball, as this , I thought, must be even better! WRONG! It floats something terrible and in a warm room wobbles like a returned ball from Lentec swing!( Not many that remember that nasty piece of lp I bet ) it seems to take an age to come down, making timing your loop shot very tricky, it's wierd! Hope I've just got a bad box, please let me know if anyone else has the same issues 😣😣
Roundness
8.7
Hardness
8.6
Speed
4.4
Durability
8.8
Pros
  • High control
  • good feeling
Cons
  • slow for plastic
I've been playing with this blade since 95 or 96 aproximately. Is the regular one, not WRB.

First of all I've to say my wood is from 90's, now I think this model isn't hand made, whatever the actual Stiga OC wood aren't as good as the old ones. If some one are interested I give you some good alternatives similar to the old one.

It's a OFF- blade, it's elastic, thin blade of 5 plys (koto-spruce-ayous-spruce-koto). The blade have a good control, ideal for the short game, and allow a good curve trajectories on topspin. It's a good off- wood for an allround-ofensive game, but not so ofensive since speed glue was banished.

From my experience with this blade and the new rubbers, the rubbers that best fit on it it's the medium or soft rubbers (I don't get good feeling with hard ones on it).

If you used to play with this or you are interested I think today are similar blades but maybe more adapted to the new kind of playing style.

The most similar blade I've found its Avalox P5, indeed I think it's a copy of the old one. The composition and proportions are the same, but it's maybe a little more hard than the old stigas.

Yasaka Ma Lin Extra is also in the same direction, not the same blade, more sweet spot and more consistency but similar feelings.

Waldner Dicon it's more rigid and fast but I think if you like this blade and want to try something similar but faster it's a good option.

There is also other blades like Nittaku ANV (discontinued) or some DHS (sorry I don't remember the name) that has the same or very similar composition but they are more thick.
Speed
8
Control
8.5
Hardness
5.5
Durability
5.5
Pros
  • Top Level Speed
  • Top Level Spin
  • Superb Control
Welcome to my new reviews! Every week I’ll be reviewing a different rubber, blade, or other equipment from my sponsors TIBHAR, the first of which is my personal favourite - the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P rubber. This rubber is currently available from my UK sponsors Bribar Table Tennis at a sale price of £34.99, reduced from £46.99. You can view and buy it here: http://shop.bribartt.co.uk/tibhar-evolution-mx-p.html

I play with this on both sides of my blade, both backhand and forehand, in 2.1mm sponge thickness which is the thickest sponge available with this rubber in order to ensure the combined thickness of the sponge and top sheet do not exceed ITTF restrictions on these things.

I first tried the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P last year and I was so impressed with it I decided I wanted to change in order to help my game. I had to wait a little while as I had matches approaching, and wanted to get a good week’s worth of practice in after playing with my old rubbers for any matches or competitions after this.

The thing I love about the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P is the medium hard sponge which provides me with just the right level of ‘rebound’ and feeling when I’m serving, opening up with my first heavy topspin loop from my opponents return and then attacking aggressively. The feeling is just right for my game, I never feel that it’s too fast so I still have the right level of control but at the same time it helps me generate a really good level of speed from my rubber which I find really important.

‘Medium-hard’ is difficult to quantify apart from by actually playing with the rubber yourself, but what I mean by this is it’s hard enough to produce really good speed but not so hard that ball dwell time on the bat is too low, making things harder to control and less easy to produce spin with. I have marked the rubber out of 10 on different aspects as above to try to help players with different styles work out if this is the best rubber for your game, if I had to mark this rubber out of 10 for the hardness of the sponge I’d say that if 1 was soft and 10 was hard, this would be around an 8 which for a player with my style is perfect.

The top sheet is a traditional European style rubber, which is slightly tacky but not like a Chinese style very tacky top rubber sheet, and again this is the perfect combination for me. I need a rubber top sheet which has the elasticity to let me produce heavy topspin on my attacking strokes and different levels of spin on my serves, but which is not to tacky as this is a very different type of feeling that isn’t quite suited to the way that I like to play. It’s a TENSOR style highly stretched top sheet and I really like the feeling that it produces.

I have found that the rubber is very durable for an attacking rubber of this level and quality. I change my rubbers regularly for my matches in the Belgian League, when playing for England and at ITTF World Tour events as I like the new and fresh feel, but these rubbers last longer than others I have played with in the past.

For speed, this rubber has to be king. I have scored it 9.5 from 10. It’s very fast, and suits the attacking player who likes to take the ball early at the table or from mid distance and play hard, attacking shots with a huge amount of spin. The rubber is not so quick that it lacks any feeling or control – the balance is excellent.

For spin, this rubber is also really excellent. I have scored it 9.5 from 10, but remember this is when talking about a player with my style. A defensive player for example may like the spin level but might find that a different sponge thickness is suited to them with the range of shots they employ. When it comes to attacking from both wings I find the level of topspin I can produce with the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P to be really brilliant.

For control, I have scored this rubber 9 out of 10. When you consider the speed it can help you to produce on your shots and the topspin it can help you generate, the control level is very, very high. It’s all about the balance and this rubber really excels in that department.

To sum up - If you like to topspin the ball strongly from both wings, open up from a backspin push or chop ball with heavy topspin, attack on the third or fifth ball aggressively, loop with heavy spin and speed from mid distance or block quickly but with control, then the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P is an absolutely first rate choice, and 100% the correct choice for me.
Speed
9.5
Spin
9.5
Durability
9
Control
9
Pros
  • Feel
  • Quality
  • Consistency
Cons
  • Cost
10/10 for me, I love it! Paired with t80fx max both sides it has great control from all areas with loads of spin and enough pace for counter play away from table, has a great feel with not too much vibration, and gives you that" can't miss" feeling even when you're not quite at your best! I've tried dozens of blades but this truly IS the best! I suppose if you're technically a great player and the success of your game depends on all out power and aggression then this may not be for you, Dan / Tom, please do a vid review on this blade! 😬
Speed
8.8
Control
9.7
Hardness
6.9
Durability
9
Pros
  • Good Speed
  • Confortable
Cons
  • Very expensive
This is a high capacity blade with ZL Carbon that enables lightness, high rebound force and flexibility at the same time.
This is a perfect blade for the power attacker who likes to both loop and smash to win points.
Speed
8.9
Control
7.2
Hardness
6.1
Durability
8.4
For Korbel in Blades
Pros
  • Consistent
  • Quality
  • Grip
Cons
  • Cost
  • Not pretty
Although I stopped using this blade a year or so ago now (sorry dan, should have updated my profile) it is still up there for me, it it extremely well balanced with a wonderful positive comfy grip(flared) , it seems to do all things well for an attacking game and even the guy I sold it to who uses pips both sides has had an amazing season with it! There is a lot of feel to the blade which is bordering on vibration, which is the only reason I moved on to innerforce AL, overall though, this isnt a great long term favourite of many for nothing, and it's still my no 1 non composite blade!
Speed
7.9
Control
7.9
Hardness
7.8
Durability
9.5
Pros
  • Forgiving
  • Fast
  • Spinny
Cons
  • Price
  • Price
  • Price
I think it's true to say, there is no "best rubber" , another mans meat,, and all that, but in my opinion after using dozens and dozens of rubbers costing me a fortune to experiment over some 20 years now, I've come to settle on t80 fx both sides, for me, it is so forgiving under pressure with the ability to turn a point round to your advantage, I used to play 90pc fh loop drive but this rubber (and a fair bit of practice) has helped me develope the backhand to a similar level, probably 60/40 now.
Its not the fastest, prob not the spiniest (must be close though) but for feel, consistency and General spin/power, it will take some knocking off my top spot!
Speed
8.2
Spin
9.3
Durability
7.7
Control
9.4
Pros
  • speed
  • balance
  • value for money
Cons
  • spin
As you can discern out of the pros insertion above the Li Ping KiTex is a blade which provides very good control in passive play for a OFF+ blade due to it's relatively soft wood-composition along with it's compared to simple Carbon or Aramid Carbon soft Texalium layers.
The only problem for me is that this blade isn't really something for amateur players who practice 'only' three times or less a week in my opinion as with this blade you have to have a solid technique to produce heavy spin especially in terms of the third ball attack because with that blade I have the feeling that if you were not playing with a soft rubber, which semi-pro or pro players mostly don't use as they use medium-hard or hard rubbers like Tenergys, it is very hard to produce spin but if you want to play fast topspins all the time this blade is a very good choice.
Speed
9
Control
8
Hardness
7.5
Durability
9
Pros
  • Very consistent
  • Speed
  • High Control
Cons
  • Spin
I tried this rubber on my friends blade for an hour. I found it had great control and would suggest this would be a very good rubber for someone who is trying to learn stroke play. The rubber is not to responsive like Tenergy. The Calibra Tour M has a lot of control, my only concern was the amount of spin. I struggled to get a lot of spin on service. I am a player who relies on spin, so this rubber is not for me. However this rubber would suit blockers and counter hitters very well.
Speed
8
Spin
7
Durability
8.5
Control
8
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