Latest reviews

I just started using this rubber about three weeks ago and after training with it a minimum of an hour a day I have come to the conclusion my expectations were too high. I really expected this rubber to have a bit more speed and spin. After reading a lot of reviews I expected the rubber to be too fast for a beginner, I consider myself a beginner, to handle but I actually wish it was a little faster. I think the top sheet really does a good job of gripping the ball. I can place the ball exactly where I want to hit it. I am a little disappointed in the spin and speed but that could come with more practice. Overall great rubber!

I am an intermediate level player so this a great rubber for me! I really like the control and speed of the rubber. I was hoping for a bit more spin but I think the poly ball has a lot to do with the spin. Overall a great rubber for a beginner like me to work on control and form.

I have really enjoyed using the Nexy ball. Compared to a celluloid ball it has a higher bounce and less spin but from what I gather that is normal for any poly ball. I really enjoyed the price for the quality of ball!

When I first saw these bad boys in the BTY Catalogue of 2010 I just had to get myself one of them.
The first "Limited Edition" table tennis shoe model ever made.

It's basically a remodeled Asics Attack SP, but damn BTY did a good job designing these.
They are probably the lightest TT shoes I've ever worn. Even more so than the classic Mizuno Crossmatch Plio.
The grip is a lot better than the original Mizuno outsole as well.
However, with the heavy emphasis of "barefoot feel" of these shoes, comfort and support are definitely sacrificed.
The alpha gel is only filled in the heel part of the midsole, therefore players that are used to the tip-toe stance are definitely going to find these rather uncomfortable.

All in all, probably the most handsome and maybe the lightest table tennis shoe ever made, but definitely not the most comfortable.

So.....probably the most loved piece of rubber ever since the Sriver dominated, with a unprecedented market domination in the pro scene.
It achieved all these with the highest price tag as well, peaking off at 50 GBP a piece at retail in the UK, and also a much shorter usable lifespan than its major competitors from the 3rd generation of ESN Tensors.
So how does the T05 stay on top even though the 4th gen ESNs have proven themselves to be very very good with a lower pricetag?

The answer is really with the sponge.
I first tried it back in 2011, after I tried almost every 3rd gen Tensor ESNs (Baracuda, Vega etc...) and all the Bryce variables available on the market. I was skeptical about buying a rubber that costed 80 SGD back then and often hearing bad stuffs about it such as it shrinking relatively quickly, the edges crumbles easily and the surfaces becoming slippery after some heavy usage. Went for it anyways and have never looked back ever since. The feel of the ball transmitted from the sponge to your hand is just unreal. It honestly felt like nothing I have used before at that point. I could feel the ball so clearly that i could simply do more....stuff with it dwelling on the bat.

The spin of the rubber struck me second. I rely heavily on my serves to create shots on the 3rd and 5th ball, so naturally I had spent considerable amount of time practicing all sorts of services. Before I tried the T05, i was usuing Acuda S2 on my FH. That thing simply couldnt generate as much spin as the older Baracuda for some reason. And after the conversion to T05, the increment in spin was so obvious that even my training partners could notice on the first few serves.

The speed wasnt all that amazing for me when I first got the rubber, as I used Bryce Speed FX on my BH for about 4 months before the T05 came in, but one thing I noticed is that the ball goes off the sponge faster than it did on the BSpeed FX. I guess this is both good and bad. On one hand you have a smaller margin of error on your strokes as you have less time to adjust for it once the ball hits the bat, on the other, blocks become slightly easier as I didnt have to use as big a stroke to block off top spins on my FH.

Now for the gripes I have with this rubber. It simply doesnt last as long as the ESN Tensors. The rubber will start to shrink after a month or two and by a huge degree as well. And when the shrinking starts, the grip will start to loosen dramatically as well. It will go as far as to play like an anti-spin rubber. The spin sensitivity was way too high in the beginning for me as well, however, its not a bad thing once i got used to it. It actually turned into a very aggressive weapon when I can push the opponent's serves back with good depth and a huge amount of spin on top of those that came with the serves.

All in all, this was once the best all around rubber one can get without dipping into the unknowns of custom made professional variations of rubbers, however it does come with a lot of trade offs in its price, short lifespan and unforgiving spin sensitivity. Also, as we have started training with the new poly balls recently in preparations for next season, I've found that the rubber couldnt grip the ball as perfectly as it could before with the old celluloid balls. Thus, my serves, pushes and chops are suffering quite a bit with the lack of spin. With this in mind, T05 might not be the best rubber out there for competitive players anymore. However, I have yet to find something with the same excellent all-rounded-ness.

As a made in Germany rubber it share many similarities with other top end tensors. Got the same half matt top sheet look as newer BF and Rasant. You can feel the improved grip over R7 right away. Perfect dwell for new plastic ball which is what this rubber is designed for. Its throw is medium at best. Hardness comparable to T05 but lacks the famous T series gummy feel in play. Speed and spin is middle of the road among modern tensors. Only drawback I can think of is the weight. I have not actually weight the bare rubber but the whole Cpen setup of Yasaka SIlver 9 with RX both sides reached 196g. Definitely one of the heaviest rubber out there.

Hi guys

In the last couple of weeks I have been trying out the 190, but since I had to play team matches I had to stay with the 145 for a period. Now the season is finish I could train and test the 190.

My initial impression of the blade is the finish and quality of the Carbonado 190 is the same as the 145. The blue and black handle is just awesome! I must say that Stiga has hit the spot regarding the design of the Carbonado series. Again with the black metal top emblem and blue and white Stiga emblem in the end of handle, it just completes the Carbonado 190. If should point out a down side of the blade it would be the sharp edges on the wings of the blade.
Hitting with a ball without rubbers on I could hear the pitch was higher than my 145 which often indicates that the blades is faster than the blade you are comparing. Let's put some rubbers and test this beast!

Setup details: Weight 89g, Rubbers H3 Prov NEO boosted and Tenergy 64
Test ball: Celluloid

Counter drive: The first couple of hits with the ball I could easily notice the flatter trajectory the 190 has, because I was hitting the ball into the net. After playing some minutes and adjustments I was hitting the table again. Another noticeable feature was the "feel" which were less than the 145.

Loop: Ball after ball I was hitting the ball into the net with my FH. Now I was experiencing the flatter trajectory! After sending the first balls into the net I got a hang of the Carbonado 190. Looping with this blade with H3 in forehand the arc was very flat which can be an advanges on open ups. The blade is very consistent due to the large sweetspot which the TeXtreme carbon layer gives, but I did notice that the sweetspot was more vertical compared to the 145. Looping with the Tenergy on BH side I had the feeling I could "hold" the bold more than 145 with the T05 on BH. I am used to play with T64 in BH so I like this combination more. With the flatter trajectory of the blade and low arc from the T64 looping over table is amazing. I think the spin are quite alike with the 145 and 190, but in terms of speed the 190 feels a notch faster.

Block: Like the 145, the 190 is a blocking machine! There is a lot control with this blade and with the low trajectory you can often with success punch the ball back from the BH side.

Short play: Here the Carbonado 190 shines! In returning short it is easy to keep the ball close to the net also when you are coming in late to the table to receive short. Very controllable without having the feeling the ball is bouncing away from you.

Mid distance: As the 145, I did not need to add a lot of power when playing from mid distance. Even with the low arc I did not feel it was difficult to hit the table. Furthermore I did do any larger adjustments from the 145 to be able to play loop to loop.

Conclusion: The Carbonado 190 is a blade in the range of OFF. No more or no less. I will recommend this blade for fast close to the table game play,to 3rd ball attackers and mid distance players. The blade is minded for an all-round/offensive game play where you want to kill the ball at the 3rd ball. It is, as 145, very balanced between spin and speed where it is pointing more to the speed side. Stiga has found something in these Carbonado blades. The blades are special due its new fiber technology giving the blade a characteristic feel, which is positive. IMO I would say the 190 would be the rival of Viscaria FL.

Simply amazing! Very good spin! God speed and control. Perfect for topspin play, loop against loop. Good control. Easy to push, smash and block!
I play with Max on FH and BH on my Timo Boll Spirit blade. Feels perfect!

I currently play with this blade and It suits me perfect. Excellent control but still powerful. Good feeling in blocks and and a also in the short game. Like the dwell and touch in the short game and my serve. I don't have to much to complain about, a cheap blade that offers everything you need from a blade. I rate it off and I think it suits the most offensive players who prefer a lot of control.

First thing about this rubber is that rubbers are so hard, i have feel that i playing with hammer ( sponge is hard and very tacky)
Control is great close the table,
Spin is great and easy do it,
Game from distance is not good.
Spin to spin you have 50 % chance to get point.
Grip is same as with Butterfly Sriver El, FX.

It smells terrible,you can get cancer of it !

Im neutral about this rubbers ,but little disapointed -.-

I was very happy to buy this blade. I have also tested it with an official butterfly importer and sportsman and he admitted, that this blade is a good Boll Spirit clone. Maybe there is a bigger variation in production or some reviewers are too fanatic butterfly lovers, to negatively describe this blade. I believe this is a clone with 85-90% identity. It does vibrate only a bit more, because it contains karbon+kevlar instead of arylate carbon. Arylate absorbs much of the vibrations. This blade has a soft touch works well with medium to hard rubbers. Looping is easy, speed is a bit more than Timo Boll W5. Very precise blade with little vibration. Lifting is very nice, pushes drives smashes are powerful, but very controlled. I use it with Tibhar MX-P and Bluefire M2 on BH. The assembly of the blade is good. I can only recommend and hope that all buyers and owners recieve the same quality that I have.

But to be honest I tried Donic, and three Butterfly blades. Each blade was an expensive competition blade and found out that the Donic and Butterfly manufacturing can easily vary at least a tempo in speed, 7-8 gr in total weight. I tried a spirit with 88g and one with 81g, and a Maze passion with ALL+ and OFF speed, a Zhang Jike with OFF and OFF- characteristics and a Donic Waldner Senso Carbon blade with ALL speed and OFF- speed. So don't say if you buy two Yinhe blades that there is no continuity or identity in a product line, but there are variations, just as in other world famous brands.

Updat! 2017. I had to revert back to this blade from Waldner WC '89, because I switched to Donic Bluestorm Z2, which was lightning fast for me. Official Donic catalogue claims Z2 is slower than M1, but that is a lie, they have the exact same sponge... Since Z2 is more bouncier and faster I went back to my old Yinhe Venus 14. I have tried this blade with MX-S, MX-P, TinArc, EL-P, M1, M2 and now with Z2 on both sides. It does work well with these rubbers and till this day noone said that my blade is cr@p. In Europe players and customers believe, that quality has a price. That is why Butterfly can sell it's equipment with beefy price tags. When they noticed my new blade, because of the yellow handle, they immediately asked, what is that, it looks fancy. I showed them and seen their disgust, ohh its not Butterfly... But when they played with it, some of them admitted that this blade is good. Even a well respected coach tried my blade and only said two thngs: "This blade has a good feeling, don't sell it.".
Reverting back to the blade took 2-3 weeks, but now I can say, that this is a fine OFF-/OFF blade with that limba feel. Since Z2 and the karbokev do not absorb as much vibrations as T05 and ALC, I have much better feedback of my shots. My blade is 87,53 gramms.
Only one downside is the handle. It is a bit bulky, so I had to sandaper it to get it a bit flatter. Also it does not absorb sweat, instead of Waldner WC '89, so I have to dry my hands more often. But I had once a Venus 16 and it had a perfect flat Flared handle, variations in the product line.

I upgraded from M3 to M2, I have used it on both sides, I also boosted one of them, and used one unboosted too.
There where some comparisons on other sites with T05. Well I only can confirm that the speed is similar, and the spin in loops (counter, openig, normal) are similar too. But I don't personally think that this rubber is a Tenergy substitute.
M2 has a bit lower throw than M3 but still high. It seems to be less springy. Smashes and hits are way better then T05, the rubber feels more controlled because the longer dwell time. This rubber is a very good rubber for attacking game from ALL+-to OFF characteristics. The sheet works well on spin elastic to hard blades. On harder blades it feels a bit more mushy. Boosting this rubber can give more speed, springiness and spin, but out of the package it contains a factory tuning. Also there is a slight loss in control if you boost. The red topsheet is chemically a bit less stable, so after 200 hours the rubber topsheet degrades and dissolves/melts. This process is speeded up by booostering, hand swet and hard repetivite pressures on the same spot of the rubber. The black topsheets last longer. So note that if you boost this rubber and you are a swetty person this rubber will last only 6 months in red colour. Unboosted black rubbers can be with you for 300 hours of play.
On spin elastic blades better for BH, on hard blades both sides.

I used this rubber on a Yinhe Venus 16 (BH), Yinhe Venus 14 (BH), Maze Passion (FH-BH), Timo Boll ALL (FH), Donic Waldner Senso Carbon (FH-BH), Donic Waldner World Champion 89' OFF (FH-BH), the last ony is my currect setup. Also tried it on Butterfly Zhang Yike, Donic Ovtcharov Senso Soft Carbon, Yinhe Venus 13 and Butterfly Schlager precision. After so many blades I can state that this rubber requires a stiff ALL+ or faster blade, or esle it feels hard. The sponge hardness is aroun 44 degrees european, the average weight in max thickness is 0,22 g/mm2 so it is considered medium-heavy like all attacking rubbers, but lighter then Tenergy, Evolution, Rakza (0,24 g/mm2). On spin elastic blades the rubber works fine.

This rubber is an attacking rubber. Donic says it is a bit more direct and smash oriented, (the JP series is more spin oriented), but I found, that the spin capabilities of this rubber is very good. This is my favourite backhand rubber. Anyone who feels this rubber is uncontrollable or too fast, try the slower M3 version, and sharpen stroke techniques.

The Bluefire series from Donic tries to be an alternative to the famous (and expensive) BF Tenergy. Well more or less Donic did the job.
My experience was the following.
M3 has a really good looping arc, huge. Most of my loops are neglected, because they will fly long, but at the final few seconds they fall to the table in an incredible arc. Smashing is quite nice. It is easy to control the spin amount of the ball and hit "empty" balls with loop like hits. Chopping and passive chopping, lifting is easy. Had to adjust dropping but it is easy now. Passive play is really good and the rubber is quite forgiving for little mistakes. The M series form bluefire has a sponge with uneven pore size. This results in a very speed glue like feeling. The rubber bites into the ball fast and creates a heavy spin. The JP series have uniform pore size sponges that produce a more linear bite effect. But I personally favour this M type sponge, because this little unlinear property of the sponge does not matter if you are looping all the lime and smashing, it only adds to the feeling of your game.
So to summerise pros: you can loop every ball and attack till midrange.


There is difference between the black and the red rubber surface after a year: black topsheet remains softer red is a bit harder. The rubber surface looks grainy when it is new, after some play when this surface comes off some of the soft grip is lost, so you have to hit the ball a bit harder to loop efficiently.
So to summerise hit it hard and everything will be just fine. Or get an OFF- blade and hit just a bit less hard.


Finally I have finished the testing of the rubber. After 300 hours of effective table tennis, including 3 training camps, 30+ competitions and 4 regluing all I can say that this rubber is good. The loss of the grip is quite little, you can easily adjust without noticing. The rubber plays good on OFF- stiff to spin-elastic blades. I Used int on my BH, dropping and opening loops were still awsome. Chiqita and smash hits were a bit harder with the rubber getting older.


The rubber should be still good to play or practice but my hand is really swetty and the topsheet of the rubber finally gave in, it melted at the top of my index finger.


The Rubber is very durable, the edges are intact, no tears on it. The surface is worn by many hits and loops, but the sponge is in quite good shape.

Another great rubber from Donic to address the Tenergy series. This rubber is a nice T05 FX substitute. Sponge hardness looks the same, but the springiness is a bit less, which makes this rubber a more controlled type of 05FX. Works well on flexible and hard blades. The rubber is very linear and the overall feedback and feeling is very good. Blocks are very low and short, but they go over the net. Service and chopping is very spinny, but not bouncy, so you can keep the ball low. Smashes and counterhits are precise and linear. Loops are satisfying, no matter what is your looping style. The spin of the loop can be easily controlled, this rubber has significant dwell time, but not very sensitive to incoming spin. So looping and counter looping is a very consistent. Opening loops are very spinny, no matter what ball you try to attack. Durability is an another question. The overall manufacturing and quality is high, but since the rubber is tacky, the question is, how long does the tacky surface last. I used 5 JP series rubbers and came to the same result. Nearly 30 hours of gameplay and the surface becomes worn and the tackiness is gone from your sweet-spot. After this the rubber is still functional, but your sweet-spot becomes less lethal weapon. But you may use the sheets for training, because they last a long time. But this why I went back to the M series, because their topsheet can handle 60 hours before the first sign of wearing.

I have switched from Bluefire M3 and M2 to JP01 on my FH. I was not dissapointed. In my country the rubber costs around 33-40$, while Tenergy is 67-74$.
I really loved T05 but was not really satisfied with the price and the springiness of the rubber. I wanted some rubber with same spin, a bit less springiness and a bit less speed. One thing that I instantly realized, that the surface of the rubber is slightly tacky, which actually grants you the ability to attack on every ball, just as you did on the tenergy. Throw angle is quite low because of the rubber seems to be a bit less responsive/bouncy, than T05. What this means is that you have to adjust the blocking angle of the racket, then you will realize, that directing the ball is easier when blocking. Brushing the ball when looping is a bit more better, the ball stays on a bit longer. For service recieve this rubber is better, than the T05, because it tolerates some amount of errors. When I was playing with T05 I recognised, that spinless counterhits and chops are hard to do with T05. Chops come of the rubber in a lower arc and you can not "push" a chop passively, because it will go into the net. Counterhits are often inaccurate because of the springyness. With the bluefire series I find counterhits way more easier, and chops and chop pushes easier too. My opening loops and finishing loops are very spinny (just as T05) so most of the blocks actually fly off the table. I did found that M series is more suited to a smasher type and JP series is to a looper type gameplay. The durability is a different question. The tackiness wanishes after 30 hours of play, and the surface of the topsheet looks really worn. I tested this with 4 sheets, I maintain my rubber on a daily basis with Donic rubber care products. Because of the uniform bubbles in the sponge JP series are more linear than M series, which is nice on FH, but I did not found it good for my BH. I used softer version (JP3) for my BH, but I swithched to M2.
So because of the 30 hour tacky surface, I don't personally recommend this rubber. Ofcourse the rubber lasts for 250-300 hours of play, but after 30 hours there is a significant loss in performance. The M series topsheet is better in this department.
The JP01 is suited to play maximum mid distance.

Sriver FX is the softer version of Sriver, which was the most popular Butterfly rubber untill the 90's. FX means, that the sponge is softer, but the topsheet remains the same. Manufacturing looks good quality. The rubber does not have any spring-sponge or tensor technology. Back in the "old days" of speed gluing, people applied 2-3 layers of VOC glue to tense this rubber. With water based glue this sheet feels pretty slow an an ALL+ blade, it plays like a DEF setup. Still, ideal for children or older player, who like the old style loops. Dwell time is enormous and control is very good. Most of the technical elements can be done with this rubber, but it does not excel in any one of them. Maybe it is suitable for backhand on a faster OFF composite blade. Actually there are other Sriver upgrades G2 and G3, that are designet to be glued with water-based glue.

The best of the Tenergy range for my BH needs. Lower throw than 64, 05, 05-fx, good speed, linear response, good spin generation. Easiest Tenergy for blocking and flat hitting(without switching to the more specialised T25). I tend to switch between this and 05-fx on the BH side. 05-fx has the edge on raw looping, but 64-fx is more stable, better in allround play and close-in, and easier for pushing and noodling around the table.

Tenergy 80 is a great rubber! It is the best from the Tenergy series that I have ever used. Infact it is the best rubber I have used. It is comfotable and extremely easy to play with. The spin you get from the rubber is super heavy, combined the the excellent spin, it is an all round 10 out of 10 rubber! Very good in the short game department to.