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I decided to glue it on my stiga eb7 blade. this bright red rubber with the same topsheet as tenzone regular differs in the sponge hardness. The regular tenzone has a 39 degree hardness and the tenzone sf has a 36 degree hardness in the dhs hardness scale according to my estimate.

Fh to FH & BH to BH drives:

i love the sound of this soft rubber and its loud, louder than the regular tenzone. The ball sinks into the soft sponge and you can feel it through your blade. Control is above average.

Loops:

Using it on both fh and bh loops i would say this is a looping rubber than a hitting rubber. Slow loops are very good and when i looped with this rubber (pure looping) i found it faster than the regular Tenzone. 2 things in its arsenal are spin and control on loops.

Pushes and serves:

Pushes are very spinny with some adjustments. Serves are very spinny also. This rubber is not sensitive to incoming spin. Sidespin and underspin serves favor this rubber. Looping arc is medium to high. Its very easy to loop spinny underspins with this baby.

Smashing, hitting and counterhitting:

Smashing is average and so is hitting though this may come down to personal preferences since i prefer harder rubbers in smashing and hitting. On counterhitting and counterlooping this rubber is in the level of Tenergy 05 fx, Hexer ++ and Calibra LT Sound. Control is very good with these strokes.

Initial Impressions:

I love this rubber and im planning in keeping this. Its not as fast the regular tenzone but its way better in terms of spin and control. Don't get me wrong this rubber is still very fast and bouncy. i love the feel of this rubber especially when the ball sinks into the sponge. This is better near to mid distance from the table. I think i would describe this as a soft genius rubber with the good qualities of hexer and acuda s2 combined. I would recommend this to intermediate to advanced players.

Tenzone Max Black

The Tenzone max black is a high quality rubber from adidas. when i saw the rubber for the first time i was impressed with its production. from the looks, the topsheet is less grainy compared to joola x-plodes' topsheet. i would say it looks identical of the genius' topsheet but differs in the pips structure and topsheet thickness. The Tenzone has a thicker topsheet than that of the genius. The sponge when i pressed it and played with it is medium hard. In the DHS scale hardness i would rate it as 38 degrees.

FH to FH & BH to BH drives:

Tenzone is very bouncy. The sharp and crisp sound produced when hitting the ball is distinctive of being an ESN rubber. The control is there but not its biggest asset.

Loops:

Tenzone produces a low to medium arc on both bh and fh. Tenzone is good for on the rise loop drives above the table. Spin is above average for both and fast loops and is enough to lift heavy underspin balls. during the first 2 days the rubber wasnt that spinny but now its very spinny after some time breaking in the rubber

Pushes and serves:

Spinny pushes are not hard to produce though you have to make some adjustments not to let balls pop up when making pushes but the adjustment is easy. serves on sidespins and underspins are average but fast knuckle or dead balls and topspin serves are very good due to the rubber's speed.

Smashing, hitting and counter loops:

These are the areas that this rubber shines. i think its built mainly for speed than doing spins. Topspins are easy for countering mid distance to far from the table. Its power doesnt diminish that much. Smashing is awesome coupled with its nice whacking sound. On these 3 areas countrol is very good.

Initial impressions:

Overall the Tenzone rubber can be labelled as a very fast with above average spin rubber. Its speed is comparable to that of Tenergy 05, Hexer and Calibra. Its like Calibra LT but a little bit spinnier. Its built for speed and it has lots of it. i enjoyed playing counterhitting and smashing with this rubber far from the table. Receiving spinny serves are good since this rubber is not sensitive to incoming spin. This rubber is above average in blocking also. I would recommend this rubber for advanced players only because this is not everybody's toy.

Stiga Emerald VPS

Weight: 92 grams
Handle: legend flared
Thickness: approx. 6.1-6.2mm
Plies: 5 (ebony-spruce-ayous-spruce-ebony)
Speed: OFF
Hardness: Stiff
Test Rubbers: Stiga Airoc M max, DHS Neo Provincial H3, Globe 999 National

Stiga to gave me this piece of art for review, I got this on my mailbox. The Emerald or "Green Ebenholz" is a complete overhaul of the preview Ebenholz 5 blade. Yes, they have the same wood composition but I will showing some of their differences. I have obtained also an Ebenholz 5 which Stiga provided for because I am very sure a lot of people will be curious on what are the similarities and differences of both blades.



Stiga has spent a great deal of effort in making the packaging of the Emerald VPS into a more elegant and classy look. The Emerald, out of the box, is unlike anything I have seen from Stiga. It boasts of a different logo design which departed from the usual plastic lens with blade name. It has been replaced by metal logo including the stick at the bottom of the handle.








This was first adapted by the Infinity VPS blade in which the surface of the blade, instead of a thick NCT coating, they made the varnish thinner and spread all over the blade extending up to the neck and handle borders. It is smooth but you can feel the wood fibers more compared to the NCT coating of the Eb5 blade. I theorize that Stiga has made the VPS blades this way because players wanted more feel on the blade at the same time offering some protection while removing and regluing rubbers on the blade. The handle of the Ebenholz 5 is rougher compared to that of the Emerald. I have been bugging Stiga to maybe try considering having a smoother handle and maybe they are starting to listen. Now if only they can sand the neck part of the handle then that would be perfect!





The first pic from this part is the picture of the Emerald VPS while directly on top is the picture of both Emerald (top) and Ebenholz 5 (bottom) on top of each other. At first look, differences may be negligible but on closer inspection you can find that the second layer of spruce on the Emerald VPS is darker in color. Either they dyed it or they used a burnt spruce to have a harder 2nd layer??? Also, you can see that the ebony wood top ply of both blades differ in thickness. The top ply for the Eb5 is thin while on the Emerald VPS, they increase the thickness of the top ply by parts of a millimeter. When I measured the approximate thickness, the Emerald has 6.1-6.2mm (approx.) while the Ebenholz 5 has approximately 5.8-5.9mm of thickness. Suprisingly, the Ebenholz 5 with having also a legend flared handle weighs only 84 grams! I have seen 83-84 gram Rosewood 5 blades in master flared but never Ebenholz 5 at this weight! The one I owned 3 yrs ago was 92 grams. I don't know if almost all of the newer batches of blades are as light as the one I have but if they do then praise Stiga! They may have increased the quality of their blades.



On a serious note, I glued the test rubbers and the Airoc M didn't feel that heavy despite having 68 grams uncut weight. I glued the globe 999 national which i have been using for a few months now and also the DHS Neo H3 Provincial replacing the Globe 999 national afterwards. I also glued the same test rubbers on the 84 gram Ebenholz 5 in order for me to have a better comparison of the 2 blades. The Emerald VPS with both rubbers glued was 200 grams in weight blaming partly on the thick amount of glue on the used Chinese rubbers and also the weight of those heavy rubbers. I was surprised that the 200 gram Emerald set up didn't feel that heavy. I have to say the blade is balanced unlike the Ebenholz 5 which tends to be head heavy with the same kind of rubbers glued on it. As of now, we all know that the Eb5 handle is hollow. For the Emerald, I am not sure it. I've been tapping the handle on its different points in order to hear different sounds when tapping different parts but I am not sure yet.

The Emerald was very easy to use. It was bouncy on the first forehand to forehand drills. It doesn't have much vibration compared to the Ebenholz 5. Speedwise, I will rate the Emerald as OFF and not OFF+. I can say that it is fast but highly controllable. On some shots the Emerald felt faster than the Ebenholz 5 but on other times they seemed to be equal. The Emerald VPS is faster than the Rosewood 5 and Rosewood XO but slower than their 7 ply versions. Overall, the Emerald seems to be faster by a few notches. The difference between their speeds is very small. On power shots and loops, I could feel the Emerald has this hard woody feeling upon impact of the ball whereas the Ebenholz 5 has a stiffer, more crisp feel. The Ebenholz 5 feels harder than the Emerald VPS, even the Rosewood 5 is stiffer all because of the thick NCT coating of the mentioned blades.

Looping-wise, the emerald was a better looping blade using the chinese rubbers because it was less stiff than the Ebenholz 5. The Eb5 was stronger for smashes and counter smashing, Emerald shines on counter loops, looping both near and middle distance from the table. If you want a more spin based game then go for Emerald, if you want a more smashing game with lesser spin then go for the Ebenholz 5.



Many would be hesitant to buy this blade because it is expensive. It is much worth it because the performance is better than all the previous Stiga blades that I have owned, tried and reviewed even compared to my intensity nct which was my personal favourite. I

The Adidas P7 comes with a high quality ESN topsheet and sponge. The topsheet is grainy and very grippy and the sponge is orange and porous. The pips are lined closer to each other than the P3 which has a bigger gap on its pips. Its nice for Adidas to include an adhesive plastic cover for the rubber also.

Rubber: Adidas P7
Thickness: 2.2mm or max
Sponge hardness: 38 degrees by DHS scale approx.
Weight: Uncut 172 x 172 mm, 62-64grams; on a 149 x 157 mm Adidas Blade Head blade
head, 47 grams

This rubber was designed and produced with the cooperation of pro and high level Chinese players. For players who do not want to go too far away from the table and those who want to acquire the needed effect on their strokes with the spin of a Chinese rubber and the speed of a Euro rubber this is the rubber for you guys.

Driving:

FH-FH, BH-BH:
The rubber is very bouncy, lively and drives very fast. Driving the ball through the sponge does not bottom out and its effortless to hit the ball because of its long trajectory.

Pushes:
Spinny on the pushes though you need to adjust your angle a little bit because the ball has the tendency to pop at the first few tries but its never a problem.

Serving:
The spin on my underspin and sidespin serves are very high. Even though the rubber is bouncy, shorts serves are not a problem. Fast, spinless serves are also wonderful with this rubber.

Loops:

One of the 3 strengths of this rubber is its ability to loop spinny, underspin balls with minimal effort. If your stroke is a brushing stroke with less sponge on contact because you are used to a chinese rubber then you would love the P7. Minus the tackiness of a Chinese rubber but with the same spin, this rubber produces a medium to high arc on loops whether its a fast or slow loop. The spin is amazing and you can feel the ball kick on the racket if you are on the receiving end.

Loop drives, loop kills, spin-drives:

One way to measure a rubber's strength is to check its ability on loop driving the ball above the table, off the bounce or on the rise contact against a low spinny underspin ball that lands almost short on the table. With the P7, if you have the skills you can do this strokes with lesser effort than with a tenergy 05 or 25. As what I have observed on what I was doing and including my coach who taught this stroke was that even if you hit the ball through the sponge when doing loop drives, its still possible to land the ball on the other side. meaning the rubber is very forgiving. on emergency situations like if yo haven't brushed the ball enough and hit more on the sponge, using tenergy 05 or 25 is less forgiving. On the P7, even with hitting through the sponge it still produces a good arc and spin clearing the net about half to 1 inch.

Countering:

The 3rd characteristic of this rubber that makes it superior to most other modern rubbers is its built also for countering and its very forgiving. Near of mid-distance (about 5-6 feet) away from the table, the power and speed does not diminish.

Blocking:
Near the table and above the table blocking are very controllable yet the ball is very fast on passive block, more so on active blocks.. Punch blocking low fast topspin balls are still quite possible with this rubber.

BH Loops:

Its strange but my backhand loops are spinnier than my fh loops. My bh loops and so does with a friend has a more profound arc and spin.

Overall impressions:

I am super impressed with this rubber for the first 2 days of testing it! This is the controlled or tamed version of the tenzone. Tenzone is still the best rubber Adidas has ever produced but it doesnt mean that its not an awesome rubber, it is at par with tenergy rubbers especially with T25. What I have noticed about this rubber is that you need to have a greater usage of your wrist in doing spins to fully utilize your spin potential using this rubber. Dont get me wrong, its very spinny even with little wrist movements. This rubber takes only a day to break in.

Recommendations:

definitely for advanced players or those with good basics. if you want something slower get the 2.0mm. blades that are off+ will still be alright as long as you have the right technique. If you are a pure looper or spinner i suggest you would get an off- minus or off blade like the Adidas C100, C300 or C500 and Adidas Fibertec Power series

Tibhar Genius is another one of those modern SGE rubbers that doesn't come close to glue feel, spin or performance... but don't hate on this rubber, even the market leader for almost a decade (Tenergy) doesn't either. There is no out of the packet rubber that will be just like, or even close to the old glory days so get over Ur drunk y'all, you are all barking up the wrong tree.

What Genius does is provide stability, control and spin to all your shots. Top end gear is not a rocket, like say Calibra LT, but what Genius does well is everything... with great control and spin. It will not set a speed record, not will it generate heavy spin with a weak stroke (like T05 does), but if you want an allround rubber that does everything, but with more pace and spin than the market benchmark standard (Sriver) this is your rubber. Genius will perform on ANY blade you slap it on (just like T05 perms well on whatever blade) so you know what you are getting and can depend on it. Nexy Korea president likes to use this rubber on one side of his display test blade models in his HQ in Seoul. Same reason, good allround OFF performance that will let you know what is good or bad with the blade.

Very light weight and comfortable shoes. No blisters.

Got these awesome shoes finally after a few months of waiting! I swear I would have mistaken this for a pair of Mizuno shoes due to the design and quality.

Size: 43
Weight: 265 grams per shoe (approx.)

The Instinct Shoes are way different from their previous line of shoes. I suspect this shoe comes from different factory. The soles are soft and very much more comfortable compared to the previous Pro Swede model. Almost the larger part of the shoe is covered with a nylon mesh. It doesn't feel hot and comfortable. This is a first from Stiga in terms of shoes. They have not produced this kind of shoes up until this one which is very good. The design is not too flashy but it really catches attention. The soles are of good design and very grippy on a ceramic tile floor which where I usually play and coach. I felt really comfortable on heavy footwork drills especially on the
lateral movements.



Shining shivering splendid!

Good blade for experienced players.

Limba - ALC - Limba - Ayous - Limba - ALC - Limba.

OFF blade (not OFF- nor OFF+), good feel for the ball, with sufficient power to put any ball away. Blade weight can vary from just over 80g to 100g or so.

Shame BTY seems to have stopped producing them, but there are plenty available second hand.

Softer than T05, harder than T64, it does everything in between.

Blocks better than T05, slightly less sensitive to spin, with throw just a bit lower (hardly noticeable). Feels softer and is a bit bouncier than T05.
A good backhand rubber.

Excellent for looping and driving.

Nothing that has not been said about this rubber.
Durability used to be better than other rubbers, but they have imporoved so no more advantage here. Price however is far too high.
Rubber can be too hard on a hard blade in my opinion, but since it's very linear it's very controlable.

"Turbo"? not a high speed rubber but good enough for FH and BH rubber. Control is excellent.

Changed from Kong Linghui Special. This blade can handle play close and away from the table. Great for spinny loops and has more than enough power for put away shots. Dwell time is good for service and short play. This blade is made for tenergy but it can also go with other medium-hard rubbers.

serves: Paired with good rubbers you can easily get a lot of spin onto the ball. Short serves are very easy as the blade is not too fast. Even serves that require better timing like the reverse pendulum are easier due to the long dwell time.

receives: Just as expected from an allwood blade,the infinity performs very well in the short game. The dwell time and the good feeling of the wood help play short pushes as well as flips with forehand and backhand. Pushes and any kinds of crazy receives are easier with this blade.

open ups: The dwell time really helps on playing heavy spin topspins. You have a lot of time to generate spin and go for a good placement on the table.
topspin: The follow up topspin also works perfectly fine.

Speed: The general speed is not as high as let's say a viscaria's, but still fast. If you are physically fit, you'll have no problem blasting the ball past your opponent after opening up with heavy spin.

countertopspin: Countertopspins also work well, but require proper technique and timing.

conclusion: The infinity is a very good allwood blade that really has no weakness. You can open up with a lot of spin and follow up with a well played loop and then a kill shot. Especially for forehand oriented players this blade is fitting. Backhands are easier to play because of the increased dwell that gives the blade more control. If you're looking for an offensive blade that can play all gears ranging from slow and spinny to fast, then this is your blade. If you're using a carbon blade but struggle with service receive, then this blade is for you. If you have enough physical strength but your receive game or open ups are slacking, then switch to this blade.

Hi .... Now it is about one month I have been playing with this rubber. Initially i was confused from the throw angle on my FH so i played with it on BH ..where it is just perfect. But now i get used to it also on my FH and it is great for Power loops and Spin .. On push game it is very spiny but also a little bit more sensitive to incoming spin ... but you can easily master the incoming spin after a while. And what is the best about this Rubber is the sound ... I like it when you just hit it with power ... wow. Of course the serves are just really hard to return ... lot of spin.

Ok after a while of playing with this rubber (i have tried off+ and all blades with it)i love it for the backhand .. the flicks are just unstoppable ,very High speed can be produced only from a fast wrist movement .... But touch play is a little bit harder with it .Short to net is ok but the transition to back line is hard to get in hand .. the sponge is really reactive and need to practice to get the good feeling for this.

Just great rubber...

Only think is the durability, after a month of playing I can already see my finger movements on bottom of the rubber, so im really afraid how long it will last.
Ok after four months of playing (4 times per week, 1.5 hour practice) the top sheet is ok .... (i clean it with tap water at the end of the day ) only the finger parts is absolutely destroyed . (maybe the salt from fingers ? but my DHS NEO H3 has no issues at all so i do not now) .
Robert.

ps.: i bought it for 33 Euro from internet store.

This is the first racket I was truly content with to a Perfect degree! (C-Pen version) First off the dark pinch is perfect and really nice. (In contrast to the very light pinched Silver line Carbon). Secondly - It has very little vibrations, the little vibration the blade has is comfortable in my hand.
The blades structure itself is: koto - ayous (horizontal) - fiberglass - ayous (horizontal) - koto. Whereby the Fiber glass core is probably the source of the nice dark pinch.
The blade is pretty hard (Not TOO hard, just medium hard!) yet VERY controlled and much more loopable than you'd think (which also means it's great for spin!) with that hardness. I sealed the blade as well, which also give the whole blade a dark nicer colour with a darker blue handle that now matches the blue sponge of the bluefire. (although that's not the main point of sealing). It's said sealing the blade differs the hardness, which is probably correct but to a VERY small degree, but I would personally recommend sealing it, as it also makes it more durable!

It has as far as I'm concerned a big sweet spot and its speed is (as mentioned above) perfect with the amount of control it has. To put it this way I highly doubt you will get ANY blade with as much speed and still have the same amount of control. You will have to look for a while. (personally using with it with Donic Bluefire jp 01-turbo and jp-03). This blade is with that said probably optimized for medium to far distance shooting, mainly medium-far. It works good close to the table, but there are probably other blades better for close to the table (but those would obviously be worse in further away from the table!)
I prefer to step a bit back so for me it's perfect!
If I were to point out any cons with this blade, it MIGHT be the durability. I've had no major damage on it after 2-3 months use (but that's not a very long time), and it seems good so far. But I would recommend the users to "handle with care" (solely based on the feeling I get while using it) if not you should just get the DHS PG 13. (roughly same structure without the same quality control)
Edit:
I've had it for more than a year now, a couple bumps on the edge due some hard punche that hit the table or table edge, but it has great durability.
Extra Update:
Hurricane Hao III (With Adidas Tenzone Ultra and P7) - I call it "The Excalibur of Holy Grails".
This blade in the form of a racket, was given 3 phoenix feathers in it's center core (glass fiber) for a swagical touch and it's surface is filled with the holly african wood known as Koto. It has the extraordinary ability to expelliarmus any death ball back on the table with a under/side spin more sneaky than a Basilisk, or a top/side spin that not even Dobby would be able to handle with his Elf magic. Oh you prefer clean loop? Well that's original, try a light one first and the table might make it out with just a scratch.

This is my first review so bare with me, I've used this rubber for a few months now (on a hurricane Hao III - Pen) I believe it's suited better on a bit harder blades. I use it for my fore hand (black version, 2.00 mm). On close to the table I believe it's doing very good, but when flicking close to net I needed a bit time getting used to it, often flicked it a bit too low. (aka needs a nice touch on flicks)
Before I used this I had a go with Tenergy 80 (for a short while), comparing to the 80 it's more forgiving, and it's throw angle was for my preference better than the tenergy 80's (which had a bit higher throw angle.) Another thing that I find very usefull, but is the second, among the two things that might take some time to master, is the catapult/trajectory arc on harder shots, when you do a hard topspin punch you can feel the rubber bouncing it out with boosted speed. (which is the catapult efect, more speed compared to other rubbers without the so called "catapult" effect) which is imo a powerful weapon when you learn to control it, because several of my harder shots went just too far at the start, but got the hang of it after a while. Despite the speed maybe not being optimal (according to some people) I don't think you need more speed than what the catapult effect gives. Any faster would be too fast for my taste.
Aside from those two things I'd say the rubber is pretty much Perfect. And hey, the sponge is blue, fancy that?

Edit: At the time i wrote this, I meant everything I wrote, but after trying Adidas Tenzone Ultra, I'd say the rebound time in Jp-01 Turbo is a bit of a con. Read the Tenzone Ultra review for more info.

Good offensive rubber with a fair amount of controll. I like it for counter topspin, flick and serve which makes it an excellent rubber for near the table topspin play.

This is one of Stigas tensor-rubbers.
The sponge I play is max, the color is red. The blade I use is a Stiga hybrid wood.

Boost xt is not tacky but generates good spin. A great forhand rubber.
The speed and catapult effect is really good. Medium throw.
It's not light, but not as heavy as the chinese rubbers ive tried.

I picked this rubber to complement a DHS Skyline 2 neo that I was used to, thinking this would be a good backhand rubber but I had real trouble controling it as a backhandrubber. The catapult effect was to big for me. But as a forehand rubber, wow! As soon as I turned the blade over my game started to fall into place.
really happy with this one.

Update:
Seems to be a really nice rubber quality. Looks and feels brand new after 2 weeks and 1 hour practice a day..
As time goes I find it easier and easier to control on my forehand. Definetly a rubber I will buy again. Super happy with it.

i think if the hurricane 3 is getting slow by time , then u got the fake version , so u need to speed glue or boost them each while , but if u got the original version of H 3 same of Chinese national team then u ganna fly on the table lol lol

This rubber has very good spin, has fairly good control, but isn't very fast. If this rubber was slightly faster I would probably like it a lot more than what I do now.