This was a really interesting racket to use and I liked it a lot. I used the cpen handle version of this blade. It's a very fast blade which suits an unrelenting continuous-attack style, while still having relatively good touch and control in the short game. The feeling is extremely crisp, and it excels in driving and smashing rather than looping.
Players who like to chop-block or suddenly change the pace of the game would be better off with the Rosewood NCT V or similarly-constructed blade such as Ma Lin Extra Offensive.
I will compare this blade to the Rosewood NCT V, which I have used for the past year as my main blade. They share a lot of similarities but also a few differences. The NCT V and NCT VII differ not only in the number of plies, but also in the composition of the plies.
The Rosewood NCT V is a 5-ply blade with a composition of
Rosewood - Spruce - Ayous - Spruce - Rosewood.
This composition pattern is standard amongst outer hardwood blades, where Rosewood is often substituted for another hardwood. For example, the well-known Ma Lin Extra Offensive blade has a composition of
Walnut - Spruce - Ayous - Spruce - Walnut.
The Rosewood NCT VII is a 7-ply blade and it does not have any Spruce layers -- its composition is
Rosewood - Ayous - Ayous - Ayous - Ayous - Ayous - Rosewood.
This makes it similar to the well-known Clipper blade, whose composition substitutes Rosewood for Limba. I think that the absence of a Spruce layer in the NCT VII also significantly effects the playing properties of this blade.
My setup for testing this blade was:
Xuperman Powerplay-X FH
Skyline 2 BH
lightly boosted with Haifu Seamoon Black
These are the same rubbers (like literally the exact same pair of rubbers) which I previously had on my Rosewood NCT V, so all of the differences I felt were due to the blade.
The NCT VII is substantially stiffer than the NCT V, which comes with both benefits and drawbacks. Low- and medium-power shots travel much faster, because no energy is lost to blade flex. This is good for attacking players, since their attacks will have more speed with less effort. Attacking the ball directly after the bounce feels very nice, and you can do it without a big windup because the blade is so powerful. With 5-ply blades like Ma Lin EO and Rosewood NCT V, attacking the ball off the bounce requires much more effort.
However, this power comes at the price of control -- it is substantially harder to touch the ball softly and drop it close to the net. Smashing is very fast, but also harder to control. Medium-power attacking hits are the forte of this blade, as they produce high speed with relatively high control.
The lack of a Spruce layer in the NCT VII seems to have an effect on the feeling and properties of the blade as well. As far as I can tell, the Spruce layer serves as kind of a springy shock-absorbing buffer between the outer hardwood layer and the inner ayous layer. It allows the player to "roll" the ball on the outer layer without fully gripping or biting into the blade. This gives the NCT V a very significant advantage in chop-blocks and drop-shots, since touching the ball lightly will not engage the grip of the Ayous core of the racket.
Even when hitting hard with the NCT V, there is a brief moment of "rolling" on the Spruce layer before biting into the Ayous layer. This brief moment is enough for the player to gain some feedback from the racket and make minor adjustments if necessary. It also gives the sense of "grabbing" and "throwing" the ball instead of hitting it. The NCT V feels kind of like playing with low-tension tennis strings, if that is a helpful analogy -- the Spruce layer gives a bit of a trampoline effect.
In contrast, because the NCT VII has no Spruce layer, this means that the Ayous wood is instantly engaged. The ball bites the blade immediately, making it much more sensitive to incoming spin. Looping requires more precision, but simply driving through the ball is enough to produce a significant amount of spin (with my setup at least) because the ball bites as soon as you touch it. Because of this, you can counterattack pretty effortlessly.
The NCT VII has a very different feel compared to the NCT V when looping. The NCT VII has a higher throw angle and doesn't flex as much as the NCT V, so contact time is less. The NCT VII doesn't "pop" as much as the NCT V either; it's much more linear in terms of power response. I would not say that looping is a strength of this blade -- most of the time that I try to create spinny power loops (as I would with the NCT V) the ball goes out. I've had much better success hitting through the ball more flatly, and it still produces a good amount of spin.
Lobbing feels amazing with this blade -- I would say it's even better at lobbing than the NCT V. Because the ball bites the blade as soon as you touch it, you can redirect incoming spin without much effort, giving you very spinny lobs. With the NCT V you have to put more effort into producing your own spin.
While it's not as good as the NCT V or Ma Lin Extra Offensive at touch shots, the NCT VII still has pretty good touch.
Flicking is somehow not as good as NCT V or Ma Lin Extra Offensive; I suspect this is because the ball bites the racket immediately and is thus more sensitive to spin. When playing with this blade I mostly just replaced flicks with drives, and the effect was pretty similar (but less deceptive).
All in all, I think I prefer the NCT V a bit more, since I really like to chop-block and change the pace of the game. But I'll keep this blade in my rotation and maybe someday it will become my primary blade.
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