JOOLA Rhyzer 48

I spent 6-7 months using Rhyzer 48 as my forehand rubber. (3 months on a Stiga Infinity VPS and then 4 months on a JOOLA Nobilis PBO-c). My rating is usually around 1500 - 1600 USATT, I train once a week with a coach and compete in a league once a week also.

Initial Impressions

The first thing that stands out about Rhyzer 48 is the speed. It's really quite fast, Tenergy 64 and Evolution MX-P feel slow in comparison. The good news is that its relatively easy to create enough topspin to consistently keep the ball on the table. As long as you have proper body rotation and weight transfer all you need to do is hit deep into the sponge and the ball will come out with a lot of spin. When I let friends hit with my paddle, I've noticed that the people with mediocre body rotation tend to hit the ball long. (Those people usually flip my paddle around to the side with Rhyzer 43, and have much more success with the softer sponge). The throw angle trajectory of Rhyzer 48 is medium to medium high.

The topsheet for Rhyzer 48 (and 43) is thin, soft, and features narrow pimples. The result is that the ball easily penetrates through the rubber and into the sponge. The result is that rubber and sponge engage easily and fling the ball out with lots of spin. The soft topsheet seems to easily surround and grip the ball. It doesn't take much effort to create spin. All one needs to do is hit directly into the sponge when driving/looping. Brush loopers who are used to tacky Chinese rubber (Hurricane 3) will hate using Rhyzer. Brush loopers would be better suited to trying out "Rhyzer Pro (50 or 45)" which features a harder topsheet with thicker pimples and tiny bit more tack. [Or jut get Golden Tango]

Driving / Looping
Rhyzer 48 is hands down my favorite rubber for looping backspin balls. It's almost effortless to loop backspin balls with spin, power, and consistency. One of my friends decided to switch to Rhyzer after seeing how effective my backspin loops had become. Something about the soft topsheet and thick sponge just helps to lift the ball with consistent spin and power. I don't use 48 on backhand, so i can't comment on back hand looping. Personally i have more trouble controlling 48 on backhand compared to 43.

During topspin rallies the rubber does a lot of the work for you. It works really well when hitting at 70-80% power. On the hardest/fastest shots it's less stable then a hard rubber like Rhyzer Pro 50. Also Rhyzer 48 is not that linear compared to harder rubbers.

From mid to long distance this rubber is amazing. You can power loop from distance easily. It's really a lot of fun.

Touch Play

The tradeoff with the soft topsheet is that it's very bouncy even during soft touches. I didn't have any problems with serves, but short pushes were a major problem for me. I can't tell you how many times someone would serve short backspin to my forehand and then I'd try to push it back short, only to instead pop the ball too high or too far and watch my opponent get the first opening attack. Some of this was due to the fact that I don't train touch play enough. I began practicing touch play with my coach more often and my forehand pushes became more manageable. Also, when i switched from the Stiga Infinity blade to the JOOLA Nobilis, the soft hinoki outerplies of the of the Nobilis seem to help a lot with keeping my pushes short and low. Even though the Nobilis is a much faster blade than the Infinity, the soft outerplies help to mitigate the bounciness of the rubber during touch play. (The infinity has a harder touch than most Limba outer blades because of special wood treatment ["Diamond Touch" and "VPS"]. The bottom line is that if you are going to use Rhyzer 48 then you need either good touch play skills or a soft outer ply blade. (Rhyzer Pro 50 is less bouncy during touch play. But of course there is a whole different set of tradeoffs with R50)

Blocking

Blocking seemed decent to me. It blocks fast which can be good or bad depending on your style and the type of ball you are dealing with. Blocking trajectory is medium.

Flicking

I don't really forehand flick that much. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to give a review on that. I haven't tried backhand flicking with 48 either.

Chopping

Don't even bother

Durability

Average. A little better than MX-P and Rhyzm-P.

Conclusion

For a player of my skill level it pairs well with an OFF rated or slower blade. At my skill level I would not use an OFF+ rated blade (and it really doesn't need the extra speed). I haven't tried it with a blade that has the carbon fiber positioned towards the outer plies (Viscaria, TB ALC, JOOLA Energon, etc...), but I assume that it might be more difficult to control during touch play and maybe even looping. I can at least tell you that I was happy with Rhyzer 48 on inner carbon blades and all wood blades.

Overall I liked this rubber and even bought it again. However my coach thinks that I should now use a harder rubber on forehand and recommended Rhyzer Pro 50 which I have been using for two weeks. 50 is more linear, less bouncy during touch play, and really rewards me when I hit the ball perfectly. The tradeoff with 50 is that it really punishes me with crappy spin when I don't hit the ball perfectly. So, consider that when you choose your rubber. (I haven't tried the new Rhyzer Pro 45 yet)

Rhyzer 48 is the closest any company has come to Tenergy 05. My only complaint, which is also true for 05 is the durability. I get about 20-24 hours of hard multiball training before the topsheet dies. Considering that it is significantly cheeper than Tenergy with the same durability, it makes it a much more affordable option. If you are like me and hate the overpriced Butterfly marketing machine, switch to Rhyzer 48, you won't be disappointed.

The Joola Rhyzer 48 is hands down the fastest ESN rubber in the market right now. I have tested it bought with a not-so-known Pro Spin Power blade which is an off+ balsa-carbon blade and the Xiom Feel Ax which is a softer Viscaria blade. People have asked me to compare this with the Xiom Omega VII Pro and there is quite a big difference and in my opinion they are in a different class. I think the upcoming Omega VII Tour should be the equivalent of the Rhyzer 48 and not the Pro version because they feel really different and the VII Pro is marginally softer and lighter. The Rhyzer 48 being 68-69 grams uncut and the Omega VII Pro being 65-66 grams uncut. The Rhyzer 48 is medium hard. It feels a lot firmer than Omega VII Pro. Even the topsheet of the Rhyzer 48 is not as soft as the VII Pro.
The Rhyzer 48 is a beast waiting to be tamed. I think it is not for the untrained. The speed is ridiculously fast. I would boldly rate it as faster than the MX-P rubber. I have used the MX-P on a similar blade with balsa-carbon composition but the at least the MX-P is controllable. The Rhyzer on a very fast carbon blade just goes off the table with a long and high trajectory. I would think maybe because of the trend today of not using blades that are too fast, the Rhyzer is enough to use that you will not lack the speed or power that you need in your shots even if you will just use it on an all+ blade. It should be paired with an all wood blade or if you choose to have a composite blade then the speed of the blade should not exceed that of the Viscaria or Timo Boll ALC blade. Its speed should rival Bryce Speed or even faster by a few notches. The good side is, if you have the training or the skill, the Rhyzer48 is a powerful rubber to use. If I compare it to the the Rhyzm 48 before, the Rhyzm 48 is a mild version with lesser amount of spin. When you are in the receiving end of the Rhyzer 48, you could feel how heavy and spinny the balls are when somebody is using it against you. The very long trajectory of the Rhyzer 48 ensures you that even at 4 meters away from the table, yours shots will not fall short. Also, at close to the table distance, very short swings will handle the ball more than enough to attack it with good amount of speed.
If in terms of spin , the potential level of Rhyzer 48 is much higher than any other rubber in the market with the exception of maybe Tenergy 05 but the level of spin between the 2 seem to be very minute. The ESN rubbers, over the years, have been inching closer to Tenergy in terms of spin. Speed is not a problem for ESn rubber as a lot of ESN rubbers are faster than Tenergy 05 but it is the rubbers grip towards the ball that ESN rubbers are trying to catch up to and I think with Rhyzer, the topsheet’s grip can compete with T05 and give it a run for its money. If you compare it to Xiom Omega VII Pro, the O7P is easier to produce spin probably because the sponge is softer and the rubber is easier to use but the Rhyzer if used correctly can have a higher level of spin. I would wait for the Omega VII Tour to fully compare rubbers in terms of spin and speed.
The Rhyzer is an excellent offensive rubber that does not need an off+ blade to be used. In fact, it needs a slower blade to be fully utilized by players like me who are not pros or not on elite level of playing style. In my opinion, this will be the hot selling rubber early 2018 unless newer and better rubbers will come out later this year.