Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 05 HARD VS Rakza X

Lula · Feb 13, 2019

Hello! There are proably many of these threads but i have searched a little and have not really found what i was looking for. If there are answers in other threads please direct my to those.

At the moment i am playing with Rakza X. I like it but i find it not very durable. I have also tried a friends Tenergy and Tenergy 05 HARD and i think it feels like the topsheet is gripping the ball much better. So i am considering trying tenergy.

But first, is it worth the high price? Some of my friends say it is worth it beacuse it is simply better than anything else and another friend thought it was worth it because it is more durable. I am also somewhat happy with Rakza X, but not with its durability so i am considering if i need to change it at all?

What do you guys think? Is the performance of the rubber so much better so it is worth the money? and is it more durable than other rubbers?

For some years ago i mostly played passive with my backhand, but i have worked alot on my backhand so it is somewhat good today. So i think it is more important for me today than before to have a good backhand rubber.

I also wonder about tenergy 05 or tenergy 05 HARD. How hard is Rakza X compared to these rubbers? And which rubber suits better for the backhand?

Before when my backhand were not so good, i liked softer rubbers because of the control. But now i like more hard rubber since when you go for it, it happens much more. I have tried both Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 05 HARD from friends, using their rackets and i tend to like HARD better because i feel when you do something you get alot from it. But maybe it to unsafe and hard to do more passive shots with HARD because you do not get as much help from the sponge. I have pretty good acceleration and have sometimes to thin hit on my backhand, so i think a pretty hard rubber would work okay. I think Rakza X hardness is okay, but i think i would play even better with a little harder rubber.

This is hard to know since i am speculating alot, and it is proably very hard for you to answer and give me advice since you do not have seen the level of my backhand and since the feel of rubbers is somewhat subjective. I will try to try my friends rubbers a little more. I know for sure, that i like the topsheet alot but i am not sure about the hardness or if the rubbers is worth the money.

My level of play is somewhat mediumhigh so i think i could control both of these rubbers good.

Interested to hear your opinions. Thanks.

NDH · Feb 13, 2019

Hey @Lula, is there any video of you playing at all (purely out of curiosity!)

To answer the question of "is Tenergy worth it?" - For a lot of people. No.

I don't believe they'd get the most out of the rubber, and they would be fine with a different one.

I can get Tibhar EVO rubbers for almost half the price, and I tried them recently (MX-S).

I really enjoyed it for a few weeks, but like with a lot of other rubbers, I found the degradation was quicker and more sudden than any previous Tenergy I'd used.

So for me, the peace of mind is worth it alone. Not to mention it lasts longer and maintains the grip better than most rubbers.

T05H on the backhand would be OK - I used MX-S on the backhand and that's much harder.

T05H is only a little harder than T05, so there doesn't need to be too much adjustment to be honest.

I've not played with Rakza X, so I can't compare them.

There are definitely many many many rubbers out there which are close enough to Tenergy for a fraction of the price, which will be perfectly fine for the majority of people.

But my feeling is, if you can afford Tenergy, it's worth it if you play regularly and can get the most out of the rubbers.

Lula · Feb 13, 2019

I am playing forehand smash against block here, but maybe it does not help you very much since i do not use backhand in the video. If it helps i would say my backhand is similar level as my forehand.

Okay, thank you for the answer.

Since i have many friends playing with tenergy i am curious. I think i will listen what you guys say here and in the end still a Tenergy so i can make my opinion if i think it is worth the money or not. I mean if i play much better with it, maybe it is worth it.

I like that you say that the durability is good. That is important for me. Feel somewhat cheated when the topsheet looks worn after a couple of months.

Do you use HARD on the forehand or backhand now?

NDH · Feb 13, 2019

OK - I think you'd benefit from using Tenergy (as in, you'll be able to make the most of it).

I use Hard on the forehand - I find it better for serve and touch play around the net, and I like the fact I can counter better on the forehand.

I prefer regular T05 on the backhand so I can spin the ball up, and play a little further away from the table, but still get a good amount of speed and spin on the ball.

Pretty much every other rubber I've used has given me the impression that it's past it's best after 2/3 months.

Tenergy does degrade, but no where near as much in my experience.

I'm sure some of it may be mental due to the aesthetics, but that's just how I feel!

So for me, the option was to spend £30 every 2 months on an OK rubber, or spend £60 every 4 months on Tenergy.

Lula · Feb 13, 2019

Next time you train maybe you can try to turn the racket around and try some backhands with the HARD so you can tell me what you think? Once again, i will try to try my friends racket and see if i feel a big difference.

The few balls i have tried i feel it is a pretty big differnce in hardness between the two tenergys. And that HARD is very good to play hard with since tenergy HARD is so hard. The backhand punch is great. I also like if the rubber is direct and the arc of the ball is pretty straigth since i play pretty close to the table. Can not play to far away since i play with short pimple on my forehand.

Edit: i am more in it for the awesome topsheet, so maybe it does not matter much which hardness i choose. I think both are very good and playable.

NDH · Feb 13, 2019

Lula said:
Next time you train maybe you can try to turn the racket around and try some backhands with the HARD so you can tell me what you think? Once again, i will try to try my friends racket and see if i feel a big difference.

The few balls i have tried i feel it is a pretty big differnce in hardness between the two tenergys. And that HARD is very good to play hard with since tenergy HARD is so hard. The backhand punch is great. I also like if the rubber is direct and the arc of the ball is pretty straigth since i play pretty close to the table. Can not play to far away since i play with short pimple on my forehand.

Edit: i am more in it for the awesome topsheet, so maybe it does not matter much which hardness i choose. I think both are very good and playable.

If you are staying close to the table and punching/blocking - I'd go for HARD.

I've tried it on my backhand, and found it a little too direct (only a little), so I couldn't get the nice arc on my backhand loops unless I changed technique, and really tried to loop it.

It wasn't a huge difference, but it was noticeable.

Playing at the table was fine with HARD - Backhand to backhand rallies were good, and you could still attack if you needed to.

mart1nandersson · Feb 13, 2019

It may be worth testing T64 as well as it's faster and has got a lower arc. T05 on FH and T64 on BH is an extremely common setup so finding someone whos blade you can test shouldn't be an issue. It's got less spin than T05 so maybe not ideal if you plan on looping a lot.

Butterfly has produced a pretty good marketing article where they compare the different Tenergy rubbers (it's a bit dated so T05 Hard is not covered):
https://en.butterflymag.com/2015/06/all-about-tenergy-22/

NextLevel · Feb 13, 2019

Lula said:
Hello! There are proably many of these threads but i have searched a little and have not really found what i was looking for. If there are answers in other threads please direct my to those.

At the moment i am playing with Rakza X. I like it but i find it not very durable. I have also tried a friends Tenergy and Tenergy 05 HARD and i think it feels like the topsheet is gripping the ball much better. So i am considering trying tenergy.

But first, is it worth the high price? Some of my friends say it is worth it beacuse it is simply better than anything else and another friend thought it was worth it because it is more durable. I am also somewhat happy with Rakza X, but not with its durability so i am considering if i need to change it at all?

What do you guys think? Is the performance of the rubber so much better so it is worth the money? and is it more durable than other rubbers?

For some years ago i mostly played passive with my backhand, but i have worked alot on my backhand so it is somewhat good today. So i think it is more important for me today than before to have a good backhand rubber.

I also wonder about tenergy 05 or tenergy 05 HARD. How hard is Rakza X compared to these rubbers? And which rubber suits better for the backhand?

Before when my backhand were not so good, i liked softer rubbers because of the control. But now i like more hard rubber since when you go for it, it happens much more. I have tried both Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 05 HARD from friends, using their rackets and i tend to like HARD better because i feel when you do something you get alot from it. But maybe it to unsafe and hard to do more passive shots with HARD because you do not get as much help from the sponge. I have pretty good acceleration and have sometimes to thin hit on my backhand, so i think a pretty hard rubber would work okay. I think Rakza X hardness is okay, but i think i would play even better with a little harder rubber.

This is hard to know since i am speculating alot, and it is proably very hard for you to answer and give me advice since you do not have seen the level of my backhand and since the feel of rubbers is somewhat subjective. I will try to try my friends rubbers a little more. I know for sure, that i like the topsheet alot but i am not sure about the hardness or if the rubbers is worth the money.

My level of play is somewhat mediumhigh so i think i could control both of these rubbers good.

Interested to hear your opinions. Thanks.

Yes, try a Tenergy. Cost is not the main reason I don't use it. It is too fast for my passive game since I don't train that much. You may prefer 80 or 64 to 05 but 05 is for close to the table and mid distance topspin. Tenergy topsheet and sponge is better than most but I cant control it in passive game and I don't get the spin benefit from 80 which I can control so I use older ESN material. I suspect T05 hard would be great for me as I used to use MX-S on both sides but when I look at the cost and I look at my game I don't see the benefit. Fastarc is costing me $30 per sheet and has the same durability as Tenergy but is not as good for high level topspin. But my level is not high enough to care.

Lula · Feb 13, 2019

NDH said:
If you are staying close to the table and punching/blocking - I'd go for HARD.

I've tried it on my backhand, and found it a little too direct (only a little), so I couldn't get the nice arc on my backhand loops unless I changed technique, and really tried to loop it.

It wasn't a huge difference, but it was noticeable.

Playing at the table was fine with HARD - Backhand to backhand rallies were good, and you could still attack if you needed to.

Okay, i play some loops over and far away from the table to. I accelerate pretty well and have pretty thin hit so i think a hard rubber would be good for this. Since i do not need the softness of the sponge to create spin.

mart1nandersson said:
It may be worth testing T64 as well as it's faster and has got a lower arc. T05 on FH and T64 on BH is an extremely common setup so finding someone whos blade you can test shouldn't be an issue. It's got less spin than T05 so maybe not ideal if you plan on looping a lot.

Butterfly has produced a pretty good marketing article where they compare the different Tenergy rubbers (it's a bit dated so T05 Hard is not covered):
https://en.butterflymag.com/2015/06/all-about-tenergy-22/

thanks for the link! it did help! I am thinking that 05 or 05 HARD would be the safest choice since alot of players seems to prefer 05 of over the other tenergys. So it is kind of a proven concept. The other versions is also softer? i like a harder rubber more.

NextLevel said:
Yes, try a Tenergy. Cost is not the main reason I don't use it. It is too fast for my passive game since I don't train that much. You may prefer 80 or 64 to 05 but 05 is for close to the table and mid distance topspin. Tenergy topsheet and sponge is better than most but I cant control it in passive game and I don't get the spin benefit from 80 which I can control so I use older ESN material. I suspect T05 hard would be great for me as I used to use MX-S on both sides but when I look at the cost and I look at my game I don't see the benefit. Fastarc is costing me $30 per sheet and has the same durability as Tenergy but is not as good for high level topspin. But my level is not high enough to care.

Okay! Maybe i will try Fastarc. I have a friend that use it on the forehand and he likes it alot. But i am very intrigued by the topsheet of tenergy, since it seems like it really bites the ball.It would be fun to test and see how it feels.

Thanks for all the answers! Much appreciated.

No one knows the sponge hardness of Rakza 7 soft and Rakza x or where to find the hardness? This is what i have to compare to. It would be nice to know the hardness of the Rakza rubbers so i could now how the hardness differ from the tenergys.

mart1nandersson · Feb 13, 2019

My understanding is that T05/64/80 uses the same sponge but have got different pimple structure = same hardness.

Not sure about T25 which is different.

NDH · Feb 13, 2019

mart1nandersson said:
My understanding is that T05/64/80 uses the same sponge but have got different pimple structure = same hardness.

Not sure about T25 which is different.

I think T05Hard would be better for Lula than T64.

I prefer blocking with T05H, and I find it more responsive to punch (whilst still giving you the ability to spin it up and loop away from the table).

T64 seems to be a dying rubber from what I can tell.

Jirrex · Feb 13, 2019

Lula said:
No one knows the sponge hardness of Rakza 7 soft and Rakza x or where to find the hardness? This is what i have to compare to. It would be nice to know the hardness of the Rakza rubbers so i could now how the hardness differ from the tenergys.

It seems Yasaka uses quite a wide range for their sponge hardness, this is what I found on the Japanese website:

Actually I wonder why only Yasaka uses such a wide range, a lot of rubbers are made by ESN after all (so tolerances should be somewhat comparable I'd say).

Do you have experience with both Rakza 7 and Rakza X, and if so, is one more durable than the other?

mart1nandersson · Feb 13, 2019

Jirrex: I think that you'll find that kind of inconsistency in sponge hardness and thickness in pretty much all rubbers. Some manufacturers seem to be more open about the fact that not all rubbers are exactly 47 degree or 2.1mm thick.

Jirrex · Feb 13, 2019

mart1nandersson said:
Jirrex: I think that you'll find that kind of inconsistency in sponge hardness and thickness in pretty much all rubbers. Some manufacturers seem to be more open about the fact that not all rubbers are exactly 47 degree or 2.1mm thick.

That's also my first thought, couldn't really think of a reason that the other brands are able to narrow down the range of hardness (as long as the rubbers are coming from the same manufacturer, ESN in this case).

mart1nandersson · Feb 13, 2019

Jirrex said:
That's also my first thought, couldn't really think of a reason that the other brands are able to narrow down the range of hardness (as long as the rubbers are coming from the same manufacturer, ESN in this case).

I've seen sheets from TSP that has got the sponge thickness printed on the sponge. Something like 0.9mm-1.1mm on a sheet that was sold as a 1.0mm rubber. Not a big deal to me as we're talking about so small variances. I guess that anyone that worries about such things should invest in a durometer and a caliper.

Master_of_loops · Feb 13, 2019

I play with Tenergy 05 since 2007 and there were short periods when club in which I played couldnt afforded me T05 so I used Donic Baracuda, Donic Bluefire M1, Donic Bluefire Jp01 turbo, Victas V15extra. Mentioned rubbers are all good and can spin ball very nicelly but when you once try T05 then all other rubbers cant compare to that spin and safety that T05 has. Tenergy 05 - simply the best.

Master_of_loops · Feb 13, 2019

I forget to say that you must be in good training so you can get that spin from T05 (I saw your video and you are good) because service returns and blocks are T05 weak points compare to Victas V15extra and other esn new generation rubbers. So if you need control with great spin then go for esn new generation rubbers, but if you are seeking for max spin with somethimes tricky control then go for T05

Airoc · Feb 13, 2019

mart1nandersson said:
Some manufacturers seem to be more open about the fact that not all rubbers are exactly 47 degree or 2.1mm thick.

But a 5 degree margin is a bit much. Given that from the softest ESN (32,5) and the hardest (52,5) there are 20 degrees over the whole scale, so that would be a quarter of what´s available just as deviance ...

As for the overall theme, switching from Rakza to t05 HARD is a bit much also. I gave HARD to a third league (and former national) player, he loved the quality of counterspins especially, but decided against it because it is too difficult in matchplay when position to the ball varies. "Not fit enough for this rubber", he said. Like I said, third league Germany, and not that old ...

"Normal" t05 should be a step forward in rubber quality, spin and consistency, maybe even durability. But HARD is not for everyone ...

Airoc · Feb 13, 2019

mart1nandersson said:
My understanding is that T05/64/80 uses the same sponge but have got different pimple structure = same hardness.

All tenergy rubbers have different pimple structures (these structures were numbered during testing and give the rubbers their respective names).

The sponge however is 36 degrees (Japanese scale, add around 12 for ESN numbers ...) on all models, FX versions (I think 32) and HARD excluded.

eduardo1995filipe · Feb 13, 2019

I never tried T05H. But I think regular 05 would be a good choice in backhand for you! I find T80 and 64 a but mushy for poly ball, and if you like harder rubbers, I would go to T05/D05 first

Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 05 HARD VS Rakza X

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