hey guys! I have finally found a rubber I love for my forehand- Sigma 2 Europe, but am not totally satisfied with my backhand which is bluefire Jp03. Its getting about that time to order new rubber and I was wondering what Xiom rubber you would recommend for backhand? I loop from both sides, and actually prefer a slightly harder, more aggressive backhand rubber than my forehand's to compensate for not being able to swing with as much force on backhand. So probably something with a little more power than the sigma 2 euro.
Now, everyone is different, but, FYI, the reason a softer rubber generally works better on the backhand side is, that, because the stroke on the backhand is smaller and cannot be as big or powerful a stroke, with a softer rubber, you can get the ball to sink into the topsheet more and get more speed and spin with the softer rubber than you would with a harder rubber which requires a bigger stroke and more force to get the ball to sink in to utilize the full potential of the rubber. Someone with a really big backhand stroke with tons of power from the backhand side like Kreanga may get away with a harder rubber and still get the full effect of the rubber. But, with a smaller stroke, you will usually get more from the rubber with a softer rubber.
Just technical information.
As far as Omega IV, O4 is a little more jumpy than Sigma II. The spin is about the same. O4 is faster. But both are great rubbers. S2 has more click sound and you can feel the ball better, but it is not as fast and it has way more control. O4 is faster, jumpier and it grabs the ball really hard so there is less control.
I think whichever hardness you get, Europe, Pro, Asia, they are all good.
Right now I am using Sigma II Pro on forehand and Sigma II Europe on Backhand. But there are lots of people like Timo Boll who use the same rubber on forehand and backhand, and if it really feels right to you to have a rubber that is harder on the backhand, just get which ever hardness you want. O4 is good rubber.
I've kind of ruled out S2P based on its description as a close to the table flatter hitting rubber, so a pro/con list for O4A and O4P would be great.
As long as you know, a lot of the time, those descriptions are totally inaccurate. S2P is a great rubber for spinning the ball. It is as good for away from the table as S2E or better. So, if you can spin the ball and play from far back with S2E on your forehand, S2P will respond about the same but be a little better far from the table than the Europe version does.
S2P and S2E are both good at spinning the ball. And if some people have said it is not so good far away from the table, it is because, it is on the slow side in comparison to a rubber like O4.
If you are looking for a Xiom rubber, all the Xiom rubbers are good quality. Vega is good too. I like Omega IV better. But it is still good. From the sounds of it though, you should probably get something like O4 Pro.