Nittaku premium ball

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I played the Nittaku Premium ball once.

All i could say was wow. It plays even better than some 40mm balls. I heard some people say the Premium ball retains the similar speed and spin of the old 40mm balls. Is it correct? If it's true then the Premium ball sets a high bar above all other manufacturers. So the question is use or not. If WTTC use butterfly, and Olympic uses Nitakku Premium, the game is faster in Olympic which is unfair and inconsistent.

Is there any rule around this?



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It's a great ball for sure. The new DHS D40+ is quite similar at 1/3 of the price. This WTTC used the Nittaku.

I can verify this. Baal has given me a pack of the NP 40+ (and a DHS D40+).
In a blindfolded test i hardly would be able to distinguish one from the other.
Both feel real nice.
Thanks again, Baal. Very much appreciated.
:)

Thanks both. Good to know that.

Does that mean in future events only the fastest 40+ balls will be used to keep consistency?



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For sure, old cellulose acetate balls would die out gradually due to extremely low bounce and irregular bounce as well as high breakage rate. I notice there are some ABS balls coming into the market, but mostly without ITTF approval. These are approved include TIBHAR, TSP CP, DF, DHS, STIGA. ( if check ball approval list, easy to figure out). I guess more brands are still wait and see how it goes. Quality improvement is one thing, we should remember profit is the major concern for brands. If margin for ABS ball is low and everyone is selling ABS ball, they wouldn't be incentive enough to sell it with their brands. They have different angle from a player's.
 
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I played the Nittaku Premium ball once.

All i could say was wow. It plays even better than some 40mm balls. I heard some people say the Premium ball retains the similar speed and spin of the old 40mm balls. Is it correct? If it's true then the Premium ball sets a high bar above all other manufacturers. So the question is use or not. If WTTC use butterfly, and Olympic uses Nitakku Premium, the game is faster in Olympic which is unfair and inconsistent.

Is there any rule around this?

I have played with Nittaku Premium balls since last year, it's the most durable plastic ball on the market, However, it is not as fast as the previous 40mm balls nor is the spin better. Like all plastic balls, the balls are slightly slower with a slight reduction in spin.

With my old rubber M2 and Stiga, the ball penetrates the sponge better than most plastic balls because of its hardness. I just started using Rasanter and find smaller differences compared to the old rubber with the plastic balls. Perhaps that is because of the thinner top sheet and thicker sponge.

I agree with you on the differences (butterfly and Premium) perhaps someday there will be a more unified plastic ball rather than a bunch of different versions which play differently.
 
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I can verify this. Baal has given me a pack of the NP 40+ (and a DHS D40+).
In a blindfolded test i hardly would be able to distinguish one from the other.
Both feel real nice.
Thanks again, Baal. Very much appreciated.
:)

I got me a box of the DHS balls, with Ding Ning on it — https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1Ix2y...est-font-b-DHS-b-font-3-Star-Dingning-D40.jpg -- and I think these are what this is about, right? They are great. I haven't encountered the Nittaku Premium anywhere, so I can't compare, but these DHS balls are the best I've used so far.
 
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Weird thread. Under Nittaku ball title, everyone is talking about DHS. Suddenly hatred against DHS is gone.
 
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I didn't like the Ding Ning boxed DHS balls...so much less spin compare to more round, more spinny, more stable Xushaofas.

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I didn't like the Ding Ning boxed DHS balls...so much less spin compare to more round, more spinny, more stable Xushaofas.

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O Please no Xushaofa... These balls are so bad. I tried them once and bought a package with 6 balls and all of them were eggs. Was my quickest balltest ever :D But back to topic. For me the NP-Ball is the best! But 2 weeks ago I tried the new CP40+ from TSP. I can really recommend the ball. Try them out, for me it is the cheaper NP
 
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Thanks both. Good to know that.

Does that mean in future events only the fastest 40+ balls will be used to keep consistency?



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A couple of details. Nittaku and D40+ are made of very similar material (versions of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS), but not identical because they are a slightly different color. The D40+ is just a tad bit heavier than the Nittaku (2.73 gram vs. 2.69 grams) and has a slightly higher pitched sound. That means the Nittaku is ever so slightly faster than the D40+. So if you really concentrate and switch from one ball to the other randomly you can over time teach yourself to determine the difference between them, but even though they are not precisely identical, it is very easy to switch from one to the other. Those are the two balls I use the most, and I find that switching to anything else now requires some adjustment that takes quite awhile. I have always liked seamless balls, but I like these much more. You tend to like what you are used to, but I liked the Nittaku more the first time I tried it.

Lot of other companies are going to be selling re-branded versions of the D40+ in the future, so probably these will become the dominant balls. I think the CP40+ from TSP is one of those.

Seamless has never been adapted in any pro tournaments that I know of. I never had a roundness issue with them but I have not bought any recently (I bought a bunch when they first came out) and the quality control may have changed. Also, some people say that if they got exposed to heat during shipping that can make them go out of round (I am skeptical of that explanation since I kept a bunch in the trunk of my car in Houston Texas in the summer and it did not make them go out of round). The Yinhe seamless I occasionally see here are quite good.

I hope and suspect that the cellulose acetate balls will disappear. They offer no advantages at all, since they are not round, bounce poorly, are fragile, and are expensive. I don't have any inside information on this, though.

I am curious what Butterfly will do. Will they also sell a rebranded D40+? Before they come out with their G40+, the Butterfly plastic ball was a re-branded cellulose acetate ball, but probably the one made by Double Fish. As with all cellulose acetate balls, it is terrible. I mention Butterfly because sometimes their balls have been used in major events. I very much dislike the G40+ personally and I am glad that it has not really caught on anywhere. I don't like the surface texture (too smooth) and the thing has less arc in the air and the sound is ridiculous. Their practice ball version (Easy Ball) is actually better than their competition ball. Will they in time give up on their German-made balls?
 
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Seamless ball looks like abandoned child that ITTF never intended or would never use in international events for the time being no matter this child is a good boy or not. Sigh. Not my concern anyway. It's not like I would have chance to compete in pro events. I did have impression that Joola's seamless ball was used at recent Men Team Final of German League. But seems they are not aggressively pushing their ball. No one on this forum bother to mention Joola seamless ball. Mainly Nittaku, Xushaofa, DHS..
 
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One question occurred to me, will Nittaku ball finally gets cheaper due to price pressure from DHS? That would be good for us players...
 
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If I play with a box of NP40+ for a week or two, that is my favorite ball. If I then grab some D40+ and play with them for a couple of weeks, that becomes my favorite ball! They are really similar, and you just have to get used to the 40 mg difference in weight which is actually noticeable, but not problematic. (The seamless at a point at least were heavier still and seem to float more in the air for some reason, and I suspect it is because they have a slightly larger diameter, but I have not weighed any that were manufacutered recently). By the way, the D40+ stays good longer, there is no question about that. It is definitely more durable. Now, if I go to a website to buy them there is simply no question anymore. The D40+ is my favorite ball because they are 1/3 the price.

By the way, both of them (NP40+ and D40+) are covered with tons of powder when they are new, though. That is annoying.
 
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