Real Life vs Revspin the biggest dissapointment of equipment

Revspin? Navelgazer at best.

Stats have a curious property of becoming more and more close to the truth as the sample size grows. If an equipment has a couple dozen reviews, you can more or less rely on the rating. I've had a few cases where my rating was significantly different than the one on revspin but usually they're similar. One thing you should be wary of is that there's a thing called "personal preferences". It might be something unusual you do that most people don't, something in your style. In which case you might like a blade that most people think is rubbish. That's fine, neither you nor them are necessarily wrong.

I will always look at Revspin, but very rarely do I take much notice of it.

The thing with table tennis, is that the vast majority of "online players" - That is, people who review on RevSpin, or contribute to forums etc, are generally at an ability level where they just don't know enough to comment accurately - Despite their best intentions.

I could give a Timo Boll ALC with T05 to a local "average" player - They can have a hit with it, decide it's far too uncontrollable and the whole thing seems wrong, and then go and review it on that basis.

I imagine a lot of the reviews on RevSpin are like that - Not to mention the fact that people really can't put numbers on things like "speed", "control", "stiffness" and "hardness" - They simply will be making it up!

The way I look at it, is you can potentially get a rough idea if you can find a review that compares it to something you are familiar with.

For example, I'm looking to buy the new Harimoto blade on the back of looking at Innerforce ALC reviews, and seeing that it's slightly slower than a TB ALC with a bit more spin.

Having played with a TB ALC, I know this is almost exactly what I'm looking for.

But at the end of the day, it's all so subjective, it's very hard to take too many of these online reviews/stats to heart - Even from the likes of Dan at TTD (although I find his reviews are amongst the very best for comparisons to other products).

Problem with revspin is two fold. Small sample size and players rating equipment that are low level amateurs or even beginners. So it's just bad data. Use a combination of objective facts (re: composition etc) and reviews from well regarded sources as well as your own past experience with a company to inform your decisions.

From my experience, the long pips ratings there, are not accurate.

Pretty impossible to know the level of the player, how much equipment they have tried and can compare to and how much they know about equipment. How equipment feel is also pretty subjective i feel.

So comments sure can help, but i do not think we should believe everything everyone writes.

The Andro blades are top notch. I got one 50 € one by occasionally and it's way higher than it's price.

I use revspin often to get first information, mostly stiffness and hardness of blades as well as sponge hardness of rubbers. Other categories are kinda unimportant as the rating is too much biased. Most thing I dislike about revspin is the popularity of fast BTY blades like Sardius or Gergely Carbon. I just can't think of them being popular. Excluding them I think everybody can find a good setup trying out the most popular blades and rubbers.

Everything when it comes to rating TT equipment is subjective and reviews are pretty useless unless you know the person and exactly how they play. You have the players level which is one factor. Then you also have the playing style which almost as important. One person may like to brush loop everything and another one will have a much flatter hit. They will for sure not share the same opinion about the same equipment.

The only semi-scientific review attempt that I've run into is ttgearlab.com and I find their reviews really impressive as they provide measurable data.

In Information Analysis there are techniques called Critical Reading and Critical Thinking.
These techniques, combined with the methods of Statistical Pattern Recognition, may help significantly in Usefull Data Extrapolation.
Data pollution is everywhere and some learning how to swim in a polluted envirement is a must for the modern generation.

Konrad Bak said:

I find my EJ, my knowledge everything comes from Revspin.
I had every top blade in hand and a lot of rubbers too
I really like a lot of them but
I find today one guy make this rating.
He made 89 ratings...
So his reviews should be more rational.

This blade is one of the top blade ever if we talk about Money/feeling/game ratio. Limba outer, very well finish, very spinny loops, good for blocking. I never thought that Andro can make something special like this OFF product suited for modern game . Very underatted product and very cheap.

The biggest dissapointment from Revspin for myself - every ZLF blade. Liu shiwen- I don't like it. Ai Fukuhara- I don't like it and Andro Treiber Z was awful
The biggest suprise for me Palio Enegy 03 and Andro CSV OFF+
What is your opinion? What is your view about Revspin ratings or what do you find that don't suit your game but ratings show something different

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You see aggregated scores of 40-50 people about a blade, and you go "no, I disagree with this outcome, therefore they're all idiots, what a disappointment this site is"? Ok.
I, for example, think the CSV blade is mediocre at best and the LSW one of the best blades I ever had. In terms of consistency, quality of make, sweet spot, feeling for the ball, weight distribution etc I see them as 2 blades on 2 completely different price points, which they really are. So you see we 2 have completely opposite opinions already.
But our personal opinions by themselves don't mean much.

That said, the more people share their opinions on something the closer they get to anything like objective truth. This is called 'wisdom of the masses', which is the subject of much academic study and is proven to be accurate and scientific enough to have modern GPS apps based on its application.
It's very interesting because it shows how even the most subjective assessments, when aggregated under certain conditions, tend to come very close to objective truth. As far as that term exists, but that's philosophy already.

mart1nandersson said:

The only semi-scientific review attempt that I've run into is ttgearlab.com and I find their reviews really impressive as they provide measurable data.

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I didn't know about ttgearlab.com. I am a geek and will soak it up.
I liked the reviews that PathFinderPro did years back. Those videos took a lot of time to create.

If we truly had scientific data on each rubber and blade then so what? Which one is best for you and the way you play?
The paddle palace has so many rubbers and paddles listed. I don't see how there can't be many paddles and rubbers that are effectively the same given manufacturing consistency is not perfect.

I just visited ttgearlab.com. They don't really know anything. The can talk about rubbers and pip size but other than that they are clueless.
What a disappointment.

I found ttgearlab’s reviews quite useful to me, especially those on the blades. They presented the scientific data like elasticity and vibrations of blades in a numerical way rather than something completely subjective.

It is then up to us to decide which blades or equipments fit us better.

There is no guarantee those data will point us to the correct direction because scientific data is not everything. It is not really 100% scientific either due to the variations of blades even with same brand and same model that the analysis may not have taken care of, but it gives us some concrete ideas at least.

Feel free to debate...


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Konrad Bak said:

Nah I was like
100 people Love LSW zlf I dont like, so maybe this is not my type of blade and that is all.
I try make something like ^the worst rubber from esn^ Thread from other forum but in the way How our expectations works based on reviews from people.
I find this review from guy who dont even use blade and Put some ratings just to show yall How It works in Real life.
People will tell something special about you when you look great and you have very respectful family(lsw zlf) and they dont even look at you when you are different and special (csv off+) but your shoes are older or something

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I see that website as an opportunity to reach something like truth through application of wisdom of the masses, so every blade I used I marked with some numbers there based on my experience. I trust the science of it, which says that no matter what I add, my contribution will ultimately facilitate the creation of something approximating an 'absolute, objective and true result'.
If everyone does the same, it doesn't even matter how good they are or what their personal preference is. At least, according to the science. The end result is more likely than not to result in something like an objective truth.

Of course the system can be rigged (with, say, all the nittaku employees are ordered to vote 10 to all their products), but I don't see a lot of evidence of that.


Also the final result might be something like objective truth, but it might not mean anything to you at all personally, because your personal preference shifts radically from the norm, lets say, and you love some 15% trash blade that you feel is the best in the world (not you personally, just an example), and to you the Ma Long 5 will feel like a brick made of suck.
But still.

dkyy said:

I found ttgearlab’s reviews quite useful to me,

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As soon as they mentioned tension I knew they were bogus.

brokenball said:

As soon as they mentioned tension I knew they were bogus.

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Why? Whats wrong with tension?

langel said:

Why? Whats wrong with tension?

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It’s nothing but a marketing term?

Not this crap again. Let's not get into it once again, shall our infamous Engineer?

If others feel their lives are so boring, go ahead and read up on Integrated Tension. An absolute thrill, 100% guarantee!

Back to the OP - a well informed choice may work only with well formulated need.