Xiom's Vega Europe DF vs new Vega X

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Hello all,

I currently have Vega Europe DF on backhand and Asia DF on forehand.
Have been playing on and off since 2010, during time at University and a local table tennis club and now work (tech companies like to have ping pong I guess).
My skill is trash even though I've had a couple of lessons.
Does anyone know if Vega X is has as much control or feeling as their DF lineup from 2016?

Thanks!
 
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As Yogi said, they are quite different. The DF range have unusually soft topsheets. Vega X has a harder sponge and topsheet, is faster, and is more spin sensitive.

Control and feeling are very subjective. Vega X is a solid example of what a middle-of-the-road ESN rubber is these days - not as hard to use as the top-end offerings, but still good performance.

Why do you want to change?
 
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Hi guys, thank you lots for your replies! I apologize for not responding sooner.

I was only able to get two months of actual practice (and 1 coaching session) prior to the COVID-19 shutdown of my local TT club since my return to the sport. I've actually already purchased two sheets of Vega Euro (classic) when I returned because my Asia & Euro DF were already heavily used and lacking friction. Unfortunately, for some reason it was hard to find Euro & Asia DF in either Megaspin or PaddlePalace (Amazon had them at $51!)
When I first began taking the sport seriously several years ago, I started with Euro, and I knew it was slow and easy to control - considering my rusty state 2 months ago, it made sense to start with it again.

More on my background: For most of my TT venture, I've actually mainly used Xiom's Vega series, specifically the Vega Euro, Pro, Asia & Euro 'DF' and testing other friend's ESN rubbers every now and then (such as Andro, Donic, JOOLA).
My goal now is to continue seeking coaching/lessons as I train to get me up to speed, and finally build enough confidence for competition as I don't even have a rating d/t confidence/fear in the past. Previously, even though I was practicing 3-4 hours x 3-4 days a week, I've never set my sights on any tournament.
My current concerns with Vega Euro atm is that I've been occasionally experiencing a sort of "ball-slippage" effect on my forehand. I was thinking it's because it's an outdated rubber and or really soft (or my technique is lacking), and when I saw the Vega X debut, I was seriously interested, thus posting in this forum.

Some things I've noticed about my game: Probably since I'm left-handed, I've had significantly more backhand practice because everyone I knew emphasized on forehand practice in the past, though currently I've been putting a lot of effort on training my forehand. I'd say my forehand drive is up to par now with my backhand drive in consistency, but I still do a lot more with my backhand. For example, I noticed that I rarely loop forehand on receive unless it's long and favor pushing instead. Compared to my backhand, I push with my backhand about 40%(+/- 5%) of the time and favor flicking or flipping on receive. After receive, I noticed recently I focus more on placement during attacks instead of outright aggression. I think its because Vega Euro doesn't really help me in producing incredible shots compared to my opponents'/friends' more modern offensive rubbers like DNA Pro M, R47, etc. That being said, I still love to attack, but when the situation of the round flips to the opponent being on the offensive, I tend to focus on blocks with placement or backhand loop the topspin back (unless my positioning favored my forehand already).

An update to my situation thus far: I still have said Euro rubbers, but because of a recent Victas sale at Megaspin, I actually bought Victas' VJ>07 2x Limber, 1x Regular and 1x Stiff, though this time all in MAX thickness, as in the past I've always gone with 2.0
I haven't been able to try them out because they arrived when my local TT club closed, but I do plan on utilizing Regular (likely on FH) and Limber on backhand. When the rubber configuration is done after probably 140 hours of practice, I'll switch over to Stiff and Limber.
I've always been curious about rubbers outside of German ESN, so I'm actually quite excited to see what its like since they are intermediate Japanese rubbers.

So my question now is, does anyone have experience with modern Japanese offensive rubber and or Victas (besides Butterfly of course), and might also be able to compare them to the Vega X or other intermediate ESN rubbers? I know Victas' other offensive inverted rubbers such as V>15 are made in Germany and VJ>07 are Japanese (except 07's Sticky Extra), but I also value those comparisons to Vega X, because I've always thought I would stay with ESN setups.
 
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I think that's fine to me as I don't think I want flagship tier performance (nor do I want to get used to paying flagship prices yet). Everything I've been researching thus far is leaning towards new rubbers balancing high performance with a sense of control and security.

I think maybe once I've given my best shot at a tournament, I'll start thinking about rubbers like Tenergy, Dignics, Dynarz etc. It's funny though because for some reason I've encountered quite a few people IRL telling me that my Vega Europe is no good and it'll mess up my growth/game, at the same time I've heard from others (that I definitely trust more) that my choice was a good decision.

EDIT: Also, everyone at my local club only has ESN-based rubber or Butterfly rubber, except of course the chopper(s) with TSP Curl, which is why I became curious about Victas rubber.
 
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I've accumulated a few blades, Timo Boll Control (gifted away), Andro TemperTech ALL+ (lost forever), a cheap cPen (gifted away), the first version of ZJK ALC (the dark aqua blue one, essentially a fancier viscaria), and an Innerforce Layer ALC (my current main).

I'm actually not quite sure what I prefer between soft and hard rubbers. All I know is that I hated testing all rubbers with more than 47 degrees hardness thus far, such as MXP50 or R50 and beyond. So I think I enjoy anything between 37.5 to 47.5 given my history of rubbers.

EDIT: I realized I didn't actually answer Yogi's question in my pursuit for pro tips. Before I quit for a couple years, I think I preferred Asia DF on my backhand and Euro DF on my forehand, though I did flip forehand and backhand sides every now and then. So I guess I did prefer the harder rubber on backhand than forehand. But now both sides are the same Euro classic, which I believe has the same 42.5 hardness as the Asia DF.
 
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Oh okay, I thought he was referring to the Victas VJ>07s to the Vega X.
Those are 40° for Limber, 42.5° for Regular and 45° for Stiff - all of which range in the middle of rubbers and their hardness I've enjoyed using.
 
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Wow, yea now that you've mentioned it, they are priced very well at the moment. I completely ignored them in favor of Vega X and other ESN rubbers like DNA Pro S & M, but VII Euro and Pro could indeed be a good combination. I was considering on picking up the Vega X to compare to these VJ>07 intermediate rubbers, but now it seems I have more to think about.
 
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