Are seamless ball better than those with seam ?

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I was trying to order some ping pong balls but was not sure what ball I should buy.
Some balls have some sort of seam and others not
Which do you recommend ? Is three stars the best or do they go higher ?
 
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I was trying to order some ping pong balls but was not sure what ball I should buy.
Some balls have some sort of seam and others not
Which do you recommend ? Is three stars the best or do they go higher ?

In general, balls with seam have higher spin than seamless.

3 stars are of better quality than 1 star.

Stick to the big brands like Butterfly, Nittaku and DHS.
 
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I would agree to disagree because i think seamless balls have higher spin (like joola flash or black xiom). And do not stick with butterfly because those are the shittiest balls ever made.
Seamless balls - black Xiom (NOT Xiom V) or Joola Flash
Seam balls - DHS D40 or Joola Prime or Nittaku Premium
 
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I agree with previous post.

When 40 + plastic balls first came out the ones with seams were terrible because they were made of cellulose acetate. They simply didn't bounce high enough and it was difficult to find round ones. They were really hard to get used to after many years of playing with celluloid balls.

At that time the seamless plastic balls, which also appeared early on, were a big Improvement. They at least had a proper bounce! But they never seemed to spin properly. I actually think it's because the first ones actually had a larger radius! Perhaps that has changed now.

Not too long after that seamed balls made of ABS appeared. The first of these were made by Nittaku. I have always liked those the best but they have also been very expensive. In fact for a while Nitttaku was the only company making a seamed ball out of ABS. Now you have other choices like DHS D40 and Double Fish V40..

Around 2015 I bought every kind of 40+ ball i could find, weighed them on a lab balance to check weights, checked bounce height and roundness,, and of course played with them. I posted a ton of stuff about them, here and especially at MyTT. My criterion for a good ball was one that played as closely as possible to celluloid balls. At a point I just stopped and only bought Nittakus. DHS D40 is good too.

One thing I remember from around 2015 is that the seamless balls seemed to be almost indestructible and had a very long lifetime. I don't know if that's still true.​​​​​Nittaku ABS balls have fantastic playing properties when they're new but they don't necessarily have a very long lifetime. it's not that they break but the surface becomes very shiny and at that point they just don't play properly anymore.

Three stars is the highest.
 
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I would agree to disagree because i think seamless balls have higher spin (like joola flash or black xiom). And do not stick with butterfly because those are the shittiest balls ever made.
Seamless balls - black Xiom (NOT Xiom V) or Joola Flash
Seam balls - DHS D40 or Joola Prime or Nittaku Premium

Agreed 1000% Butterfly balls are trash. Every version of 3 star Butterfly Balls I’ve had (a40,S40,G40,etc.) have all broken on me. I’ve yet to have that same experience with 3 star Double Fish V40+ and DHS 3 star balls. My two current favorite brands of balls. Xiom Black, Gewo Select Pro 40+ and Joola Prime 40+ are equally good. 3 star is the highest quality you can get. Any “higher” i.e. 4 star / 5 star are for novelty purposes. Usually seen on crappy “beer pong” balls you see behind the counter at a corner store here in NYC. Hope this helps.


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Answering the original question, it kind of depends on someone's level as to how much it matters. I get the impression that the OP is relatively new to our sport. So for him, it might be best to just get whichever is a good deal price wise. But get 3 stars to use for matches.

And yes, the Butterfly balls are bad.
 
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Joola Prime, Nitakku Premium, Sanwei ABS HD, DHS DJ40+ are all good

I guess they have seams?

Yes they all have seems (except I'm not sure about the Sanwei ABS because I've never seen one, or even a picture of one).


 
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Agreed 1000% Butterfly balls are trash. Every version of 3 star Butterfly Balls I’ve had (a40,S40,G40,etc.) have all broken on me. I’ve yet to have that same experience with 3 star Double Fish V40+ and DHS 3 star balls. My two current favorite brands of balls. Xiom Black, Gewo Select Pro 40+ and Joola Prime 40+ are equally good. 3 star is the highest quality you can get. Any “higher” i.e. 4 star / 5 star are for novelty purposes. Usually seen on crappy “beer pong” balls you see behind the counter at a corner store here in NYC. Hope this helps.

What is that "Xiom Black" ball?
Can you paste a link?

 
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I was trying to order some ping pong balls but was not sure what ball I should buy.
Some balls have some sort of seam and others not
Which do you recommend ? Is three stars the best or do they go higher ?
No they are not. It makes very very little difference. There are other facts that are much more important.
A three star ball has generally higher quality control than a lower star.

Cheers
L-zr

 
Xiom “Black” are simply Xiom balls with black logo. There are blue and green logo Xiom balls which I have no experience using.
Sure here is a link:

https://www.tabletennisstore.us/p-2...ar-plastic-poly-table-tennis-ball-6-pack.aspx

Ok, than it would be better when you mean "seamless" Xiom, just to say "seamless".
Your link is to the Xiom seamless ball.

Xiom V has two variants - Blue and Black and both are seamed.

For few years I was a great fan of Xiom seamless and Xushaofa seamless.
But after several very bad batches I switched to other brands.
Finally I stuck on Gewo Select Pro. It is seamed. Excellent performance with every batch /yet/.

 
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No they are not. It makes very very little difference. There are other facts that are much more important.
A three star ball has generally higher quality control than a lower star.

Cheers
L-zr

Till 2 years ago all seamless balls, no matter how branded, were much better that the seamed ones.
All seamless are made by only one factory - The Minkow factory, under the locence of Xushaofa.
2 - 3 years ago there was a fight between XSF and Minkow, and as a result the quality of all seamless balls dropped significantly.
I don't know what is the recent situation, I see that there is a XSF ABS seamless ball on some markets, but its not available here.
But for now I'm happy enough with the Gewo Select Pro.

 
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Till 2 years ago all seamless balls, no matter how branded, were much better that the seamed ones.
All seamless are made by only one factory - The Minkow factory, under the locence of Xushaofa.
2 - 3 years ago there was a fight between XSF and Minkow, and as a result the quality of all seamless balls dropped significantly.
I don't know what is the recent situation, I see that there is a XSF ABS seamless ball on some markets, but its not available here.
But for now I'm happy enough with the Gewo Select Pro.

Hi Langel,

Do you know if any TT companies make their own seamless balls now, rather than use the Minkow Factory?

 
I don't think so.
The patent of the seamless ball belongs to Xushaoffa and it is possible if XSF decide to start producing it in other factories.
Though I don't know if other factories are able to do that, and I'm not sure what exactly are the contracts between XSF and Minkow.
 

Till 2 years ago all seamless balls, no matter how branded, were much better that the seamed ones.
All seamless are made by only one factory - The Minkow factory, under the locence of Xushaofa.
2 - 3 years ago there was a fight between XSF and Minkow, and as a result the quality of all seamless balls dropped significantly.
I don't know what is the recent situation, I see that there is a XSF ABS seamless ball on some markets, but its not available here.
But for now I'm happy enough with the Gewo Select Pro.

You will not notice any difference, even 2 star balls are OK, I use Xiom Sensa (2star) or Stiga training for practice and Nittaku premium for matches.
What I have noticed though is that Xiom Sensa wears a bit quick, they keep the roundness OK, but looses in friction so they get a little harder to spin. I bought a large pack so I'm stuck with them for a while. Next time I will try something different but seamless or not I couldn't care less...

Cheers
L-zr

 
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You will not notice any difference, even 2 star balls are OK, I use Xiom Sensa (2star) or Stiga training for practice and Nittaku premium for matches.
What I have noticed though is that Xiom Sensa wears a bit quick, they keep the roundness OK, but looses in friction so they get a little harder to spin. I bought a large pack so I'm stuck with them for a while. Next time I will try something different but seamless or not I couldn't care less...

Cheers
L-zr

Well, different people, different senses.
I feel very well the differences between the balls of of different brands and between a new ball and an old ball.
And believe me - when you play for fun there is nothing better than to play with your favourite ball on your favourite table, but on tournaments it doesn't help, because you don't have that chance- you always play on different tables with different balls.

 
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Till 2 years ago all seamless balls, no matter how branded, were much better that the seamed ones.
All seamless are made by only one factory - The Minkow factory, under the locence of Xushaofa.
2 - 3 years ago there was a fight between XSF and Minkow, and as a result the quality of all seamless balls dropped significantly.
I don't know what is the recent situation, I see that there is a XSF ABS seamless ball on some markets, but its not available here.
But for now I'm happy enough with the Gewo Select Pro.

Better in what way? Things are not so simple that you can make a statement like that without some additional stipulation. Seamless balls were more durable and at the beginning they were round and bounce high (even higher than celluloid). But if the standard is similarity to the celluloid balls prior to 40+, then Nittaku Premium and DHS D40, which have seams, are much better. And cellulose acetate balls with seams were bad by any standard. They were not round, fragile, and bounce much lower than celluloid.

Also, just as all of the seamless balls are made by Minkow, a lot of ABS balls with seams are rebranded balls from DHS or Double Fish at their separate factories in China. However, Nittaku Premium balls are actually made in Japan. It is actually surprising how few factories there actually are for TT balls.

 
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