Which plastic ball is the best ?

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Nittaku premiums quality is pretty bad now a days.
1 drive with the edge and the ball is broken. At the moment my choice is Andro speedball 3s. This seems
to be same ball as DHS World tour but the price is quite
a bit lower. Andro speed ball has by far the best price-quality ratio at the moment. Balls are round and lasts a long time!
 
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Has anyone tried those DJ40 ABS balls listed under fake brands on Aliexpress? They cost like 10EUR for 50pcs. Are those low grade DHS balls being re-labeled and sold? I'm just thinking if they really are just low binned DHS balls they should be good enough for multiball or robot. Training balls are not cheap and the ones that clubs are using, like the joola flip etc are thrash.
 
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Ok, this is what I mean - the D40+ World Tour Edition

And I really don't like the Busan ones.

Sorry, my bad! Looks like there is "World Tour" edition both for D40+ and DJ40+ after all.

I feel the difference between D40+ and DJ40+ on first shots, but don't really care about it during the game. Maybe, 'cause I'm just a beginner and/or regularly play with both (as these DHS balls are considered as "preferred" balls for amateur tournaments here in Russia).
 
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is it just me, but i got the feeling that almost all tt balls are made in same factories or is there many manufacturers? what happend with the no joint ball, no longer popular?

You're right, there are very few factories making the balls for all the brands. There's the DHS factory in Shanghia, one in I think Guangzhou for the seamless balls like Joola Flash, one in Japan for Nittaku, one in Germany for Butterfly, and I actually don't know of any other factories... Tibhar, Donic, Xiom etc are just buying one from these factories, or buying from several factories at the same time. Like Joola Flash is seamless and Joola Prime is seamed DHS ball I believe.

 
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You're right, there are very few factories making the balls for all the brands. There's the DHS factory in Shanghia, one in I think Guangzhou for the seamless balls like Joola Flash, one in Japan for Nittaku, one in Germany for Butterfly, and I actually don't know of any other factories... Tibhar, Donic, Xiom etc are just buying one from these factories, or buying from several factories at the same time. Like Joola Flash is seamless and Joola Prime is seamed DHS ball I believe.

But... If one goes to equipments.ittf.com and looks into balls' Equipment Code, he will be able to know the month of balls' approval. For example, Joola Prime approved in 09/17, D40+ in 02/16 and DJ40+ in 12/19. So... if Joola balls are indeed manufactured by DHS, Joola Prime may be exactly the same ball as an old DHS D40+, but it can't be the same as a new DJ40+ one, right? And the same goes for Andro 3S, which is appoved in 04/16.

(Just for fun.) Here's the list of 3-star, white, seamed balls, approved by ITTF in 2020-21:

ButterflyR40+***
XiomV40+***
RaiseABS TEC 40+***
Sunnysix40+***
SanweiABS HD 40+***
KBS40+***
VictasVP40+***
Counterstrike Table Tennis40+***
[tbody] [/tbody]
BTW, if I'm not mistaken, there was info here, on this forum, that Sanwei balls are self-manufactured. But previous Sanwei ball, ABS Pro, feels lighter than D40+, so I don't use it in tournaments.
 
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It’s been pointed out before, but at the risk of repetition… over here, the XSF threestar (seamless) has been very popular over the last couple of years.

It’s usually quite spherical, will allow a good level of spin. And it shatters easily on edge clips — and will disappear from ITTF’s list of approved balls soon. A lot of clubs would sit on a sizable heap of unusable balls (if anybody gave a rat’s ass, that is.)
 
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Your missing the most important one Nittaku premium 40+ ***

Cheers
L-zr
White version of Nittaku Premium was approved in 03/14. So it's definitely not ABS. It may be a perfect ball, but if it has a different feel than contemporary ABS balls (and my guess that it is the case), that fact is a showstopper for me.
Orange version was approved in 09/20. But it would be strange if change of color would be accompanied by such radical change of material, don't you think?
 
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Hmm, the Nittaku premium is definitely plastic, what other plastic material than ABS are balls made from?

Cheers
L-zr
In this article on ITTF site ABS defined as "second generation". As far as I understand, transition to celluloid-free balls began in 2014, but ABS plastic was established as de facto standard only since 2017 (still it is not the only plastic used nowadays). Before that time there were experiments and "poly" (polystyrene?) balls.
 
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I dont know...
But I think that the Nittaku Premium "answers better (has more bite)" to spin and gets does not get "bald" as fast as any other ball I have tried.
Maybe the material is the reason...
I am not so sensitive but, I have yet to find an egg...

Cheers
L-zr
 
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White version of Nittaku Premium was approved in 03/14. So it's definitely not ABS. It may be a perfect ball, but if it has a different feel than contemporary ABS balls (and my guess that it is the case), that fact is a showstopper for me.Orange version was approved in 09/20. But it would be strange if change of color would be accompanied by such radical change of material, don't you think?
Are you sure the Nittaku Premium is not ABS. I thought it was the first ABS ball that all the others tried to copy and it just took a long time for companies to copy. Also, when 40+ Poly balls came on the market, the Nittaku Premium may have been approved. But it took them a long time, (maybe till 2015) to get them on the market, and they were not readily available until 2016.

I did not spend much time looking, but the only info I can find on the material used in the Nittaku Premium ball is this:

"The Nittaku Premium 40+ ball is made with a premium poly material that is exclusive to Nittaku."

That may or may not be an ABS plastic. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene: ABS. Based on this:

"ABS is a terpolymer made by polymerizing styrene and acrylonitrile in the presence of polybutadiene. The proportions can vary from 15% to 35% acrylonitrile, 5% to 30% butadiene and 40% to 60% styrene."

ABS can have a range of proportions so, can have a range of properties. So, if DHS and Nittaku were both making ABS balls, they still may not play the same since their formula for ABS production could still be different.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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The Nittaku Premium 40+ is made of ABS. It's been known since 2014. Highlight the white space between >>>>> and <<<<< after the click.

In one episode of Takkyu Japan, Sayaka Hirano visits the Nittaku factory and they let her try the ultrasonic welding first-hand. It's really cool.
Thanks Zeio. I was pretty sure that was what I remembered was that it was ABS. But....I am not fussed about that kind of info so, I did not know where to look. Good to have someone with the info at his fingertips.

 
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Are you sure the Nittaku Premium is not ABS.

Abosultely not! Also I re-read that article from ITTF and I figured myself that ABS could be used earlier than 2017 and that article is just not quite accurate in that "2nd gen" definition (or they just called all plastic balls as 2nd gen, celluloid balls being 1st gen? I'm starting to feel lost here 😀).
After zeio's comment there is no doubt that Nittaku is ABS anymore. Thanks, zeio!

 
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Brs

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Brs

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Nittakus get shiny very fast and are less durable than the DHS, and they cost double-ish, so I prefer the DHS. The Bty A40s were pretty awful, but I just played a tournament with the Bty R40+ and those were fine, interchangeable with NP and DHS, but probably for an even higher price, idk.
 
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I just played a tournament with the Bty R40+ and those were fine, interchangeable with NP and DHS
In the video from above TT11 guys say that newer Butterfly balls are manufactured in China (previously in Germany), so they are likely manufactured by DHS now.
 
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