Tibhar K3 Hybrid and MX-P (And C53)

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Hello all,

A long time ago I tried the MX-P rubber and liked the feeling of it a lot. However, due to the lower spin when compared to other rubbers I decided to choose another rubber. Now with the K3 hybrid's release I was once again interested in Tibhar. Most of the reviews I find online are mainly comparing the overal characteristics of K3 to D09c or similair rubbers, none I found compared it to the MX-P. Looking at the raw numbers I see the following:
MX-P: 125/80/120
K3: 118/100/130

Simply looking at these stats the K3 is close to what im looking for. My main question on it is the feeling of the rubber. I know MX-P has the blood red sponge which is not the same as the one K3 has (creamy white). Therefore the feeling should already be different. Do these rubbers feel somewhat similair? The main thing I liked about the MX-P was the crispness on harder strokes, does the K3 share this feeling, or is it a completely different feeling?

And another question. On paper the K3 is also close to Andro's new rubber Rasanter C53. Has anyone managed to try both of these and is able to compare them? I played with the C53 for some time and found it really good, except for controlled spinning. When not going all out with the C53 a lot of balls tend to go into the net because you need to engage the sponge. With me sometimes being less confident I lose some points to this. But whenever I just go for it I can easily dominate (over)spin rallys. So im wondering how the K3 compares to this, does it share the same characteristics?

With kind regards,
Martijn Heemskerk
 
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I can’t help much with the MX-P comparison as I have only tried it once - it is not that similar to K3 and to me felt bouncier and less controllable than K3.

I have however used both K3 and C53 recently and they are fairly similar in style - I prefer K3 as it feels softer and easier to access speed and power than C53. I think K3 is a great balance between a hard hybrid and a tensor like T05.
 
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I can’t help much with the MX-P comparison as I have only tried it once - it is not that similar to K3 and to me felt bouncier and less controllable than K3.

I have however used both K3 and C53 recently and they are fairly similar in style - I prefer K3 as it feels softer and easier to access speed and power than C53. I think K3 is a great balance between a hard hybrid and a tensor like T05.

Thank you very much. How would you compare C53 and K3 in full on attacking strokes, would you feel one to be better than the other, or very similair?

 
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What are the differences between the ESN hybrid rubbers? Or are they all relatively similar? Wrighty was saying C53 and K3 are quite similar, but K3 is more forgiving.

How about Bluegrip and Dragongrip?
 
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Bluegrip has a pretty dense sponge and has very small bubbles, and it's more like a H3N blue sponge boosted. I think the topsheet between Bluegrip, Dragon Grip, K3, C53, V>20, Omega 7 China etc are fairly similar if not the same.

From the looks of it C53 and K3 have the largest bubbles in their sponges and probably those are the fastest and least Chinese-like. Bluegrip C1-2 the most Chinese like and the rest are in between somewhere.
 
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So does having bigger bubbles mean that the rubber usually has more bounce/catapult?

But smaller bubbles requires more arm strength to generate power?

BTW, I tried Rakza Z briefly last week, and it felt quite slow to me. I'm not sure what kind of bubbles it has.
 
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So does having bigger bubbles mean that the rubber usually has more bounce/catapult?

But smaller bubbles requires more arm strength to generate power?

BTW, I tried Rakza Z briefly last week, and it felt quite slow to me. I'm not sure what kind of bubbles it has.

I can't confirm this as a rule but pretty much it seems to be the case. I think MX-P has one of the biggest ones and it's very bouncy.

I also think Rakza Z is rather slow even compared to Bluegrip C2 and I think the C2 is on the slower end of the C-touch hybrids from ESN.

 
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I can't confirm this as a rule but pretty much it seems to be the case. I think MX-P has one of the biggest ones and it's very bouncy.

I also think Rakza Z is rather slow even compared to Bluegrip C2 and I think the C2 is on the slower end of the C-touch hybrids from ESN.

I tried Bluegrip C2 briefly but I thought it was quite a bit faster than Rakza Z. Haven't really tried the other ESN hybrids, but it sounds like you know what you are talking about despite being from North Korea.

How would you rank the ESN Hybrids from fastest to slowest? And where does Joola's ZGR fall?

 
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I can’t help much with the MX-P comparison as I have only tried it once - it is not that similar to K3 and to me felt bouncier and less controllable than K3.

I have however used both K3 and C53 recently and they are fairly similar in style - I prefer K3 as it feels softer and easier to access speed and power than C53. I think K3 is a great balance between a hard hybrid and a tensor like T05.
Do you remember if one was faster than the other between K3 and C53?
 
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I found K3 a bit livelier but I would think a better player might get more out of C53 as it felt like a harder rubber to me in use.
But they're both 53 degree hardness, right? So does C53 just have a harder topsheet?

Is the extra liveliness just due to the initial boosting?
 
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