Best Chinese Alternatives to D09c Tier List

[tackyfh]

With Target Pro 3, the main issue for me is the non-linear activation: it is pretty hard to dose power in hope of accurate placement and desired brush to hit ratio, when used with a power below a certain threshold. However, when the threshold is reached, precision gets better, and I have plenty of spin and speed - at really dangerous levels many times. The rubber topsheet is very dense, but more elastic than one would expect. While the tackiness helps with gripping the ball, I still need to be careful with the insecure low power contacts. I'd give this rubber a tier C- in general, but its flaws are more forgivable on the forehand side.

completely agree with u there mate, I think Pro 3 (and other Target rubbers) encourages players to hit the ball first then create spin

 

[LHDuy]

Best Chinese alternatives to D09c Tier List

What is a tier list?

This Tier List ranks readily available and low cost Chinese rubbers according to their performance in matching the standard set by Dignics 09c.

Rubbers are tiered based on the following factors:

Bite on the ball - Higher ranking rubbers will bite and grip the ball very well, giving the player both control and spin potential
Dwell time - Higher ranking rubbers will hold the ball for a long time on the racket before launching the ball off the racket with power and spin. The ball should be slow off the racket, and kick fast off the table
Catapult - The rubber should provide ample catapult to produce powerful shots
Tackiness - High tackiness provides more spin potential and control
Hardness - Hard rubber is desirable to prevent bottoming out on hard shots
Booster reaction - Top rubbers should react strongly to booster and improve their performance. Alternatively top rubbers should provide high performance without the need for booster
Arc and throw angle - Top rubbers should provide a healthy arc to clear over the net and land onto the table comfortably


S tier - Highest performance of Chinese rubbers matching or exceeding the standard of D09c available at acceptable cost

Loki GTX - Strong reaction to booster, great tackiness, hard, great catapult. Requires the use of baby oil to produce the dwell time and hold on the ball. This rubber is very similar to the look and performance of D09c with the proper tuning, producing powerful loops. Also to be noted: I only ever tested one sheet of GTX and got it to perform this way with a specific method of tuning. I cannot guarantee that every sheet will have the same result from the tuning method.


A tier - Performance is considered to be very high, and are desirable as alternatives to D09c and may only have slight flaws

Loki Arthur China - Very hard rubber that gives excellent spin, excellent arc, and very good looping speed. Feels like you can hold the ball for a long time while imparting unlimited spin. The looping speed is nearly on the level of D09c, and may possibly be improved with booster. Feels quite a bit harder than D09c, and therefore it feels less forgiving. Additionally, it may suffer from bubbling issues.

Yinhe Jupiter 3 - Factory boosted, tacky, catapulty and fast. This rubber doesn’t need to be boosted, but reacts fine to booster. Comes in many choices of hardness, but I like 39-41 on the FH. It is spinny, but feels somewhat speed-oriented along the lines of D09c.

Friendship Bloom Power - Tacky, hard, with some good catapult. Rubber doesn’t need to be boosted, but seems even better with some booster. Much healthier throw angle than its “brother” Battle 2. Provides strong spin, speed, and heavy kick off the table. Recommend the 47d version which feels like 54d on ESN scale. More spin-oriented feeling than D09c.

B tier - Performance is considered to be high and mostly meet the desired criteria. May have more notable flaws that prevent a higher ranking

Yinhe Big Dipper - Similar to Jupiter 3, factory boosted, catapulty and fast. Not as tacky as Jupiter 3 though, reflected in the lower rank. Also reacts quite well to booster and becomes even more powerful. Would recommend 39d or 40d for FH, and 38d for BH. As it is less tacky, this rubber suits the BH better than the other rubbers on this list, and is a great alternative as a bh D09c.

C tier - Performance is considered moderately high. These rubbers may need more technique from the user to bring out their potential or have notable flaws in meeting the criteria.

DHS Hurricane 3 - An excellent rubber for its own style of play, but ranks lower on this list because it is less similar to D09c and the stated criteria. Without booster, this rubber is tacky and somewhat slow, but gives a healthy and comfortable throw angle and arc. With enough booster, it significantly increases in speed and catapult, but still requires more input strength from the user to reach its full potential.

Haifu Whale - Similar in function to H3, but more similar to H8 as it is slightly more speed oriented. Has medium reaction to booster, but not a tremendous reaction. Very good loop control, good speed and spin. All around, very solid performance, but less memorable than higher ranking rubbers.

Loki Rxton 5 - A good rubber that is more similar to H3 than it is to D09c. Hard, tacky, but not as much catapult as desired. Also quality control seems to be a major problem as hardness varies dramatically by batch. This rubber could be dropped lower because of QC issues, but I have it ranked on my memory of its best version.

D tier - Performance is considered to be average. The rubber only meets some of the criteria and has some major flaws

Friendship Battle 2 - Rubber’s most notable flaw is it has a low throw angle and thus is less comfortable to use. Also does not have a strong reaction to booster. But it is hard and tacky and dwelly.

Sanwei Target Pro Blue - Also has a low throw angle and is somewhat uncomfortable to use. Has a medium reaction to booster. Hard and tacky, but not a great dwell time.

Sanwei Target Pro 3 - Almost the same quality and issues as Pro Blue. Slightly slower and and more dwelly than Pro Blue.

E tier - Performance is considered to be low. Rubbers have flaws that define its performance more than its strengths

Sanwei Target National - Extremely low throw angle, too soft sponge, overly tacky, no reaction to booster. This rubber is very hard to use and not recommendable. It is quite fast though.

what is proper tuning to be exact? 1 or 2 layers or sth?

 

[TensorBackhand]

what is proper tuning to be exact? 1 or 2 layers or sth?

You mean for GTX or in general? Each rubber responds differently to booster.

But for GTX, I would recommend 1 or 2 layers of booster, plus 1 layer of baby oil

 

[Aung Thuya]

Best Chinese alternatives to D09c Tier List

What is a tier list?

This Tier List ranks readily available and low cost Chinese rubbers according to their performance in matching the standard set by Dignics 09c.

Rubbers are tiered based on the following factors:

Bite on the ball - Higher ranking rubbers will bite and grip the ball very well, giving the player both control and spin potential
Dwell time - Higher ranking rubbers will hold the ball for a long time on the racket before launching the ball off the racket with power and spin. The ball should be slow off the racket, and kick fast off the table
Catapult - The rubber should provide ample catapult to produce powerful shots
Tackiness - High tackiness provides more spin potential and control
Hardness - Hard rubber is desirable to prevent bottoming out on hard shots
Booster reaction - Top rubbers should react strongly to booster and improve their performance. Alternatively top rubbers should provide high performance without the need for booster
Arc and throw angle - Top rubbers should provide a healthy arc to clear over the net and land onto the table comfortably


S tier - Highest performance of Chinese rubbers matching or exceeding the standard of D09c available at acceptable cost

Loki GTX - Strong reaction to booster, great tackiness, hard, great catapult. Requires the use of baby oil to produce the dwell time and hold on the ball. This rubber is very similar to the look and performance of D09c with the proper tuning, producing powerful loops. Also to be noted: I only ever tested one sheet of GTX and got it to perform this way with a specific method of tuning. I cannot guarantee that every sheet will have the same result from the tuning method.


A tier - Performance is considered to be very high, and are desirable as alternatives to D09c and may only have slight flaws

Loki Arthur China - Very hard rubber that gives excellent spin, excellent arc, and very good looping speed. Feels like you can hold the ball for a long time while imparting unlimited spin. The looping speed is nearly on the level of D09c, and may possibly be improved with booster. Feels quite a bit harder than D09c, and therefore it feels less forgiving. Additionally, it may suffer from bubbling issues.

Yinhe Jupiter 3 - Factory boosted, tacky, catapulty and fast. This rubber doesn’t need to be boosted, but reacts fine to booster. Comes in many choices of hardness, but I like 39-41 on the FH. It is spinny, but feels somewhat speed-oriented along the lines of D09c.

Friendship Bloom Power - Tacky, hard, with some good catapult. Rubber doesn’t need to be boosted, but seems even better with some booster. Much healthier throw angle than its “brother” Battle 2. Provides strong spin, speed, and heavy kick off the table. Recommend the 47d version which feels like 54d on ESN scale. More spin-oriented feeling than D09c.

B tier - Performance is considered to be high and mostly meet the desired criteria. May have more notable flaws that prevent a higher ranking

Yinhe Big Dipper - Similar to Jupiter 3, factory boosted, catapulty and fast. Not as tacky as Jupiter 3 though, reflected in the lower rank. Also reacts quite well to booster and becomes even more powerful. Would recommend 39d or 40d for FH, and 38d for BH. As it is less tacky, this rubber suits the BH better than the other rubbers on this list, and is a great alternative as a bh D09c.

C tier - Performance is considered moderately high. These rubbers may need more technique from the user to bring out their potential or have notable flaws in meeting the criteria.

DHS Hurricane 3 - An excellent rubber for its own style of play, but ranks lower on this list because it is less similar to D09c and the stated criteria. Without booster, this rubber is tacky and somewhat slow, but gives a healthy and comfortable throw angle and arc. With enough booster, it significantly increases in speed and catapult, but still requires more input strength from the user to reach its full potential.

Haifu Whale - Similar in function to H3, but more similar to H8 as it is slightly more speed oriented. Has medium reaction to booster, but not a tremendous reaction. Very good loop control, good speed and spin. All around, very solid performance, but less memorable than higher ranking rubbers.

Loki Rxton 5 - A good rubber that is more similar to H3 than it is to D09c. Hard, tacky, but not as much catapult as desired. Also quality control seems to be a major problem as hardness varies dramatically by batch. This rubber could be dropped lower because of QC issues, but I have it ranked on my memory of its best version.

D tier - Performance is considered to be average. The rubber only meets some of the criteria and has some major flaws

Friendship Battle 2 - Rubber’s most notable flaw is it has a low throw angle and thus is less comfortable to use. Also does not have a strong reaction to booster. But it is hard and tacky and dwelly.

Sanwei Target Pro Blue - Also has a low throw angle and is somewhat uncomfortable to use. Has a medium reaction to booster. Hard and tacky, but not a great dwell time.

Sanwei Target Pro 3 - Almost the same quality and issues as Pro Blue. Slightly slower and and more dwelly than Pro Blue.

E tier - Performance is considered to be low. Rubbers have flaws that define its performance more than its strengths

Sanwei Target National - Extremely low throw angle, too soft sponge, overly tacky, no reaction to booster. This rubber is very hard to use and not recommendable. It is quite fast though.

Bro is there any Chinese rubbers good for bh? Pls give some options with hardness bro. I'm using pro 01 with j3 h39 fh and earth 2 med.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Bro is there any Chinese rubbers good for bh? Pls give some options with hardness bro. I'm using pro 01 with j3 h39 fh and earth 2 med.

Yes. Moon 12, Ak47, Big Dipper are great for bh.

Also Aurora max boosted is great

 

[Aung Thuya]

Yes. Moon 12, Ak47, Big Dipper are great for bh.

Also Aurora max boosted is great

Big dipper? Is it original one? Thanks

 

[TensorBackhand]

Big dipper? Is it original one? Thanks

Yes. Its very good in 38d, but even better boosted.

 

[kingkimchi]

Bro is there any Chinese rubbers good for bh? Pls give some options with hardness bro. I'm using pro 01 with j3 h39 fh and earth 2 med.

H8, 8-80, don't try hurricane 9 its absolute crapp. Maybe H3 37?

 

[latej]

Yes. Its very good in 38d, but even better boosted.

FWIW, I must say I can't enjoy the Big Dipper so far. It is too hard for my BH, doesn't give enough of the "grab" feeling, and it is too soft for the FH otoh. I have it on Viscaria, almost fresh, seems pitty to remove, I plan to use it when the coming season ends...

 

[SFF_lib]

Bro is there any Chinese rubbers good for bh? Pls give some options with hardness bro. I'm using pro 01 with j3 h39 fh and earth 2 med.

Plenty

H8 soft
H8-80
H3-50 37
H3 provincial 37
Dianchi 38
Tg3-60

 

[TensorBackhand]

FWIW, I must say I can't enjoy the Big Dipper so far. It is too hard for my BH, doesn't give enough of the "grab" feeling, and it is too soft for the FH otoh. I have it on Viscaria, almost fresh, seems pitty to remove, I plan to use it when the coming season ends...

Yes. When i first started using it on bh, it felt too hard for me.

After getting used to it, and also boosting it, i loved it so much

 

[mocker88]

That Yinhe Jupiter 3 Asia and 729 Bloom Power are absolute gold for its price.
I recently switched to this setup (for past time games), FH/BH alternatively- awesome. Tho in my side, Bloom Power is getting hard to come by (no new stock coming in from diff shop/sources).

BTW. Which Big Dipper are you talking abt here?

I still have some Bloom Power and some more are coming within a week or so

 

[mocker88]

Bro is there any Chinese rubbers good for bh? Pls give some options with hardness bro. I'm using pro 01 with j3 h39 fh and earth 2 med.

Check out 729 Dragon F and L series. These are quite soft and a bit bouncy.
Giant Dragon TopEnergy Soft is nice, and Loki GTX Pro, but it's a bit fast maybe.
729 Battle II will come with a Soft 37deg sponge quite soon as well.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Check out 729 Dragon F and L series. These are quite soft and a bit bouncy.
Giant Dragon TopEnergy Soft is nice, and Loki GTX Pro, but it's a bit fast maybe.
729 Battle II will come with a Soft 37deg sponge quite soon as well.

Somebody mentioned that Dragon F and L are similar to H8-80. Do you think that is true?

 

[mocker88]

Somebody mentioned that Dragon F and L are similar to H8-80. Do you think that is true?

No not really. H8-80 has more bounce and is really tacky.

 

[Nima Abadi]

FWIW, I must say I can't enjoy the Big Dipper so far. It is too hard for my BH, doesn't give enough of the "grab" feeling, and it is too soft for the FH otoh. I have it on Viscaria, almost fresh, seems pitty to remove, I plan to use it when the coming season ends...

Well, it's not a BH rubber. It even says so on the packaging but some people can play with anything on their BH and might even recommend you to try it but usually it doesn't work out.

If Big Dipper feels soft on your FH then try the 40degree variant. I played with it for over a year unboosted but gotta say, it's not really a hybrid like it's 38/39 counterpart and more of a Hurricane 3 type rubber.

 

[latej]

Well, it's not a BH rubber. It even says so on the packaging but some people can play with anything on their BH and might even recommend you to try it but usually it doesn't work out.

Exactly. I wrote what I wrote mainly to give some balance. Sometimes, some rubbers or blades get too much positive feedback. I think I wrote something negative about Stiga Infinity VPS for this reason too. It is simply so, that everyone likes what he likes, and that is usually something else ;-)

However, I'm still determined to kill this rubber, the BD H38 (I mean fully use it, or at least try), when the season ends. But it has just started. Not much time. 3 team matches this weekend, and I lost majority, since playing in higher div.

If Big Dipper feels soft on your FH then try the 40degree variant. I played with it for over a year unboosted but gotta say, it's not really a hybrid like it's 38/39 counterpart and more of a Hurricane 3 type rubber.

Well, out of curiosity and frustration, I just unpacked the Rxton 9, which layed here for 3 weeks, because I'm not finished with my current rubber. And it looks beautiful, I measured the hardness consistently to be 53-54, absolutely in line with the declared hardness H40. Looks nice. Have high hopes. I still have 2 new Double Fish Volant Phoenix to kill, also H40, it's pretty good for me actually. @Zwill says it's too soft, for me it's OK, also measured fine, it just holds for 2 months only. So thanks for recommend, but as you can see, I've zero interest now in the Big Dipper. Still on the "ala H3" way. And if I should ever change, well, let's not go into it now, because I would consider changing blade. Anyway, the Rxton 9, I fear the price will go up... Cheers, and thanks and keep fighting!

 

[TensorBackhand]

Updated and added Rxton 3 Pink and Volant Phoenix to the list. Both of them I like very much.

 

[DiegOX]

Target National, although the descriptions still a good option: 4 times cheap, with the right technique more dangerous that some in the list. Also you forgot to say one of the most spiny ones, precisely because of the ¨over tackiness¨ . My favorite in the list

 

[ben1229]

Dhs 8-80 province 710s version. Tried it today on friend's racket 90% close to d09c , and even spinner . But need techniques to drive it for BH loop otherwise easy to net.