DHS Gold Arc 8 vs. Fastarc G1 vs. Rakza 7?

[kindof99]

Goldarc 8 has a classic german catapult feel, pretty direct, with a good amount of spin, countering is easy and lifting opening up backspin needs a bit of effort, but it has tons of spin when brushing a lot. Not the fastest rubber.

G1 feels harder but has higher arc and more grip, also more durable. Easy to open up backspin, a bit more sensitive, faster. Feels like a non tensor rubber but it has a lot of speed.

Razka 7, no idea.

About my experience too. Goldarc has more catapult effect, faster, but much shorter durability, and shrinks badly (Don't ever take it off the blade once glued).

 

[_ak]

Too early to say, it's still fresh. General impression it's harder to play but also harder for your opponents.

For sure I will try Rozena between seasons as I have a new sheet. GA8 is hardest of these it seems, for me 45 degrees is the sweetspot on BH

 

[Choosikick]

Rakza 7 faster than G1? interesting. I read people say R7 is slow and can bottom out. I cant find anyone saying that about G1.

I remember exactly that the speed R7 was higher than the rotation, unlike the G1, which has a balance of speed and rotation.

 

[Attitude]

Cant really say anything bad about durability. I used mine for around 3 months let it sit around for another 2 months and gave it to a good friend 1,8k TTR. He was in need for a joola rhyzm substitute with some more power.
Now he is not really sure if he wants to go for d05 for the little things it does kinda better than ga8 for double the price.

 

[Cadoia]

Cant really say anything bad about durability. I used mine for around 3 months let it sit around for another 2 months and gave it to a good friend 1,8k TTR. He was in need for a joola rhyzm substitute with some more power.
Now he is not really sure if he wants to go for d05 for the little things it does kinda better than ga8 for double the price.

interesting. Some people said its dying after 2 months. sounded pretty extreme for an full blood ESN rubber.

 

[Lawsy]

Gold Arc 8 is just a great rubber out of the box. That's more spin and speed than the G1. But after 2 months, this rubber becomes stiffer, faster and spins much less. This makes it difficult to control the game.

Interesting.
My GA8 (red, 50, backhand of a V14 Pro) is now three months old and I beat the absolute crap out of it every other day, or more, if I can.

Recently, I was training backhand smashes, so I've spent hours literally trying to crush the ball out of the air with this rubber, and this has resulted in the opposite effect to what you have described. It's slightly softer, has the same, if not more spin, but some of the mid-range punch has evened out (it's more linear now). Top speed is about the same, maybe even a tad slower (but I might just be getting used to it). Control is fantastic now as well, but again, that could just be the fact that I've put plenty of hours into this thing now.

Is it possible that something happened (potentially before you ever received it) that caused it to harden like this?

May I ask if yours had been heat cycled, or exposed to any moisture (other than water vapour)? Was the glue a little off or any potential of contamination?


I also had a chance to play a session with FA G1 earlier in the year.
What a nice rubber indeed. I didn't give it anything beyond about 75%-80%, so I cannot comment on its top-speed potential, however, it had a nice, smooth mid-range that felt quite similar to my GA8 50, maybe a tad slower at those ball speeds. But honestly, I genuinely think they are more similar than they are different. I could play power-loops and lift backspin just fine, big drives were comfortable, and even the odd chop went on without much adjustment. Maybe G1 has better dwell, but I would be nit-picking if I'm honest. For the sake of transparency, my blade is a tad faster. I looked it up at the time, it was squarely OFF, whereas the V14P is certainly OFF+. I recently tried to find exactly which blade it was again, but I couldn't remember the brand (I've looked over hundreds of blades recently, and it wasn't something I was familiar with, so my memory is shot and my browser history was of no help...).

TL;DR
After almost 3 months of hard play:
GA8 50 softened a bit.
It's fast enough.
It linearizes a bit over time.
The grip on mine is unchanged since new, which is to say, it has a lot.
Control seems fine to me, I smack it, the ball goes on, most of the time, more or less regardless of who I'm playing.

 

[Choosikick]

Interesting.
My GA8 (red, 50, backhand of a V14 Pro) is now three months old and I beat the absolute crap out of it every other day, or more, if I can.

Recently, I was training backhand smashes, so I've spent hours literally trying to crush the ball out of the air with this rubber, and this has resulted in the opposite effect to what you have described. It's slightly softer, has the same, if not more spin, but some of the mid-range punch has evened out (it's more linear now). Top speed is about the same, maybe even a tad slower (but I might just be getting used to it). Control is fantastic now as well, but again, that could just be the fact that I've put plenty of hours into this thing now.

Is it possible that something happened (potentially before you ever received it) that caused it to harden like this?

May I ask if yours had been heat cycled, or exposed to any moisture (other than water vapour)? Was the glue a little off or any potential of contamination?


I also had a chance to play a session with FA G1 earlier in the year.
What a nice rubber indeed. I didn't give it anything beyond about 75%-80%, so I cannot comment on its top-speed potential, however, it had a nice, smooth mid-range that felt quite similar to my GA8 50, maybe a tad slower at those ball speeds. But honestly, I genuinely think they are more similar than they are different. I could play power-loops and lift backspin just fine, big drives were comfortable, and even the odd slide went on without much adjustment. Maybe G1 has better dwell, but I would be nit-picking if I'm honest. For the sake of transparency, my blade is a tad faster. I looked it up at the time, it was squarely OFF, whereas the V14P is certainly OFF+. I recently tried to find exactly which blade it was again, but I couldn't remember the brand (I've looked over hundreds of blades recently, and it wasn't something I was familiar with, so my memory is shot and my browser history was of no help...).

TL;DR
After almost 3 months of hard play:
GA8 50 softened a bit.
It's fast enough.
It linearizes a bit over time.
The grip on mine is unchanged since new, which is to say, it has a lot.
Control seems fine to me, I smack it, the ball goes on, most of the time, more or less regardless of who I'm playing.

I am now analyzing this situation and have come to the conclusion that it may be related to the glue. The fact is that I glued all my Gold Arc 8 rubbers with rubber glue with an organic solvent. A friend of mine has old Gold Arc 8s that were not as hard as mine and he glued them with water-based glue. At the same time, the surface is worn out significantly, but due to the softness of this old rubber, you can somehow play.

 

[Alwin]

GA8 is good for slow spinny loops on BH, it reminded me good old days when I usually didn't have to bother about 2nd topspin. Unfortunately the ball slips often when I get a bit tired.

I had the same experience with GA8 unfortunately. Not sure if it was because of humidity like reports on other threads, but every now and then my slower skinny BH brush loop would slip. I tried to take good care of it, but changed after a month or so.

I have also used the other two rubbers as well. I remember really liking G1 on my FH because of its linearity and grip which suited my more Chinese loop style. I used Rakza 7 and 7 soft on my BH because it was too soft for my FH. It had great grip for flicks and opening loops, less spin sensitive so great for blocking, and durable, but I was bottoming out on big backhands.

There’s also GA9 just released on AliExpress too! Not sure how it will play though.

 

[Lawsy]

I am now analyzing this situation and have come to the conclusion that it may be related to the glue. The fact is that I glued all my Gold Arc 8 rubbers with rubber glue with an organic solvent. A friend of mine has old Gold Arc 8s that were not as hard as mine and he glued them with water-based glue. At the same time, the surface is worn out significantly, but due to the softness of this old rubber, you can somehow play.

Ok, good to know.
I wonder if it was a particular solvent in the glue reacting with this specific rubber (or could it be the release agent? I don't know what they use), or is it possible that it wasn't able to evaporate away in time?

The solvents in rubber cement are usually safe for most polymers, especially since the evaporation is typically very fast; long enough to ensure good contact and that's about it. Maybe if there's enough solvent, or it gets trapped during assembly, it will react over time.

Again, I don't know, but I like getting to the bottom of things, so if anyone does, let us know

Just as I typed this, I had a thought; could there have been something on the blade (lacquer/sealer/old glue) that wasn't playing nicely?

 

[Choosikick]

Ok, good to know.
I wonder if it was a particular solvent in the glue reacting with this specific rubber (or could it be the release agent? I don't know what they use), or is it possible that it wasn't able to evaporate away in time?

The solvents in rubber cement are usually safe for most polymers, especially since the evaporation is typically very fast; long enough to ensure good contact and that's about it. Maybe if there's enough solvent, or it gets trapped during assembly, it will react over time.

Again, I don't know, but I like getting to the bottom of things, so if anyone does, let us know

Just as I typed this, I had a thought; could there have been something on the blade (lacquer/sealer/old glue) that wasn't playing nicely?

It seems to me that this is some kind of sponge feature of this rubber. But in any case, topsheet does not have durability comparable to G1, so for me the choice of G1 is obvious.

 

[Lawsy]

It seems to me that this is some kind of sponge feature of this rubber. But in any case, topsheet does not have durability comparable to G1, so for me the choice of G1 is obvious.

Fair enough.

I wonder if there are humidity related sensitivities to this rubber, or I got lucky?

Mine grips harder than ever (I clean it after every session, water only, so I don't know if that helps or not in this specific case).

G1 was certainly very nice, though, and I would absolutely use it next if the price/availability was on point. I honestly don't think I would need to adjust much at all, and if anything, I'm a sucker for linearity!

 

[Cadoia]

How does DHS GA8 and F G1 respond to booster?
I just had a thought of trying that out just for fun when my booster glue arrives.

Also the new GA 9....... anyone knows anything of how its supposed to play? Its made in Germany as well? ESN rubber? Any info is appreciated. super interesting.

 

[bobpuls]

I dont like the g1 at all, g8 is ok rakza is so easy. Rakza 7 for sure.

 

[TensorBackhand]

How does DHS GA8 and F G1 respond to booster?
I just had a thought of trying that out just for fun when my booster glue arrives.

Also the new GA 9....... anyone knows anything of how its supposed to play? Its made in Germany as well? ESN rubber? Any info is appreciated. super interesting.

I think GA8 and G1 wont respond much to chinese booster.

Not sure about falco or black oil

 

[Lawsy]

How does DHS GA8 and F G1 respond to booster?
I just had a thought of trying that out just for fun when my booster glue arrives.

Also the new GA 9....... anyone knows anything of how its supposed to play? Its made in Germany as well? ESN rubber? Any info is appreciated. super interesting.

I'm not sure they need it.
Honestly, booster just seems like a waste of time to me. A temporary improvement at the cost of longevity.

As for GA9, I replied in another thread about it.

If the DHS engineer who spoke about their lab testing was being accurate, then the hardness of GA8 47.5 and 50, is bounded by 35 - 36, and 36 to 37 respectively, making GA9's 37 and 38 a step up in hardness.

That's rather interesting to me.

Also, it's hard to interpret exactly what they mean, but it appears that they have improved the #80 sponge, but are still calling it #80. Am I reading that right? Manufacturers do improve/optimize over time, so if nothing else, current #80 would be better than from years past...

Does anyone know what sponge is use for GA8 (it's yellow, fyi)?

 

[U871247]

interesting. Some people said its dying after 2 months. sounded pretty extreme for an full blood ESN rubber.

It only proves that DHS QC sucks. They have to be consistent with their production

 

[darkky65]

Just grab a GA8 on AliExpress or Shopee/Lazada, at times it goes super low, I got mine for very cheap at around 22$ (although price is quite high right now.)

works really well, i don't really have a problem controlling it at H50 on BH. (really nice on chops too)

might try the GA9 for FH, it's a bit cheaper than the GA8 or H8-80 for now.

 

[naid166]

There's a Youtube channel that tests various rubbers. One of the tests is bounciness. They drop a ball from 50cm onto a blade (same blade for all rubbers) and measure the bounce back. G1 (max) bounces to 23.5cm, while Rakza 7 (2.0) to 27.5cm, so it makes sense that the R7 would be bouncier. In 2.0, the G1 should be even slower. Other popular rubbers for comparison: D05(1.9)=25.5cm, D09c(1.9)=22cm, Glayzer(1.9)=27.5cm, Rozena(1.9)=27.5cm, T05(1.9)=30cm, T19(1.9)=26.5cm, C1(1.8)=24.5cm, Factive(1.8)=23.5cm, RZ(2.0)=21cm, RZ-EH(max)=16cm.

 

[Lawsy]

Just thought I would pop back in to say that a couple of months later (and my shoulder feels much better, so I'm playing properly hard again), and my GA8 50 is still playing like it was brand new (probably nearing 125 - 150 hours of abuse by now). Though off topic, I might as well Kenyon that the B3 40 on my forehand is finally starting to show some age, but it gets hammered way more, so that's not surprising (it still plays perfectly fine, it just doesn't clean up as nicely anymore).

I still standby my opinion that GA8 50 is about the best backhand rubber for the money. It loops like a monster, transfers all my power into ball velocity, and that click sound is still so menacing, I love it.