Experience with some other Loki rubbers - Arthur China, GTX Pro (inc)

[hclnnkhg]

While there are a few new Yinhe rubbers appearing at some times, I clearly miss the opportunity to buy more Yinhe Sun with medium sponge hardness (I installed a pair of them on Yinhe Mercury Y13, which seems to be a good fit). I was fiddling around with various Yinhe rubbers, and I think, Sun is a relatively good one (clearly better for me than the classic sponge Moon). The pimple structure is fairly odd (I have never seen so large pimples under the sheet so far), but it can generate fairly kicky shots on forehand.
I will definitely buy this blue Moon sheet to see, how it compares.

I had Sun on my FH a few years back, very good for flat hitting, possibly related to the super large pimples. Good grip for non tacky rubbers as well, I can serve fine with it. Slightly on the heavy side though.

 

[Emin]

I changed my mind on LAC.

It is glued on a blade with Outer Alc on one side with LAC and inner ZLC on other side with H8 80.

At first İ only played it on FH on that side and It felt underwhelming, especially compared to my Main setup.
I think i need that dwell time and control on FH from inner composition.

Today I Tried it on BH and it felt Great.
The Direct feeling from Outer Alc allowed me to hit more on the table, enough Spin for BH and good stability, control and speed.

With the H8 80 I would often hit the Ball in the net İf İ didnt adjust properly.

This way around the setup felt really good and I had a lot more control and confidence in my BH.
And even the FH with H8 80 Was suprisingly good.

I think the Spin of my Main setup is probably umatched and I shouldnt compare it to that.
Until i reach a Point where I need that Level against my opponents i might be Well served with this setup.

I felt more impressed with LAC on BH with Outer ALC. Thats what I imagine Viscaria/FZD Alc + D09c would play like.

I am getting closer to my goal of FZD BH.

Keep giving and believing!

 

[mocker88]

Yinhe Mercury 2 is pretty beastly when boosted. You should give that a shot. Only the medium sponges are available now. I'm guessing someone bought up all the hard sponge sheets to boost. No way to tell before getting it, but the heavier the sheet is the better it plays. I've had maybe 3 sheets that weigh 65g and 3 sheets that weigh 60g. The 65g are sigifnicantly better.

Still waiting for the Hard ones. Seems like Yinhe has problems producing these still....

 

[hclnnkhg]

Still waiting for the Hard ones. Seems like Yinhe has problems producing these still....

Is Yinhe even trying to make Mercury 2 Hard? Sun, Moon, Moon speed Hard are also out of stock for long time.

 

[mocker88]

Is Yinhe even trying to make Mercury 2 Hard? Sun, Moon, Moon speed Hard are also out of stock for long time.

I sent a question about them again right now, so we'll see what the reply will be

 

[longle]

Is Yinhe even trying to make Mercury 2 Hard? Sun, Moon, Moon speed Hard are also out of stock for long time.

I expect something outside the solar system.. like Black Hole ? with black sponge

 

[hclnnkhg]

I expect something outside the solar system.. like Black Hole ? with black sponge

Big dipper is outside the solar system. Black hole sounds like a defensive anti

 

[damszelfly]

I sent a question about them again right now, so we'll see what the reply will be

It is too bad, that Yinhe's European distribution is so obscure, that it is nearly nonexistent. I'd love to see much more Yinhe products everywhere.

 

[Egon]

Out of curiosity, did you remember the sponge color and hardness of the Moon Speed you used? From reviews, I'm seeing that people are disappointed with the Moon Speed with yellow sponge, but are happy with the red sponge version. Even seeing that at least one version of them has a glossier topsheet than AK47. I guess at this point we shouldn't be shocked at high variance in consistency between different batches in the same Chinese rubber.

The sponge was red, the topsheet was black and matte. From the very beginning, when the rubber were brand new, I lacked grip on the ball. I was disappointed with Moon Speed right away, although the red sponge, its speed and weight showed great promise, everything was ruined by a disgusting topsheet

 

[lodro]

I'd love to see much more Yinhe products everywhere.

Nahhh, i can do without them

 

[damszelfly]

Nahhh, i can do without them

People can of course, but should? I mean, more than one third of my blades are Yinhe - the quality is definitely up compared to the price - but there are also novelty class Yinhe blades.
I would love to see an actual sample of Yinhe 970XX G as well (it is an existing glassfibre blade, based on the manufacturer site, just could not get it from anywhere yet)

 

[Zwill]

It is too bad, that Yinhe's European distribution is so obscure, that it is nearly nonexistent. I'd love to see much more Yinhe products everywhere.

Yinhe does a much better job with their top tier blades than rubbers. But it's no surprise they can hire a few great blade makers and job is done, while for rubber they need to invest in expensive machinery, process and materials.
Do materials matter in blades? Suuure, but a good blade maker can compensate pretty well plus they can cherry pick and make their commercial blades mediocore.

Rubber manufacturing is not really about cherry picking, you either can do it not. DHS makes so massive amount of stuff they can cherry pick the absolute best of the best and maybe BTY can too, but you can forget about the rest.

 

[damszelfly]

Yinhe does a much better job with their top tier blades than rubbers. But it's no surprise they can hire a few great blade makers and job is done, while for rubber they need to invest in expensive machinery, process and materials.
Do materials matter in blades? Suuure, but a good blade maker can compensate pretty well plus they can cherry pick and make their commercial blades mediocore.

Rubber manufacturing is not really about cherry picking, you either can do it not. DHS makes so massive amount of stuff they can cherry pick the absolute best of the best and maybe BTY can too, but you can forget about the rest.

While there are notably a few interesting rubbers of their, I also think, that Yinhe is much better with their blades. The baseline level is already convincing (Yinhe U3 can be an etalon 7-ply all-wood) - the only problem is, that for some reason, their more premium blades usually go discontinued... I tried to get my hands on a Yinhe U2 pro for a whole year without any kind of success - I got 2 pieces of Yinhe Pro Feeling, but not any more afterwards. I also asked a few AliExpress sellers if they could get me 970XX G (the manufacturer homepage clearly presents this one as an inner-glassfiber Koto top blade), but also without any success yet.

 

[hclnnkhg]

While there are notably a few interesting rubbers of their, I also think, that Yinhe is much better with their blades. The baseline level is already convincing (Yinhe U3 can be an etalon 7-ply all-wood) - the only problem is, that for some reason, their more premium blades usually go discontinued... I tried to get my hands on a Yinhe U2 pro for a whole year without any kind of success - I got 2 pieces of Yinhe Pro Feeling, but not any more afterwards. I also asked a few AliExpress sellers if they could get me 970XX G (the manufacturer homepage clearly presents this one as an inner-glassfiber Koto top blade), but also without any success yet.

They seem to be throwing everything at the wall and see what sticks. There are 11 models in their T-series, but only about 5 of them are easy to get, I suspect the rest are discontinued. Nowadays their hottest product line seems to be the pro 01 series (Viscaria structure), and pro editions for North Korean players and some CNT players, where 99% of these either have the same structure as Viscaria or Hurricane Long 5.

 

[lodro]

People can of course, but should? I mean, more than one third of my blades are Yinhe - the quality is definitely up compared to the price - but there are also novelty class Yinhe blades.
I would love to see an actual sample of Yinhe 970XX G as well (it is an existing glassfibre blade, based on the manufacturer site, just could not get it from anywhere yet)

Quality varies. I only ever got 1 yinhe blade, it was a J-2 with the cork handle and the blade was bent

 

[mattlamperouge]

Well after a long wait due to customs delay, my loki samples arrived.
They send me 6 blades & 12 rubbers!

So far I only tested the blades, they have pretty good finishing & quality with sanded wings. They all match the spec sheet in weight & thickness.
In play i only tested the W81 pro AL. the carbon looks like blue alc, it weights 88g, 6.2mm thick & main frequency measured at 1430hz. The blade feels really good and balanced. to test it i used boosted h3neo & h3neo 37° to match my brother viscaria setup. Both play & feel really similar with this combination even though w81 has Limba outer ply & ayous inner+core , quite fast, it has good catapult and easy to generate spin, clear feeling & support mid distance. No vibrations, easy to be agressive.

The LAC they send me has this packaging

Sadly they send me a Red sheet, i wanted to test & play with Lac on FH & Rxton 3 pink on BH
What combination do you guys suggest me to test?

 

[TensorBackhand]

Well after a long wait due to customs delay, my loki samples arrived.
They send me 6 blades & 12 rubbers!

View attachment 26353

So far I only tested the blades, they have pretty good finishing & quality with sanded wings. They all match the spec sheet in weight & thickness.
In play i only tested the W81 pro AL. the carbon looks like blue alc, it weights 88g, 6.2mm thick & main frequency measured at 1430hz. The blade feels really good and balanced. to test it i used boosted h3neo & h3neo 37° to match my brother viscaria setup. Both play & feel really similar with this combination even though w81 has Limba outer ply & ayous inner+core , quite fast, it has good catapult and easy to generate spin, clear feeling & support mid distance. No vibrations, easy to be agressive.

The LAC they send me has this packagingView attachment 26354
Sadly they send me a Red sheet, i wanted to test & play with Lac on FH & Rxton 3 pink on BH
What combination do you guys suggest me to test?

So lucky. Make sure to tune the GTX properly. Its a monster.

No rxton 7 and 9 yet?

 

[mattlamperouge]

So lucky. Make sure to tune the GTX properly. Its a monster.

No rxton 7 and 9 yet?

Do you think I should test GTX unboosted first, then boosted with haifu & then baby oil to see the behaviour on all the stages or do you think is a waste of time & i should skip unboosted? following your recipe hehe

No rxton 7 & 9 news yet sadly, im hyped waiting for @Tony's Table Tennis review of Rxton 9 since he seems to like it. im looking foward to know if its designed with boosting in mind (since its suppose to be a h3 national alternative) or it performs more like LAC etc.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Do you think I should test GTX unboosted first, then boosted with haifu & then baby oil to see the behaviour on all the stages or do you think is a waste of time & i should skip unboosted? following your recipe hehe

No rxton 7 & 9 news yet sadly, im hyped waiting for @Tony's Table Tennis review of Rxton 9 since he seems to like it. im looking foward to know if its designed with boosting in mind (since its suppose to be a h3 national alternative) or it performs more like LAC etc.

Definitely test the GTX in the 3 stages of my recipe!

 

[TensorBackhand]

Do you think I should test GTX unboosted first, then boosted with haifu & then baby oil to see the behaviour on all the stages or do you think is a waste of time & i should skip unboosted? following your recipe hehe

No rxton 7 & 9 news yet sadly, im hyped waiting for @Tony's Table Tennis review of Rxton 9 since he seems to like it. im looking foward to know if its designed with boosting in mind (since its suppose to be a h3 national alternative) or it performs more like LAC etc.

Did you also get the Koto surface Inner zlc blade? I was so curious about how this plays. I think its called Arthur Pro Zlc