Sanwei Fextra 5 Classic First Playing Report

[ejprinz]

Note: I appended this to the post "Sanwei Fextra 5, new blade?" and will remove this post after a few days.

I ordered 2 Fextra 5's from the AliExpress/BEO Store. They arrived after 10 days (to Texas). I also ordered a Yinhe Pro05 (Limba/Limba/inner KLC/...) and the surface is clearly different, the Pro05 is Limba, so the Fextra5 Classic is Koto/Spruce.

The old Fextra 7 has been replaced by the Fextra 7 Pro with a more "3D formed" handle, but on AliExpress the old Fextra 7 is still available. The Fextra 7 with Limba/Limba and ~1400Hz is very fast and actually harder to play for me than the Yinhe Pro 05. More recent Fextra 7's are slower, similar what happened to the Yinhe 437 (1399Hz) going to the 437S (1270Hz).

Fextra 5: 1291Hz/1291Hz (my 2 blades), 77.0g, 5.8mm. Handle: 23.8x26.4mm (average from 2 blades)
Pro 05: 1270Hz/1356Hz (my 2 blades), 92.7g, 5.9mm, handle center 24.1mm/27.5mm

I assembled the blade with the DHS H3 Neo forehand and the Yinhe Moon 12 (blue) backhand rubbers. It plays as expected, the touch is a bit harder than the Limba top blades, but the control is very good. The speed is similar to the Anegre top blades like the Yasaka Sweden Extra. With the rubbers I am using the blade has good control, I can play any topspin, push, or chop techniques (against topspin). Also the blade is pretty light but not very top heavy.

In summary, this is a very nice blade and I expect it to become a classic like the Sanwei Fextra 7.

 

[h3llary]

Note: I appended this to the post "Sanwei Fextra 5, new blade?" and will remove this post after a few days.

I ordered 2 Fextra 5's from the AliExpress/BEO Store. They arrived after 10 days (to Texas). I also ordered a Yinhe Pro05 (Limba/Limba/inner KLC/...) and the surface is clearly different, the Pro05 is Limba, so the Fextra5 Classic is Koto/Spruce.

The old Fextra 7 has been replaced by the Fextra 7 Pro with a more "3D formed" handle, but on AliExpress the old Fextra 7 is still available. The Fextra 7 with Limba/Limba and ~1400Hz is very fast and actually harder to play for me than the Yinhe Pro 05. More recent Fextra 7's are slower, similar what happened to the Yinhe 437 (1399Hz) going to the 437S (1270Hz).

Fextra 5: 1291Hz/1291Hz (my 2 blades), 77.0g, 5.8mm. Handle: 23.8x26.4mm (average from 2 blades)
Pro 05: 1270Hz/1356Hz (my 2 blades), 92.7g, 5.9mm, handle center 24.1mm/27.5mm

Pictures: Pro05 (Limba) on the left, Fextra5 (Koto) on the right.

I assembled the blade with the DHS H3 Neo forehand and the Yinhe Moon 12 (blue) backhand rubbers. It plays as expected, the touch is a bit harder than the Limba top blades, but the control is very good. The speed is similar to the Anegre top blades like the Yasaka Sweden Extra. With the rubbers I am using the blade has good control, I can play any topspin, push, or chop techniques (against topspin). Also the blade is pretty light but not very top heavy.

In summary, this is a very nice blade and I expect it to become a classic like the Sanwei Fextra 7.

Does this blade have good feedback and vibartions upon contact with the ball? Or is it like fextra 7 that has little to no vibration?

 

[ejprinz]

No, it doesn´t have strong vibrations. I think I expected that because to get 1291Hz with a 77g blade the blade has to be somewhat stiff.

 

[h3llary]

No, it doesn´t have strong vibrations. I think I expected that because to get 1291Hz with a 77g blade the blade has to be somewhat stiff.

Do you think Yinhe pro 05 vibrates more then? I know a couple stiff blades that have a lot of vibrations, like freitas alc for example, at least the one that I played with

 

[ejprinz]

No, the Yinhe Pro 05 doesn´t vibrate either (for me). I have a Tannius tennis grip tape (1/2 of one) (from Amazon) so maybe that helps. In fact I don´t recall any blade vibrating (I just checked out all my blades without rubbers and without grip tape, they don´t vibrate either. So maybe I am insensitive to vibration ;-)

 

[h3llary]

No, the Yinhe Pro 05 doesn´t vibrate either (for me). I have a Tannius tennis grip tape (1/2 of one) (from Amazon) so maybe that helps. In fact I don´t recall any blade vibrating (I just checked out all my blades without rubbers and without grip tape, they don´t vibrate either. So maybe I am insensitive to vibration ;-)

I don't think you can feel vibrations on a blade without rubbers. When I had my blade that vibrates the most (innerforce patric franziska zlc) and tried the bare blade, there was 0 vibration. When I glued the rubbers on I could feel the entire handle vibrate upon the contact as well as the head itself so it has insane amount of feedback which I enjoyed. And now I'm trying to find something similar just faster, as there wasn't enough speed/penetration generated by the blade even if I swing fast

 

[AutomaticBackhand]

Yinhe Pro 05 barely any vibration.
Only on low impact shots a little bit.

Fextra 5 some vibration, but not much.
You get some feedback.

In terms of penetration and firepower my Pro 05 is unmatched, more power than anything else I tried.

 

[N88GUM]

Curious, how do you measure vibration?

 

[AutomaticBackhand]

Curious, how do you measure vibration?

Feeling and intuition, for me at least

 

[N88GUM]

When players quote frequency in MHz, do they use a measuring device?

 

[ejprinz]

You take the blade (no rubbers), drop a table tennis ball into the center, then you analyze the sound with a spectrum analyzer. E.g., for Android phones, install "Spectroid" from the Google Play Store. The dominant frequency from the "max hold" graph is what we are quoting. If you have absolute pitch you can do it with your ear .
There is a summary at this link.
Higher frequency corresponds to stiffer/faster blade. This roughly correlates to the feeling of the blade with rubbers, although of course the rubbers play a big role too.
Below 1200 Hz are the "allround" 5-ply blades, 1200-1400Hz are the "offensive" and inner carbon/KLC/ALC blades, and 1400-1600Hz are outer carbon/ALC blades. Hinoki is usually higher frequency but not as fast as e.g. a Koto blade with the same frequency.
Note that older 7-ply blades were 1400Hz but newer 7-ply blades tend to be lower frequency.
My lowest frequency blades (also best control) are around 1150Hz, Victas Swat or Yinhe 980XX and 980 defender (larger head) blades. My highest frequency blade is the Yinhe T11+with 1744Hz but it is a balsa core blade and actually not as fast (but has a high pitch sound).
So at least inner carbon blades are not necessarily very high frequency, and even 7-ply blades can be in the 1200-1300Hz range (e.g. Yinhe U1-VB, a very nice blade).

 

[h3llary]

Curious, how do you measure vibration?

your subjective feeling. Some people don't feel it at all, others are quite sensitive and can feel it upon the contact with the ball

 

[h3llary]

Tested the blade today. Very good blade, the handle isn't as thin as I expceted it to be. I would say it's average, you can add something like butterfly overgrip if you want a better grip. The blade feels hard. Just like sanwei V5 pro, I don't know what it is about sanwei's wood but almost all of them have harder wood. Other than that it feels like a very controlalble OFF- blade that pairs well with rubbers that are not too hard. I tried it with tenergy 19 and D09C both felt very controllable