I've been playing with the Stiga DNA H on FH for about one week training and played with it in matchplay last night so just some observations.
DHS Long 5x, FH Stiga DNA H BH Rhyzer Pro 50 (previous to that been using Rasanter R53...great but heavy, and then Tenergy 05) I will leave out the comparison to Andro R53 since that is in a league of its own.
When I first saw the TTD video review I was a little surprised that Dan said that it was slower than T05, but clearly it is slower. On just some warm-up drives the difference in speed from T05 or even Rhyzer 50 is not so pronounced. But as you get to some medium fast loops there is just something not right with the speed to spin ratio. With a more low to high chinese style brush loops there is not a crisp feeling that I would expect from a 50 degree rubber and the 'softness' of the topsheet makes it appear to have nice dwell, but the ball is always landing quite in the middle zone of the table and not deep. I tried to adjust with various brushing and using more of the sponge without a lot of success. What I did find is that if you have a short stroke similar to a Maze or Boll and brushing more the top part of the ball you can get more speed but that is not an adjustment I want to make.
A positive is that if you are going power against power (counterlooping close to table or away from table) DNA H actually performs well. It has really nice control & feel when counterattacking and the speed is nice. Counterlooping far away has nice control and spin but I think Rhyzer Pro 50 and T05 are more 'deadly' in terms of being able to put more power and variety of spin. The DNA H seems to be very spinny but it is very predictable spin...and really doesn't have any 'kick' to the spin like you can get with T05 or Rhyzer 50. the DNA just doesn't feel that dynamic.
The biggest problem that I have is that when you gain an advantage and get a (quality) block back from your opponent and you are in the right position... there is not that much put-away-power. Good opponents can just block-you-down...whereas I actually flipped my racket midway last night and used Rhyzer 50 side on FH and there was clearly a few notches more of speed and spin with balls landing deep and much more forcing of errors onto the opponent.
On short game & serves it seems fairly equal to Rhyzer 50. Both 50 degree rubbers have more spin on serves than T05 if you using more brush serving technique. It does have a very grippy topsheet. Topsheet is not super soft but the Rhyzer 50 is much more firm.
Maybe it is just my style of play but compared to Rhyzer pro 50, T05 and R53 it's just not the rubber for me on the FH side. Playing on the BH side for half the the night it actually performed well and certainly really nice with active blocks and quick countering. But (BH) looping underspin was an adjustment...I will need to find the sweetspot on looping strong and deep. Rhyzer 50 on BH is very easy to play low and strong against backspin. I might keep it on the BH and see if it could work, but I think this rubber is just not a good match for me.
To be fair, it could be that i'm playing with the Rhyzer Pro 50 and T05 longer; or the fact that Rhyzer 50 is 2.3mm, or the DNA H needs to be on an 'outer' carbon blade.
