Tibhar Hybrid MK & Hybrid MK Pro Review: Safety vs Power, Average vs Better Durability

[victormanriquey]

Good morning everybody!

I'm back with another double rubber review, the well know and popular Hybrid MK and Hybrid MK Pro from Tibhar. They have been in the market for a while as a step down from the K3, so now I finally had the chance to test them properly and do an in-depth analysis of how they are and how they play, and I was actually really happy about the testing period, except for the average-ish durability of the Hybrid MK (MK Pro is better though), which was a known issue but still.

Here's the full link to the blogpost: https://www.tabletennisequipmenthelp.com/blog/tibhar-hybrid-mk-mk-pro-review

The short summary of this review is that they aren't really hybrid rubbers, they are tensor hybrids at best, but essentially they are aimed at being grippy rubbers with added linearity, and in my opinion, Tibhar has done a good job at that. The Hybrid MK is the safest tensor hybrid I have tested so far, and it was super fun on the backhand, but can also work on forehand as you will read from other players who tested it as well. The Hybrid MK Pro is the same but with more power and less safety margin, it competes in a different rubber market in my opinion, one more aimed at higher level players who want a moderately fast linear-ish tensor on their forehand or backhand.

And for the complete TL;DR if you are in a hurry, please see the table below:

Category	Hybrid MK	Hybrid MK Pro
Weight	Medium, 46 grams cut to my B2X (MAX), pretty light for a hybrid rubber	Medium, 46 grams cut to my B2X (2.0), also very light for a harder hybrid rubber
Sponge & Topsheet	Medium 48 ESN degrees sponge but feels softer, it is grippier than tackier, only a very minor tack to it	Harder 51 ESN degrees sponge but feels softer, it is grippier than tackier, only a very minor tack to it
Speed & Gears	The most linear tensor hybrid I have tested, also with a speed cap but plenty of power initially	Linear-ish, more explosive from the medium-high gears, less clear speed cap and noticeably faster
Spin potential	High spin and very good grip even though it's not tacky	Similar high spin and very good grip even though it's not tacky
Throw angle	High throw angle, a bit lower than Rakza Z, safe medium flight that is always predictable	Lower throw angle, similar to a NUZN 48, less safety and consistently longer flight
Drives & Loops	Safe and linear power on all shots, very easy openings, topspin loops and counter drives, counterlooping is not as simple as with others	Less safety but more power in all shots, making them harder but more rewarding if they land, especially from the middle gear onwards
Serves	Good spin on serves, harder to keep ball short and low as it's expected from a tensor hybrid, still dangerous spin on the serves that wins points	Good spin too, easier on the shorter and lower serves, trickier in the longer serves as catapult activates more on those
Flicks	Very safe for flicks that open up the rally, but often not enough power to finish the rally, focus is control	Easy flicks on the forehand, throw and catapult combine well with the high grip, more power on BH flicks
Pushes	Good for pushes, quite insensitive to incoming spin, you have to watch out for popping up the return	A bit better for pushes especially in the short game and dead pushes, longer pushes are harder to do
Blocks	Very good at blocking, works on autopilot, excellent for controlling the tempo and for precision blocks	Also great blocking but you need to adjust the racket angle on power loops as those tend to go long
Flat hits	Very good at counter drives and flat hits and punches, one of the best hybrids for this as expected	Still good at those shots but a bit trickier, the catapult activates more easily and shots go longer
Boosting	No need to boost, perhaps only to revive the sponge tension after 3-4 months but sponge feels fragile	No need to boost, sponge is not very hard and has enough speed, durability of tension seems better
Price & Durability	Medium rubber segment with recurring discounts, durability seems to be the issue after around 3-4 months, noticeable after 1 month	Medium-high rubber segment but also has recurring discounts, durability seems better, probably the better value-price tradeoff

That was all for today good people! Next up is the Battle 2 BS Prov + Battle 2 Neo review and also the Xiom Vega China (and Sanwei Target National and Gear Hyper), and after that I'll get going with the Donic BlueGrip J1 and J2 to finish the year (along with other round up posts).

Have a nice day all and let me know if you have any comments, questions or feedback!

Thanks for reading and for your time as always,

Victor

PS. Remember you can do all the comparisons between the rubbers I've tested in the rubber DB here (still in beta, want to expand more): https://www.tabletennisequipmenthelp.com/rubber-database

 

[hayhayc86]

great review as always, its next on my 'want to try' rubber list. Shame you have so many more to test as i think if you can test victas v>15 sticky and v>15 sticky soft against the mk hybrid and pro would be very interesting!

 

[victormanriquey]

great review as always, its next on my 'want to try' rubber list. Shame you have so many more to test as i think if you can test victas v>15 sticky and v>15 sticky soft against the mk hybrid and pro would be very interesting!

Thanks @hayhayc86 ! <3

Let me know how you experience it when you try it, what blade you wanna pair it with and why are you looking into the MKs? Just curious!

And yes, I cannot test all but I'm getting there, I hope to add Victas to my blog soon, the V>15 sticky and the new Xegnas are in my radar Not sure if you played them! Haven't heard much on them

 

[navuzor]

Very nice review Victor, I have always read good things about these two rubbers, except for the durability. I see you often mention and compare them with classic tensors like Rakza 7 and Fastarc G1 in your review, also frequently referencing the NUZN lineup as well. I think that makes sense based on the opinions I gathered from different sources. That's why I played with NUZN 48 for a while because it was often compared with the MK but with much better durability, that being said, NUZN 48 never really stood out for me for anything in particular to be honest. Looking very much forward to your Xiom Vega China impressions too.

 

[victormanriquey]

Thanks @navuzor !! <3

Yes they are very good rubbers indeed, and just the durability is the issue for the normal hybrid MK, I think indeed they get compared often with Rakza 7 and Fastarc G-1 as they fit in the same club, I had that feeling as well

Yes NUZN 48 lasts much longer, Andro did a good job there, it's less safe but more spinny, pros and cons

XVC coming soon! Bit of a D09c so far

 

[Airoc]

Yes they are very good rubbers indeed, and just the durability is the issue for the normal hybrid MK

Do you have an idea why that should be the case other than varying qualities?
The only thing between the MK and the MK Pro is the sponge hardness, that shouldn´t be the determining factor?

 

[beeray1]

Do you have an idea why that should be the case other than varying qualities?
The only thing between the MK and the MK Pro is the sponge hardness, that shouldn´t be the determining factor?

yeah I was going to say - I've had several sheets of each and they suffer the same exact durability in my experience. But it might be that when the regular MK dies there's less power in the rubber still - it's kind of a pillowish feeling sponge/rubber overall, so the difference with 'feeling' is more severe than with the pro. I tend to use the pro longer than I used to use the MK just because even though the top sheet seems to wear out the same way, I still feel more secure in using it anyway with the extra hardness. But the topsheets are the same - both 74-052.

 

[victormanriquey]

Do you have an idea why that should be the case other than varying qualities?
The only thing between the MK and the MK Pro is the sponge hardness, that shouldn´t be the determining factor?

yeah I was going to say - I've had several sheets of each and they suffer the same exact durability in my experience. But it might be that when the regular MK dies there's less power in the rubber still - it's kind of a pillowish feeling sponge/rubber overall, so the difference with 'feeling' is more severe than with the pro. I tend to use the pro longer than I used to use the MK just because even though the top sheet seems to wear out the same way, I still feel more secure in using it anyway with the extra hardness. But the topsheets are the same - both 74-052.

Yes good point @Airoc , I had this same feeling for a while to be honest, and I think how @beeray1 explained it is correct, somehow you feel it less (so I haven't noticed yet after 5 weeks) on the Pro, maybe because the catapult is more, so the effect is less pronounced in the beginning, you still feel like you get good speed.

Top sheets should be the exact same yeah, at least that's how it feels to me and what everybody else says. And if @beeray1 says that MK Pro in his experience also lasts longer, I would trust that, I have not used them until consuming them