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It has been a while since I did a review, but I have been busy working and spending time with my lovely daughter. I hope that you will enjoy my review.
I have been very fortunate to get hold on the new An JaeHyun TMXi blades from Xiom and would like to share my thoughts and review of the blades. For those who does not know AJH, he is a Korean national player that made his breakthrough at the WTTC where he became the bronze medalist in 2019. At that time, he was using a DHS W968 with H3 on the FH side and an European style rubber on the BH side.
Unboxing
The AJH TMXi blades comes in nice orange or bronze/green presentation box with the signature logo of AJH which I am not sure what should illustrate. Maybe the bronze color could be interpreted as his 3rd place medal in 2019, but that is up for you to decide. The prototype blade come with a silver inner box. Xiom “Beyond” is their new branding with a logo that reminds me of an infinity symbol. I am not sure what it means so it is left to the individual’s imagination what that should mean.
The first hands-on impression of the blades, I noticed that these blades were made in high quality. The edges at the wings are slightly rounded and the there are no fibers popping out as I have sometimes experienced from other TT blade manufactures. The finish is great as other TT premium brands, so thumbs up in that regard. At the top front side of the blade, there is a print of AJH’s logo together with his name and signature underneath. Further down above the handle Xiom’s new logo and branding “Xiom Beyond” is printed and on the left wing another AJH signature is printed. Xiom has printed two arrows on their blades and rubbers which are used for alignment marks for when gluing the rubbers on. I think that is a nice detail from their side. On the Pro version there is printed a “PRO” on the right wing and the inlays on the handle are red in comparison to the regular version where the inlays are gold. The color scheme is black and red which fit pretty well to the rest of the blade and in my opinion the overall design looks quite good.
In the end of the handle Xiom have started to put a metal gold emblem which looks flashy. Judge for yourselves.
Xiom R&D has developed fiber weave that is called TriMetriX where the composite layer is close to the core and thereby the abbreviation TMXi. The material consists of three fiber types which are
Composition: Limba-Ayous-TMX-Ayous-TMX-Ayous-Limba
Here are the specs of the samples I received:
Custom blade
Weight: 91g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 101x26x34mm
Head size: 160x152mm
1324Hz
An JaeHyun TMXi Pro
Weight: 90g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 100x26x34mm
Head size: 160x152mm
1302Hz
An JaeHyun TMXi
Weight: 89g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 100x26x34mm
Head size: 158x152mm
1410Hz
I wanted to start with testing the TMXi Custom blade which is said to be similar as the pro version and paired the blade with some new Xiom Jekyll and Hyde rubbers. On FH is the Z52.5 in black and on BH is the H52.5 in red both max thickness. By looking at the rubbers the Z type seem to be a semi tacky rubber and the H type has a protection sheet as it is claimed to be a hybrid rubber with a tacky top sheet.
The weight of the rubbers cut came out to be 54g for the Z and 51g for the H version. Total weight of the setup was 201g which is a bit heavy for my preference but having that said the balance of the setup was more in the center than towards the head.
When comparing the sponges of the Z and H rubbers it was obvious that the sponge of the Z rubber was more porose and the H rubber sponge was denser like a traditional Chinese rubber.
When bouncing a ball on the Z rubber it felt as traditional European rubber with a bouncy hard sponge as the H rubber was not near so bouncy as the Z rubber and felt similar to a Dignics 09C.
The handles of the blades felt very comfortable where the custom and pro versions felt a bit larger than the regular version. From insider information, it is said to be that the handle sizes of the custom and pro versions are made to AJH own specs. The handle of the regular version felt similar to the Viscaria for comparison.
During my review I will be comparing the AJH custom blade to the DHS W968 number version from 2015.
Drive
When hitting the ball with FH, I could immediately feel the blade with the combination of Jekyll & Hyde Z and H rubbers, that this setup would be fast and definitely faster than the W968. The FH side with the Z rubber was bouncy, but even with a sponge hardness at 52.5 deg it had a nice feel with a small vibration feedback and decent amount of control. The BH side was slower and felt harder, but this was anticipated as the sponge was denser. Here I should be more active on the ball when driving and with the H rubber it had more gears. I would rate the vibration feedback from the blade to be somewhere between the W968 and Viscaria.
Loop
When looping with the Z rubber on FH the ball had medium arc. I could sense some vibration from the blade and the dwell was good when looping, but not as much as the W968 blade in comparison. When really engaging in the loops I could really feel the additional power of the TMX layer contributing to the speed on the ball. The larger head size and Limba outer ply would be contributing to the dwell. On the open-ups with the FH, I had a pleasant experience as I could utilized the setup on both fast and slow balls. The semi tacky surface of the Z rubber did also benefit to grip the ball on the slower shots. The FH side was also very suitable when looping away from the table at medium distance.
Switching to the BH side with the H rubber, I observed that the arc was low-medium.
Close to the table loops was really controllable with high spin due to the tacky surface of the rubber. I could do open-ups on slow downspin balls with a high percentage and a great amount of spin where my partner often would block the ball out. Away from the table I had to should put more effort into the shots if I wanted to engaged the sponge of the rubber to add speed.
Block
The passive game with the TMXi custom blade was surprisingly good. On both sides I experience the setup to be controllable especially with H rubber on BH. On hard flat hits I often had the experience with very hard rubbers that the ball would drop when blocking passively, but that was not the case with the H version rubber. The consistency when blocking was very high due to the large, sweet spot of the blade. I could do punch shots and chop blocks with the BH side with high percentage which I had a harder time to do with e.g., D05 which I normally use on my BH.
Short/Flick
In the short game I would expect the setup to be a bit more uncontrollable due to the blade was faster than the W968. To my surprise the setup was just the opposite on both touch shots and long pushes.
In this area of the game, you also get good vibration feedback from the blade. When doing banana flicks with the BH, I could do it with a good percentage. The tacky surface of the H rubber helped in this type of shots together with the additional flex from the blade. It was also nice to do FH flicks with the Z rubber, but I needed time adjusting and be careful not to overpower the flicks. Could be because I am used to using H3 on the FH side.
Conclusion
The Xiom An Jaehyun TMXi signature blades comes with a price tag for both the Pro version at 185 EUR and the regular version at 132 EUR. Prices are converted from Xiom Korea website. The blades are well-made with a with high quality on par with other premium brands like Butterfly, Stiga, Tibhar, Victas, Andro etc. The design of the blade is quite decent with the black and red colors followed by the gold tag in the end of the handle. In my opinion you get a very good deal for both versions and if you have large hands then go for the Pro version.
I would recommend the blade for experienced all-round players that are looking for a blade that is faster than the DHS HL5 or W968 and has the properties of an inner fiber blade. A two-winged looper that wants a controlled offensive and defensive game close to mid distance from the table and likes the dwell and feel of a Limba outer ply blade.
I have been very fortunate to get hold on the new An JaeHyun TMXi blades from Xiom and would like to share my thoughts and review of the blades. For those who does not know AJH, he is a Korean national player that made his breakthrough at the WTTC where he became the bronze medalist in 2019. At that time, he was using a DHS W968 with H3 on the FH side and an European style rubber on the BH side.
Unboxing
The AJH TMXi blades comes in nice orange or bronze/green presentation box with the signature logo of AJH which I am not sure what should illustrate. Maybe the bronze color could be interpreted as his 3rd place medal in 2019, but that is up for you to decide. The prototype blade come with a silver inner box. Xiom “Beyond” is their new branding with a logo that reminds me of an infinity symbol. I am not sure what it means so it is left to the individual’s imagination what that should mean.
The first hands-on impression of the blades, I noticed that these blades were made in high quality. The edges at the wings are slightly rounded and the there are no fibers popping out as I have sometimes experienced from other TT blade manufactures. The finish is great as other TT premium brands, so thumbs up in that regard. At the top front side of the blade, there is a print of AJH’s logo together with his name and signature underneath. Further down above the handle Xiom’s new logo and branding “Xiom Beyond” is printed and on the left wing another AJH signature is printed. Xiom has printed two arrows on their blades and rubbers which are used for alignment marks for when gluing the rubbers on. I think that is a nice detail from their side. On the Pro version there is printed a “PRO” on the right wing and the inlays on the handle are red in comparison to the regular version where the inlays are gold. The color scheme is black and red which fit pretty well to the rest of the blade and in my opinion the overall design looks quite good.
In the end of the handle Xiom have started to put a metal gold emblem which looks flashy. Judge for yourselves.
Xiom R&D has developed fiber weave that is called TriMetriX where the composite layer is close to the core and thereby the abbreviation TMXi. The material consists of three fiber types which are
- Axylium
- Zephilium
- X-carbon
Composition: Limba-Ayous-TMX-Ayous-TMX-Ayous-Limba
Here are the specs of the samples I received:
Custom blade
Weight: 91g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 101x26x34mm
Head size: 160x152mm
1324Hz
An JaeHyun TMXi Pro
Weight: 90g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 100x26x34mm
Head size: 160x152mm
1302Hz
An JaeHyun TMXi
Weight: 89g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Handle size: 100x26x34mm
Head size: 158x152mm
1410Hz
I wanted to start with testing the TMXi Custom blade which is said to be similar as the pro version and paired the blade with some new Xiom Jekyll and Hyde rubbers. On FH is the Z52.5 in black and on BH is the H52.5 in red both max thickness. By looking at the rubbers the Z type seem to be a semi tacky rubber and the H type has a protection sheet as it is claimed to be a hybrid rubber with a tacky top sheet.
The weight of the rubbers cut came out to be 54g for the Z and 51g for the H version. Total weight of the setup was 201g which is a bit heavy for my preference but having that said the balance of the setup was more in the center than towards the head.
When comparing the sponges of the Z and H rubbers it was obvious that the sponge of the Z rubber was more porose and the H rubber sponge was denser like a traditional Chinese rubber.
When bouncing a ball on the Z rubber it felt as traditional European rubber with a bouncy hard sponge as the H rubber was not near so bouncy as the Z rubber and felt similar to a Dignics 09C.
The handles of the blades felt very comfortable where the custom and pro versions felt a bit larger than the regular version. From insider information, it is said to be that the handle sizes of the custom and pro versions are made to AJH own specs. The handle of the regular version felt similar to the Viscaria for comparison.
During my review I will be comparing the AJH custom blade to the DHS W968 number version from 2015.
Drive
When hitting the ball with FH, I could immediately feel the blade with the combination of Jekyll & Hyde Z and H rubbers, that this setup would be fast and definitely faster than the W968. The FH side with the Z rubber was bouncy, but even with a sponge hardness at 52.5 deg it had a nice feel with a small vibration feedback and decent amount of control. The BH side was slower and felt harder, but this was anticipated as the sponge was denser. Here I should be more active on the ball when driving and with the H rubber it had more gears. I would rate the vibration feedback from the blade to be somewhere between the W968 and Viscaria.
Loop
When looping with the Z rubber on FH the ball had medium arc. I could sense some vibration from the blade and the dwell was good when looping, but not as much as the W968 blade in comparison. When really engaging in the loops I could really feel the additional power of the TMX layer contributing to the speed on the ball. The larger head size and Limba outer ply would be contributing to the dwell. On the open-ups with the FH, I had a pleasant experience as I could utilized the setup on both fast and slow balls. The semi tacky surface of the Z rubber did also benefit to grip the ball on the slower shots. The FH side was also very suitable when looping away from the table at medium distance.
Switching to the BH side with the H rubber, I observed that the arc was low-medium.
Close to the table loops was really controllable with high spin due to the tacky surface of the rubber. I could do open-ups on slow downspin balls with a high percentage and a great amount of spin where my partner often would block the ball out. Away from the table I had to should put more effort into the shots if I wanted to engaged the sponge of the rubber to add speed.
Block
The passive game with the TMXi custom blade was surprisingly good. On both sides I experience the setup to be controllable especially with H rubber on BH. On hard flat hits I often had the experience with very hard rubbers that the ball would drop when blocking passively, but that was not the case with the H version rubber. The consistency when blocking was very high due to the large, sweet spot of the blade. I could do punch shots and chop blocks with the BH side with high percentage which I had a harder time to do with e.g., D05 which I normally use on my BH.
Short/Flick
In the short game I would expect the setup to be a bit more uncontrollable due to the blade was faster than the W968. To my surprise the setup was just the opposite on both touch shots and long pushes.
In this area of the game, you also get good vibration feedback from the blade. When doing banana flicks with the BH, I could do it with a good percentage. The tacky surface of the H rubber helped in this type of shots together with the additional flex from the blade. It was also nice to do FH flicks with the Z rubber, but I needed time adjusting and be careful not to overpower the flicks. Could be because I am used to using H3 on the FH side.
Conclusion
The Xiom An Jaehyun TMXi signature blades comes with a price tag for both the Pro version at 185 EUR and the regular version at 132 EUR. Prices are converted from Xiom Korea website. The blades are well-made with a with high quality on par with other premium brands like Butterfly, Stiga, Tibhar, Victas, Andro etc. The design of the blade is quite decent with the black and red colors followed by the gold tag in the end of the handle. In my opinion you get a very good deal for both versions and if you have large hands then go for the Pro version.
I would recommend the blade for experienced all-round players that are looking for a blade that is faster than the DHS HL5 or W968 and has the properties of an inner fiber blade. A two-winged looper that wants a controlled offensive and defensive game close to mid distance from the table and likes the dwell and feel of a Limba outer ply blade.
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