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I would like to begin this text with a very short pre-word aimed at all the grumblers of this forum, please don't read this! I wrote this text mostly because I wanted to burn off some afflatus. So this text probably will be unnecessarily long, full of floral comparisons and other figures than most people will recognize as gibberish.TL;DR I think this blade is unique, and I like it. On the other hand, please read along if you are not one of those pesky lingerers, and you want to know the full story.
I've been long EJ-ing in search of a blade that I would enjoy. I've gone through numerous Chinese options and found a few gems, but I wasn't satisfied enough with any of them. I wanted to get a feel of what each brand has to offer in terms of build quality as well as creativity in terms of composition. Since I haven't bought anything from Xiom yet and they regularly receive good praise, I decided to give it a go as a victim of this experiment.
I knew I wanted blade characterized by dominant response frequency* be around 1250-1400 Hz, which usually results in Off- to Off speed, which is what I can control pretty well with either boosted rubbers or most of the harder ESN offerings. At the time, I associated crisp feel with hard top ply, but now I know that's not always the case. I've started my search on the revspin.net. Their list of the blades usually is relatively up to date with what manufacturers have to offer at the time, and it contains user-generated ratings. Of course, I know those ratings are ain't to be trusted, but I was looking for something that was highly praised for the control rather than raw speed. The Omega line caught my attention as it seemed to check most of the boxes. I proceed to my local Xiom distributor website, and there she was! My new lady at the 30$ discount.
The blade came in a very unusual box for a table tennis blade. It consists of two halves that fold onto one another. Apart from the blade itself, there was also a little grindstone of sorts inside. I assume it's meant to allow the players to shave off some of the material on the wings so each player can get a custom fit.
Most of the table tennis blades I've used (or even seen) had softer veneers sandwiched between harder plies or the other way around, but that's not the case for this one. It's a 7-ply construction, but not a one you would necessarily expect. It's built of alternating hard and soft plies. I think that the subsequent layers are from the wood of the following species: rosewood, ayous, ebony, ayous, ebony, ayous, and rosewood. Thanks to this peculiar design, the blade seems to be rather well balanced between being stiff and flexible. It is very hard for me to define the throw of this blade. It would describe it as a little higher than neutral. Keep in mind though that rubbers are also an important factor to consider.
Xiom suggests using a medium to medium-hard rubbers. On the website, we can read that using rubbers with a sponge that has a hardness around 42.5 to 47.5 degrees of the scale that Xiom uses would be ideal. I've treated this as more of a hint and put on it a pair of rubbers that are a tiny bit harder than that. I've used Gambler Burst TH (about 50 degrees, I am not sure though) for backhand and a Xiom Vega China VM (55 degrees) for forehand. I chose those rubbers for the sole reason those were my favorites at the time, but the only thing I would change is the Burst due to combined degradation in speed and unavailability in Poland.
Unfortunately, I have a rather limited base for comparison. When it comes to 7ply blades, I've only used blades Clipper and a couple of soldiers from its clone army. Since I will probably make a lot of comparisons to those blades in this text, I will refer to them as Clipper family because while being different, they all do share their composition, same as family members share a lot of traits.
When picking up the ball (looping upwards), blade performs on par with the Clipper family in terms both of speed and spin, but I much preferred how XOT felt. I could feel much clearer how the ball is being dragged upwards. I am really fond of that feeling, it gives me information about the contact, which in turn makes short play very enjoyable. Omega also shines with a rather bright light in the hitting department, making placing drives a pleasure. I really mean it, I often do placement exercises and hitting cones with it was as easy as with my old Appelgren Allplay. What is interesting though, the totally flat hits (forehand flick through the ball, smashes) were going rather straight, while drives had a surprisingly nice arc. That's new behavior for me because most of the other blades I have owned were rather homogenous in that department. Based on my collection and memories, I can think of only Cornilleau Gauzy Quest Off rivaling flat hitting capabilities of the Omega Tour. I would also want to emphasize that my experience here is very, very limited since my playstyle relies more on loops than on hit strokes. And talking about loops, the strong forward ones are more spin focussed.
A group of techniques and plays where there is a high emphasis on controlling the ball is where this blade really shines. Blocking is a real treat, it's a child play to place ball wherever I want. I actually tested this claim on a variety of players. I've swapped blades with a few of my colleagues for the warmup, before this whole this pandemic happened and all of them praised how easy it was to wield in low effort shots. The same ease of use can't be said for the higher gears as they require a little bit more discipline. That extra gear is perceptible only when you lay on it. You have to stroke really hard for the hit to penetrate into the lower veneers, but when you do, the blade screams with a very high pitched note. Actually, that's a first blade I own that I can't trigger the top gear reliably. Even without using that secret power, it's enough to obliterate local leagues with ease.
The part where this blade disappointed me the most is build quality. I can't say a bad word about how veneers were glued together, also there are no splinters to be seen, but that small lens or rather a badge was improperly fit into the handle of my blade and the logo unglued itself. That is only the case for the backhand side, the other side of the handle is perfectly fine, but soon enough I will have no lense on one side of this rather fresh blade. It's not the end of the world, but I did have expected better from a manufacturer like Xiom...
The question you might ask yourself, why on earth did I waste so much time writing an essay about a blade that is nigh existent on the market right now. It's because this product is rather unique, and that's a trait I seem to value more and more these days. I've mentioned the Clipper family in this text, but there are many more families in Table Tennis mafia game. There is the Viscaria family, the W968 family, the Petr Korbel family (the blade, not the guy, lolz), and a few other less or more known groups of power. The point is, If I am to waste my money on being an Equipment Junkie, I might as well step off the beaten path and experience some table tennis gear underdogs. Sometimes you just waste your money, and with disappointment, you sell that blade or rubber your curiosity force you to buy in the first place, but sometimes you find hidden gems like this. I can't call this blade a perfect looper nor perfect hitter, it lays more in between of those two extremes. If we check how this blade is rated on the Xiom's website, it's rating bar is right in the middle "Allround topspin" and "Spin & smash" bars, and I fully agree with this judgment. It's a blade of harmony, something that is very happy in either of those worlds.
* frequency of sound wave emitted when the ball is dropped on the center of the blade, I made that term up because I couldn't find the proper one
PS: There is also a blade called Loki Arthur Ebony K7 Ebony, which has a very similar construction.
I've been long EJ-ing in search of a blade that I would enjoy. I've gone through numerous Chinese options and found a few gems, but I wasn't satisfied enough with any of them. I wanted to get a feel of what each brand has to offer in terms of build quality as well as creativity in terms of composition. Since I haven't bought anything from Xiom yet and they regularly receive good praise, I decided to give it a go as a victim of this experiment.
I knew I wanted blade characterized by dominant response frequency* be around 1250-1400 Hz, which usually results in Off- to Off speed, which is what I can control pretty well with either boosted rubbers or most of the harder ESN offerings. At the time, I associated crisp feel with hard top ply, but now I know that's not always the case. I've started my search on the revspin.net. Their list of the blades usually is relatively up to date with what manufacturers have to offer at the time, and it contains user-generated ratings. Of course, I know those ratings are ain't to be trusted, but I was looking for something that was highly praised for the control rather than raw speed. The Omega line caught my attention as it seemed to check most of the boxes. I proceed to my local Xiom distributor website, and there she was! My new lady at the 30$ discount.
The blade came in a very unusual box for a table tennis blade. It consists of two halves that fold onto one another. Apart from the blade itself, there was also a little grindstone of sorts inside. I assume it's meant to allow the players to shave off some of the material on the wings so each player can get a custom fit.
Most of the table tennis blades I've used (or even seen) had softer veneers sandwiched between harder plies or the other way around, but that's not the case for this one. It's a 7-ply construction, but not a one you would necessarily expect. It's built of alternating hard and soft plies. I think that the subsequent layers are from the wood of the following species: rosewood, ayous, ebony, ayous, ebony, ayous, and rosewood. Thanks to this peculiar design, the blade seems to be rather well balanced between being stiff and flexible. It is very hard for me to define the throw of this blade. It would describe it as a little higher than neutral. Keep in mind though that rubbers are also an important factor to consider.
Xiom suggests using a medium to medium-hard rubbers. On the website, we can read that using rubbers with a sponge that has a hardness around 42.5 to 47.5 degrees of the scale that Xiom uses would be ideal. I've treated this as more of a hint and put on it a pair of rubbers that are a tiny bit harder than that. I've used Gambler Burst TH (about 50 degrees, I am not sure though) for backhand and a Xiom Vega China VM (55 degrees) for forehand. I chose those rubbers for the sole reason those were my favorites at the time, but the only thing I would change is the Burst due to combined degradation in speed and unavailability in Poland.
Unfortunately, I have a rather limited base for comparison. When it comes to 7ply blades, I've only used blades Clipper and a couple of soldiers from its clone army. Since I will probably make a lot of comparisons to those blades in this text, I will refer to them as Clipper family because while being different, they all do share their composition, same as family members share a lot of traits.
When picking up the ball (looping upwards), blade performs on par with the Clipper family in terms both of speed and spin, but I much preferred how XOT felt. I could feel much clearer how the ball is being dragged upwards. I am really fond of that feeling, it gives me information about the contact, which in turn makes short play very enjoyable. Omega also shines with a rather bright light in the hitting department, making placing drives a pleasure. I really mean it, I often do placement exercises and hitting cones with it was as easy as with my old Appelgren Allplay. What is interesting though, the totally flat hits (forehand flick through the ball, smashes) were going rather straight, while drives had a surprisingly nice arc. That's new behavior for me because most of the other blades I have owned were rather homogenous in that department. Based on my collection and memories, I can think of only Cornilleau Gauzy Quest Off rivaling flat hitting capabilities of the Omega Tour. I would also want to emphasize that my experience here is very, very limited since my playstyle relies more on loops than on hit strokes. And talking about loops, the strong forward ones are more spin focussed.
A group of techniques and plays where there is a high emphasis on controlling the ball is where this blade really shines. Blocking is a real treat, it's a child play to place ball wherever I want. I actually tested this claim on a variety of players. I've swapped blades with a few of my colleagues for the warmup, before this whole this pandemic happened and all of them praised how easy it was to wield in low effort shots. The same ease of use can't be said for the higher gears as they require a little bit more discipline. That extra gear is perceptible only when you lay on it. You have to stroke really hard for the hit to penetrate into the lower veneers, but when you do, the blade screams with a very high pitched note. Actually, that's a first blade I own that I can't trigger the top gear reliably. Even without using that secret power, it's enough to obliterate local leagues with ease.
The part where this blade disappointed me the most is build quality. I can't say a bad word about how veneers were glued together, also there are no splinters to be seen, but that small lens or rather a badge was improperly fit into the handle of my blade and the logo unglued itself. That is only the case for the backhand side, the other side of the handle is perfectly fine, but soon enough I will have no lense on one side of this rather fresh blade. It's not the end of the world, but I did have expected better from a manufacturer like Xiom...
The question you might ask yourself, why on earth did I waste so much time writing an essay about a blade that is nigh existent on the market right now. It's because this product is rather unique, and that's a trait I seem to value more and more these days. I've mentioned the Clipper family in this text, but there are many more families in Table Tennis mafia game. There is the Viscaria family, the W968 family, the Petr Korbel family (the blade, not the guy, lolz), and a few other less or more known groups of power. The point is, If I am to waste my money on being an Equipment Junkie, I might as well step off the beaten path and experience some table tennis gear underdogs. Sometimes you just waste your money, and with disappointment, you sell that blade or rubber your curiosity force you to buy in the first place, but sometimes you find hidden gems like this. I can't call this blade a perfect looper nor perfect hitter, it lays more in between of those two extremes. If we check how this blade is rated on the Xiom's website, it's rating bar is right in the middle "Allround topspin" and "Spin & smash" bars, and I fully agree with this judgment. It's a blade of harmony, something that is very happy in either of those worlds.
* frequency of sound wave emitted when the ball is dropped on the center of the blade, I made that term up because I couldn't find the proper one
PS: There is also a blade called Loki Arthur Ebony K7 Ebony, which has a very similar construction.