No - TMXI (An J) is an inner carbon blade - where it differs from HL5 is that the carbon is a mix of ALC/ZLC and carbon (I believe) - I have the non pro version and it feels nothing like the HL5 but maybe a little more like the W968 that An J played before this. It's a nice blade but takes some getting used to.
I like to play with a hybrid inner carbon too like TMXi I find the structure super interesting.
I like the idea that it is somewhat close to w968 in your experience, is it hard to get used to it because you said that it may take some time?
Does it feel crisp and woody since it's an inner carbon blade or is it just crisp like outer carbon?
Initially I didn't gel with it, using my regular T05 both sides - it felt a little hard and unforgiving. I then put slower rubber on (Rozena) and to my surprise it felt great with more forgiveness. It is a little head heavy and on the crips side for an inner blade (I compared it with my Innerforce ALC with same rubbers and it is a fair bit faster)
Plenty of wood feel still - nothing like an outer in my experience but not as woody as Innerforce. Crisper and harder feeling than W968.
The beauty of this blade is that it is like a mixture, with really soft shots like soft blocking and pushing it feels almost woody and also on the harder, further back from the table shots like in a loop-to-loop rally it feels woody and easy to control the ball, however on those midrange shots and those third-ball loops it does have quite a carbon feel, it comes off the blade very fast without much dwell time. While it does feel more like a wood blade on some shots it is still extremely fast, I would say somewhere between OFF+ and OFF++ as its slightly faster than any OFF+ blades I have used but it still isn't a complete looping and smashing monster, it is super easy to control close to the table.
