Xiom Vega China Review: More of a Budget Dignics 09C Alternative, Less of a Boosted Hurricane 3 Neo

[victormanriquey]

NSD = Nittaku Shake Defence, a relatively fast and stiff defensive blade with 3+2 composition. Thick hinoki outer layers. Roughly, it can be compared with classic 7ply all wood blades in All+ category.

Goriki Super Drive is 6 ply all wood offensive blade with a bigger head 160×155mm. Walnut outer layers and hinoki inside. Stiff and fast with a hint of hinoki feel. Roughly, can be compared to outer carbon blades, Off category.

Andro Chintac is a new rubber that claims to be hybrid, but is like slightly boosted H3 OS. Find more impressions with the search function.

I ll test Chintac begin next year I think so then I can post here more, its indeed the latest Andro hybrid

 

[Learning]

If you ever get tired of testing new rubbers, I think it would be cool to do a 3-way test of the difference in quality of an 6 month old dignics rubber vs a fresh new dignics rubber vs a competitor.

I recently felt that my Rakza 7 was too old (7 months with playing 2-3 times a week), and yesterday I glued on a new Rakza 7 and it felt so much more secure in blocks and loops, it was crazy...

 

[victormanriquey]

If you ever get tired of testing new rubbers, I think it would be cool to do a 3-way test of the difference in quality of an 6 month old dignics rubber vs a fresh new dignics rubber vs a competitor.

I recently felt that my Rakza 7 was too old (7 months with playing 2-3 times a week), and yesterday I glued on a new Rakza 7 and it felt so much more secure in blocks and loops, it was crazy...

Yeah for sure a rubber has a certain peak period and then after that it is not the same, Im playing now on one of the test blades with an older dignics 09c and had to boost it otherwise sponge was dead, its a very old one, i think 1.5y old or so

 

[Learning]

Yeah for sure a rubber has a certain peak period and then after that it is not the same, Im playing now on one of the test blades with an older dignics 09c and had to boost it otherwise sponge was dead, its a very old one, i think 1.5y old or so

I actually had a question about that. For the seven month old rubber, I was using, it felt more like the top sheet wasn’t able to grip the ball firmly. Is there a chance that the rubber was still good but only the top sheet was worn out? Because I’m not sure if I hit hard enough to make the sponge dead.

I’ve seen old paddles before that absolutely cannot bounce the ball well on one side because the rubber is bad, for example, there was this gambler rubber that had almost 0 bounce, and it was really old, is that the same as the sponge being dead or is that something different?

 

[Tyce]

I actually had a question about that. For the seven month old rubber, I was using, it felt more like the top sheet wasn’t able to grip the ball firmly. Is there a chance that the rubber was still good but only the top sheet was worn out? Because I’m not sure if I hit hard enough to make the sponge dead.

I’ve seen old paddles before that absolutely cannot bounce the ball well on one side because the rubber is bad, for example, there was this gambler rubber that had almost 0 bounce, and it was really old, is that the same as the sponge being dead or is that something different?

Rakza 7 loses its best grip pretty quickly (a couple of weeks at most) then coasts for about those 6 months before declining to the point of feeling like a learner rubber.

Dead sponge in my experience makes it harder to get a quality ball out of the rubber. Sometimes it just stops catapulting, which is usually the factory treatment wearing off. In other cases you can get dead spots, which are horrible because you can get inconsistent results from your shots.

Dead topsheet feels like you can't grab the ball, dead sponge like you can't propel it.

 

[Archo]

I actually had a question about that. For the seven month old rubber, I was using, it felt more like the top sheet wasn’t able to grip the ball firmly. Is there a chance that the rubber was still good but only the top sheet was worn out? Because I’m not sure if I hit hard enough to make the sponge dead.

I’ve seen old paddles before that absolutely cannot bounce the ball well on one side because the rubber is bad, for example, there was this gambler rubber that had almost 0 bounce, and it was really old, is that the same as the sponge being dead or is that something different?

There's no rubber out there that will retain performance for 7 months. You can use a cleaner or something to remove any grime and maybe get some back, but a lot of it will be just tears and fatigue. It's basically a guarantee the topsheet grip has worsened.

The way rubber transverse friction performance curves generally are shaped is that you have a very flat curve for a while, then it drops off a cliff and performance degrades rapidly. For TT rubbers that can be after 2-3 months of 10h a week. In reality of course it just depends on the mechanical stress and heat cycling. If you play an hour a week and don't let your rubber oxidize or get exposed to UV, your topsheet might last a few years.

 

[Learning]

There's no rubber out there that will retain performance for 7 months. You can use a cleaner or something to remove any grime and maybe get some back, but a lot of it will be just tears and fatigue. It's basically a guarantee the topsheet grip has worsened.

The way rubber transverse friction performance curves generally are shaped is that you have a very flat curve for a while, then it drops off a cliff and performance degrades rapidly. For TT rubbers that can be after 2-3 months of 10h a week. In reality of course it just depends on the mechanical stress and heat cycling. If you play an hour a week and don't let your rubber oxidize or get exposed to UV, your topsheet might last a few years.

I’m hoping to get away with replacing FH rubber every 3 months from now on… I’ll update if that works out

 

[Archo]

I’m hoping to get away with replacing FH rubber every 3 months from now on… I’ll update if that works out

How often do you play and how much spin and speed do you produce on the FH? That's the real decider.

Generally I look more at hours. Around 100 hours of intensive use, even H3 starts to give up. You can probably push it to 200. I took my Super FX to around 3500! It was long gone around 500 LOL.

 

[Learning]

How often do you play and how much spin and speed do you produce on the FH? That's the real decider.

Generally I look more at hours. Around 100 hours of intensive use, even H3 starts to give up. You can probably push it to 200. I took my Super FX to around 3500! It was long gone around 500 LOL.

Maybe 5 hrs a week. So that’s 4.5*5 = 22.5 hrs/month or about 67 hrs every 3 months before I will change rubbers. I’m FH dominant. Not a hard hitter, but I rely on touch play so I like grippy surfaces.

 

[Archo]

Maybe 5 hrs a week. So that’s 4.5*5 = 22.5 hrs/month or about 67 hrs every 3 months before I will change rubbers. I’m FH dominant. Not a hard hitter, but I rely on touch play so I like grippy surfaces.

I think you can probably extend to 4 months without an actual performance decrease.