Definitely NOT training rubber. This, in fact, is the most expensive rubber I've ever bought. Why did I buy this? As usual, out of curiosity. I was QUITE disappointed after trying Rasant and Rasant Turbo - I'd been using Chinese rubbers before that, and from all the reviews and hype, I was expecting monster spins and speed from these Tensor rubbers. I was also expecting that they'd be hard to handle - after all, things which are powerful come with a price, right? Nothing of the sort. OK, there was a little extra spin. With Turbo, it was a little easier to loop against backspin, BUT both rubbers turned out to be easy to use, even for the short game. In other words, underwhelming, especially when you see people claiming to get "twice the spin" out of Tensors compared to cheap Chinese rubbers.
So thinks I, this time, let's try something certified as a Pro Rubber. One that comes with warnings that it's hard to handle. I was considering Tenergy 05, but the price...
I thought maybe the hardest Rasanter might be the thing, but it's not locally available. So I settled for the next best thing - Tibhar's Evolution MX-P. Tenryu had this for a REALLY GOOD price, compared to what I would have paid from any of the European or American dealers, and that's even before shipping. Why MX-P, and not, say, EL-S, which would be more suited to my level of play? Well, MX-P is the hardest and probably fastest and hardest to handle in the line, which was in line with satisfying what I wanted to know. Would this finally be that super duper ultra high spin rubber that would be too difficult for me to handle? That only pros could use properly? I'll tell you later.
First, the "unpacking video". Or flatbed scans...
The packaging is VERY unusual, in that the very nice piece of cardboard hinges at the TOP:
Notice that it says "Pro Player Version". Yikes! What have I gotten myself into?? This might be older stock, since the little fold-over flap at the bottom of the back side only "advertises" four Evolution rubbers. There are currently six, with two being added last year, though of course it's possible they haven't updated the packaging just yet. Quite classy indeed. Inside is this cool "infomercial":
Unlike other non-tacky rubbers of this sort, this one actually IS a little tacky, and comes with a neat (waxed paper?) protector sheet attached. Kinda hard to see, but it's got "Tibhar" written in gold letters. It does sort of peel off.
Front and back sides.
And a view of the pores in the "cake sponge". This is a 2x2 cm area scanned at 1200 dpi.
One thing that gave me pause - I really had to swallow hard before pressing that "Buy" button - was the weight of this sheet. Tabletennis11 has a comprehensive review of the Evolution rubbers:
http://blog.tabletennis11.com/tibhar-ev ... ers-reviewand the weight of all of these sheets is.. stupendous. 70grams and above (MX-P NOT being the heaviest, to my surprise). 70 grams is decidedly
PORKY. In the realm of Haifu Whale and 2008XP. Well, it turns out that was only half the story. Here's the stats for my sheet:
Tibhar Evolution MX-P
black 2.1 72.57g 168x179mm 0.241g/cm^2
See it?? Yes, this sheet is HUGE. My sheets of Rasant and Rasant Turbo were 169x170 and 170x171mm. Palio Macro Pro was 169x169mm. The Evolution sheet has an extra centimeter of length, this amouts to an additional 6-7% in area. Which means the rubber isn't really heavy at ALL. There are quite a few denser ones out there. This also means it'll fit oversized blades.
Which brings up another point. Who makes this sheet??? The obvious culprit would be ESN, of course.. but this doesn't LOOK like a typical ESN sheet. First of all, no Tensor or BIOS logos. Second, the packaging looks very different compared to the Rasants and to Palio Macro Pro. The size of sheet is larger. It's got a JTTA stamp on the front, and there's Japanese writing all over the package.
I don't remember what Rasant and Rasant Turbo smelled like when I opened the package, so I can't say if this smelled any different but it DOES smell very different compared to Chinese rubbers (which smell like new car tires) - sort of a sickly sweet smell mixed with tire odor. This has often been described as "booster smell", but it doesn't smell anything like Seamoon, or Wendy's, or even Falco.
None of this is definitive, of course - Tibhar is well known for not using ESN's trademarks (even though they do sell ESN rubbers), neither are Donic, Yasaka and Gewo. (I suppose it gives them the freedom to introduce sheets from multiple sources without having to reveal where they come from, and without the consumer being any the wiser.) I wonder if they have to pay NOT to use the trademarks, OR if they DON'T have to pay because they aren't using them...
But it has been speculated that these sheets are actually made in Japan (by Daiki, probably, which also makes Nexy Karis and Stiga Calibra). Or parts of it are made in Japan. In any case, Tibhar is coy on this... they haven't said anything in the past about it.
In any case...
How does it play??? That was the big question. I've been using it now for a couple weeks at Social Doubles. I put it on a Sanwei M8 (#3, 71.1g) with Kokutaku 868 on the backhand. 167.61g. The setup I was using for the last few months involved DHS Tin Arc 3, and I'd gotten VERY comfortable with it, being able to loop pretty well, with a very good short game and serve return. What about the Evolution? Well, first, the good news. Aside from the first half hour or so, I could play as well with this as I could with the Tin Arc. Yes, there was a little more spin, and I could get a little more speed out of it. Problems with soft shots, brush loops, pushes, returning this penhold guy's screwy serves?? No. In short, it's a very controllable rubber, and is great for looping, while not being unmanageable for the short game.
The bad news? Aside from the first half hour or so, I could play as well with this as I could with the Tin Arc. Yes, there was a little more spin, and I could get a little more speed out of it. Problems with soft shots, brush loops, pushes, returning this penhold guy's screwy serves?? No. In short, it's a very controllable rubber, and is great for looping, while not being unmanageable for the short game.
In other words.. a very slight improvement over Tin Arc, which cost less than half of what I paid for this...
If it were a matter of money, no, I probably wouldn't think I'd gotten my money's worth, especially since people report this rubber loses its oomph after a couple months. But for me, satisfying my curiosity - that was worth spending the money on.
Iskandar