Joined: 14 Jun 2010, 22:07 Posts: 4511 Location: Göteborg, Sweden Has thanked:698 times Been thanked:593 times
Blade: Matador
FH: Tibhar K1 Euro
BH: SuperGlanti
1. The reviewer: I play a modern defensive game with occasional BH-attacks. My level is about intermediate I would guess, have been playing this style for one year, and another half a year with pimples. All together (including 2,5 years when I was about 13-15 yeas old) I have played almost 5 years of TT, and it gets more fun every time! For my FH I use Tenergy 64 1.9 mm on a Butterfly Joo Se Hyuk blade. The last year I have been using mainly Dawei 388D, first witout sponge and then testing different sponges with thicknesses between 0,5-1,0 mm. I used to have a good BH smash with the pimples but since I changed to Joo's blade I just lost that stroke. And I realise I need it in order to force my opponent to attack me. Thats why I decided to try something else. This is described in this thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13773
2. Physical Properties: All three rubbers are black. Dawei 388D feels and looks a litle plastic, almost shiny at first. But after a few hours of cracking it in it looks like any other pimple with smooth tips. The pimples are soft and a little grippy, more on the sides than on the tips. The geometry of the pimples is very normal for a LP, like most other chineese lp's, maybe a little more wide apart. The sponge I use is a japanese BLütenkirche 0,7 mm. It is soft and a little dead, very good for pimples. http://www.eacheng.net/index.php?act=detail&ID=1934
Donic Akkadi L1 feels like many other chineese pimples (it says Made in China on the rubber), good quality however. Pimples are rough and a little stiffer and grippier than Dawei 388D, but not much (it actually looks and feels a lot like Dawei 388D-1). Maybe the pimples are placed a little more narrow in L1 compared to Dawei's. I bought it in ox and glued it to my very soft Avalox Magic-A 30-35 degrees 0,8 mm http://www.eacheng.net/index.php?act=detail&ID=1190
Tibhar Grass D.tecs 1,2 mm has an almost glamorous feeling . You can see and feel the different in quality. It is a little shiny, the pimples are tall and rough, not as thin as L1 or 388D, but much more wide apart. And they are very soft, even softer than Dawei 388D. They bend very easy but they are also soft in the vertical direction - if you press your finger straight on one pimple's top, you can press it almost all the way down. Another difference is that the rubber itself is very grippy. At the logo area it feels almost as grippy as a well used Mark V. The sponge is medium soft and kind of dense. Not at all like the sponge of Hexer or Tenergy.
3. Speed: Dawei 388D is a slow rubber. With BLütenkirche sponge it feels almost as slow as Meteror 8512 def 0,8 mm.
Akkadi L1 is faster, but not that much when glued to a soft sponge. The Avalox sponge is a little faster than the BLütenkirche, and I would guess that L1 would feel a little faster than 388D if used on the same sponge. But I had no huge problems adapting my chopping to L1.
D.tecs 1,2 mm is another story. I only used it for a few minutes and I had trobles controlling it on my Joo-blade. I tried it on a spare defensive blade (Japsko def/off combi-blade) and it was a little more controllable. But my main task was to find a replacement for Dawei 388D that I can start using without changing technique. Therefore, I put the D.tecs in my "bag of fun" together with TSP Curl P1r and others. Perhaps I will try it in april when we have finished playing our local leauge and I have plenty of time to adapt my playing.
4. Spin: Dawei 388D is perfect for chopping spinny loops. The amount of spin comming back is huge, but you can't really control how much spin you return. You can create a flat hit and returning a no spin ball, but those ones tend to go long and they can easily be spotted and smashed. When returning serves there isn't much to do but guiding the ball in desierd direction. You can control length very good but not creating much of spin of your own. It is a little sensitive to incomming spin, but not much.
Donic Akkadi L1 is very good for chopping both fast loops with little spin and slow loops with lots of spin. But you need to chop with more force than with the Akkadi L1 if you want much back spin, you can't rely on spin reversal only (as with 388D).
I tried some chopping with D.tecs but I never got used to it. It seemed like you need to let the ball dig into the rubber in order to get serious back spin, and for that you need a soft hit, otherwise the ball will go long. At the table you can create all sorts of spins with small variations of your strokes.
5. Control: Dawei 388D is the easiest to control when chopping away from the table, but it is a bit tricky close to the table. Since it is difficult to create spin with it, it is also difficult to attack with. I know it is suposed to be an easy lp to attack with, but I never got that part to work when using the Joo-blade.
The L1 is very easy to control close to the table, almost like an inverted (compared to 388D). You can attack no spin balls, create spin, push most balls and block like it was an iverted (it reminds me of 837 which I used for a while). L1 is still very easy to control when chopping away from the table, especially with a slow and soft sponge.
D.tecs is not easy to control but very easy to attack with. And great fun to play with .
Conclusion: Well... I have chosen the L1 as a replacement for my trusted Dawei 388D. And it feels very good. I played som matches the first training session with it and it went... ok I guess. At least considering it was the first time with a new lp. And yet there are plenty of things about this rubber to be revealed. Below is some balls from the last one. My friend won that one with 3 against 2 sets. Feel free to comment. BTW, I had some serious problems with my FH that training, so there are almost no such strokes from me in the clip
(Again there seem to be some problems when transferring video clips to Youtube, the film has been doubled for some reason. Anybody knows why?)
Joined: 13 Dec 2006, 12:34 Posts: 33353 Location: Adelaide, AU Has thanked:2760 times Been thanked:1550 times
Blade: Trinity Carbon
FH: Victas VS > 401
BH: Dr N Troublemaker OX
Great review and comparison Def-attack!
Nice video too. You play some very nice attacks with the pips!
Joined: 14 Jun 2010, 22:07 Posts: 4511 Location: Göteborg, Sweden Has thanked:698 times Been thanked:593 times
Blade: Matador
FH: Tibhar K1 Euro
BH: SuperGlanti
haggisv wrote:
Great review and comparison Def-attack!
Nice video too. You play some very nice attacks with the pips!
Joined: 13 Dec 2006, 12:34 Posts: 33353 Location: Adelaide, AU Has thanked:2760 times Been thanked:1550 times
Blade: Trinity Carbon
FH: Victas VS > 401
BH: Dr N Troublemaker OX
Joined: 14 Jun 2010, 22:07 Posts: 4511 Location: Göteborg, Sweden Has thanked:698 times Been thanked:593 times
Blade: Matador
FH: Tibhar K1 Euro
BH: SuperGlanti
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. You can see and feel the different in quality. It is a little shiny, the pimples are tall and rough, not as thin as L1 or 388D, but much more wide apart. And they are very soft, even softer than Dawei 388D. They bend very easy but they are also soft in the vertical direction - if you press your finger straight on one pimple's top, you can press it almost all the way down. Another difference is that the rubber itself is very grippy. At the logo area it feels almost as grippy as a well used Mark V. The sponge is medium soft and kind of dense. Not at all like the sponge of Hexer or Tenergy. 
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