The sponge hardness is medium soft and it is closest to the Donic M3 Bluefire but overall hardness seems to be a bit more firm by a notch or two.

Tibhar Evolution FX-S Review

The Tibhar FX-S is a soft but very bouncy rubber. I paired it with the Paul Drinkhall Series blades alternately and I found it bouncy immediately after testing a forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand drive. It is fast, that I can say, and at times it is faster than the original FX-P.

The difference in speed between the 2 rubbers is not that big. In fact, some people would just say that the speed of the FX-P and FX-S are just about the same. The FX-S being a rubber with soft sponge, would need to have its sponge compressed more to fully utilize it in its speed and spin.

If you are used to using Chinese rubbers or rubbers that are considered medium hardness to medium hard ones, you would need to adjust with the FX-S since brushing the ball against the rubber requires you to compress the sponge more. When you do smashes it is very easy to do so because of the soft sponge.

How It Plays

It sounded loud when I was smashing high balls with it but being a soft rubber, it has its limitations on doing very strong smashes. The soft sponge will allow you to have strong smashes but up only to a point and this is a common occurrence among soft rubbers. If you would apply more power, it is possible for the rubber to bottom out.

On chops or pushes above the table, it was above average. It was spinny but not as spinny as the EL-S. It was easy to flick and do drop shots. When you do spinny loops with the FX-S, you would need to compress or hit through the sponge and then brush the ball to fully produce spin. The rubber itself is spinny but this is the thing that you need to do with a soft sponged rubber.

The throw was low. In fact, it was only enough to clear the net. I had to do with some adjustments wherein I had to open my bat a little more and hit more through the sponge. At most, the spin of the FX-S is comparable to that of the Donic Bluefire M3 and nothing more.

Aside from smashing, the other redeeming quality of the FX-S is that it is a good blocking rubber for both forehand and backhand. It blocks well near the table and more so away from the table. You could block heavy topspin attacks with it easily. The soft sponge is not sensitive to incoming spin so the ball does not react much to the topsheet.

Conclusion

At most, I would recommend the Tibhar FX-S to players as a backhand rubber. Maybe new players can use this as a forehand rubber but as they progress, they would need to choose a harder and better rubber for the forehand.

Buy The Rubber

You can buy Tibhar Evolution FX-S rubbers from Tabletennis11.com. They have great prices and offer free shipping worldwide on orders over €70.

• Buy from TableTennis11.com for only €37.42

If you enjoyed this Tibhar Evolution EL-S review, you might be interested in reading Ben’s popular article Tenergy 05 Alternatives & The Best Table Tennis Rubbers, which is available on his Expert Table Tennis blog. And don’t forget to check out all of our other Table Tennis Rubber Reviews as well.

Have you used Tibhar Evolution FX-S rubbers yourself? What did you think of them? Please share your experiences and leave a review below in the comments.

The post Tibhar Evolution FX-S Table Tennis Rubber Review appeared first on Equipment Junkie.

Much has been said about the EL-S rubber and a lot of people who have tried it have been comparing it to the Butterfly Tenergy 80 rubber. The EL-S has a lighter color compared to the EL-P and the sponge of the EL-S has bigger pores.

Tibhar Evolution EL-S Review

The Tibhar Evolution EL-S is a great improvement over its young brother, the EL-P. The EL-P had complaints from players in the past. I used it when it first came out and in comparison, the EL-P sometimes lacks the bounce and feels dead when you are hitting the ball. This is the common complaint of those who have used it.

The EL-P has good speed when you first use it however after a few weeks you can see a great decline in both bounce and spin. Other players swear that it lacks the speed. The spin is very good and it is unanimously agreed that the EL-P is a very spinny rubber but lacks the punch. The FX-P and MX-P are different because they are very bouncy. The EL-P at best can be compared with the MX-S in terms of speed but a notch or two above it.

The Bigger, Better Brother

The Tibhar Evolution EL-S is such a great improvement wherein the rubber now is very bouncy and fast while maintaining the spin of its predecessor. In fact, it is even spinnier when you attack with it.

If you compare the speed of the EL-S to other rubbers, I would say it is as fast as a Donic Bluefire M2 but feels harder on the impact of the ball. It is also as fast as Tenergy 80.

For smashing high balls, the EL-S feels a lot better compared to the EL-P wherein when you hit the ball and compress it against the sponge, the spring and bounce are there and you can really smash well with the said rubber. Even though it is fast, the control is there.

The Tibhar Evolution EL-S is much easier to control compared to the MX-P or Butterfly Tenergy 80 due to two reasons…

1. The EL-S is not as fast as the MX-P. It is a few notches lower in terms of speed compared to MX-P. It was designed not to be a replacement of the MX-P but rather it was designed to be a rubber for advanced players who wish to have control while having good speed and good spin.
2. It is not as spin sensitive compared to Tenergy or typical Chinese rubbers.

In terms of spin, the EL-S is very spinny and almost the same level as the MX-P but in stronger shots, the MX-P is still spinnier. The EL-S spin is still below the level of Tenergy 05 but is pretty close to it. The EL-S produces a very heavy underspin when you are doing spinny pushes or serving with it.

The topsheet is almost tacky and is very grippy at the same time. It is ideal for doing drop shots because the ball handling is quite good. You can also do flicks against short balls and seldom have errors with it.

Most of all, when attacking with loops or loop drives, the EL-S is already satisfying in terms of spin and its good speed. It is even better compared to the Donic Acuda series. It’s like you merged the Baracuda with its spin and the Bluefire M2’s speed but it has more to offer. It also has a better feel and control.

Conclusion

Overall, this is one amazing rubber wherein it is controllable but at the same time the spin is great and speed is sufficient enough for players wanting an attacking rubber. It is indeed a great alternative to Tenergy 80 or 05 due to its lesser price.

Buy The Rubber

You can buy Tibhar Evolution EL-S rubbers from Tabletennis11.com. They have great prices and offer free shipping worldwide on orders over €70.

• Buy from TableTennis11.com for only €37.42

If you enjoyed this Tibhar Evolution EL-S review, you might be interested in reading Ben’s popular article Tenergy 05 Alternatives & The Best Table Tennis Rubbers, which is available on his Expert Table Tennis blog. And don’t forget to check out all of our other Table Tennis Rubber Reviews as well.

Have you used Tibhar Evolution EL-S rubbers yourself? What did you think of them? Please share your experiences and leave a review below in the comments.

The post Tibhar Evolution EL-S Table Tennis Rubber Review appeared first on Equipment Junkie.