Review by Silver:
What: Roxon 450 max red
Rubber and glue courtesy of Rob Katsipis, Affordable Table Tennis.
Visual Inspection:
Looking at the packaging, it sort of seems over the top. Nice, but
excessive. When I opened the packaging, I got a bit confused: there was
no tensor protection foil! After a bit of reading the included material,
it seems that this "new" tensor doesn't require a protection foil. I was
under the impression that the foil was to stop the topsheet oxidising
and losing it's grip rapidly, but we'll see how it holds up later.
The topsheet feels very grippy to touch, much more like the Omegas than
the previous Andro tensors (plasma) and marginally grippier than the
COR2 sheets. The topsheet itself feels quite supple, more flexible than
the plasma topsheets too. Pip structure has been changed, the pip is
square to the topsheet whereas the COR2 pip has a beveled edge around
the base. Sponge density feels mediumish, but softer than the Plasma
430. It also doesn't feel as "dry" as the COR2s.
The rubber itself is light for a tensor of this hardness, you'd be
looking at maybe 3-5 grams less per cut rubber. See my DB for specific
numbers.
Bit of an aside, but I preferred andro's old rubber stamp to this new
one.
Playing impressions: day 1.
Glued to a Donic Dima Sawtech AR with Andro Free Glue
Despite the grippy topsheet, Roxon doesn't really lend itself well to
topsheet brush looping. Too fine a contact and the ball just drops off.
This is in contrast to, say, Rocket, where the topsheet grabs the ball
slightly better. The difference isn't much, but the Roxon seems to have
a smaller margin between grab and the ball dropping off. To get the most
out of the rubber, you need to sink the ball into the sponge and
topsheet. Once you've gotten that down pat, the ball flings off with an
enormous amount of spin and greater speed than previous tensors of this
hardness.
Mounted on the Sawtech (which really doesn't feel anything like an AR
blade), the roxon throws in a fairly high arc making it quite easy to
bash away with consistency. It gave better control than the Rocket and
COR2, yet felt like it imparted it's own spin on the ball better than
the other two. Over the table play and serving required a light touch to
stop the ball throwing long with any decent sort of spin.
Day 2 (3 days later)
Nittaku Acoustic FL, H3 (glued) and Roxon (Free Glue)
I transferred it over to the acoustic as this was my primary blade. Note
that there was minor shrinkage after removal - maybe 1mm. On the
acoustic (faster, a bit softer, just as stiff) the Roxon played a bit
better. It wasn't quite as bouncy over the table and was easier to put
spin on the ball whilst keeping it reasonably short. I expect this would
improve with usage.
I encountered similar brush loop issues with the roxon as before, but
felt more confident with harder powerloops away from the table. Opening
up still felt a bit iffy - I either produced a slow, very high arcing
loop with only reasonable spin or a flatter, more direct spin loop was
harder to control. The former occasionally dropped off the rubber or
fell short whilst the latter sometimes threw too long. As I mentioned
before, the margin between these two loops feel smaller than other
rubbers. It's my opinion (at the moment) that the Roxon works better
with a longer stroke than a short one.
Day 3 (1 week after putting it on)
The topsheet colour has not changed yet.
Day 4 (2 weeks later...)
The topsheet has oxidised somewhat and gone more opaque compared to new.
The extent seems slightly less than what other tensors exhibit after 2
weeks without a foil. Grip seems marginally diminished.
Compared to a few other tensors; Tango Extrem, Plasma 430, Desto F2; the
Roxon is faster and spinnier across the board yet has slightly better
touch than the Tango and Desto. It remains to be seen if the better
touch stays as the grip diminishes though. I would have still liked to
have the foil, but we'll see how it goes without it.
Durability does seem improved, but I haven't exactly gone around
whacking it on things.
Review by purger:
Im playing with Roxon 450 1.8mm for month and
half as well try this rubber on 8 different blades
1 ply WRC,1 ply kiso hinoki,5 ply kiso hinoki,aramid-carbon
Control,,Joola R*1,Juic Air large all Offensive blade and on the end on
Primorac off- and Donic Appelgreen allplay senso V2 my conclusion and
the best choice to my taste is Roxon450 on allaround blade with medium
hard feel. This combo results in incredible speed and spin and fantastic
control and precision specially in fast relayes and countering spinny
loops.
Spin on service is great as well pushing in short game another thing its
wery efective on chooping mid distance and away from table.
I tried out donic platin and platin soft as well Joola express two and
neither of this rubbers comes close to Roxon in ratio with short and
fast play as well Roxon is spinier then other three rubbers as well
faster.
Durability is very good as after month and half of use 4-5 times a week
rubber performs like new.I didnt notice any loos of speed or spin.
One thing is Roxon doesn't feel ok on soft blades like mine 1 ply hinoki
or with similar feel as all together has way to soft and mushy feel
Roxon 500 is even faster to fast for my liking even on all round blade.
I try Roxon 450 in all three thicknesses 1.8/2.0/2.3 or max and 1.8 is
the one that provides me with great speed/spin and high control at the
table mid distance as well away from table looping or chopping.
Review by Speedplay:
Thought I might as well share my view of the Roxon 450 here instead of
creating a new tread about it.
Rubber to try: Roxon 450, max thickness, black.
Tired it on: Dawei Wavestone, solid handle.
First of all I need to mention, this was an old sheet, so it might have
performed a bit different when it was new.
Serve: Coming from tacky rubbers, I expected to lose a lot of spin on my
serves, but actually, Roxon was pretty good for serving. Almost as good
as my tacky rubbers and a lot better then Juic Nano Canon that I used on
the other side of the blade.
Short game: Worked very well with the Roxon 450, easy to create and
variate spin with. Had a soft feeling to it and it almost felt like I
could make a split second decision on what to do with the ball. Superb
control!
Blocks: I'm a lousy blocker and Roxon couldn't help me with this. Still,
I think it worked better for blocks then most tacky rubbers, but for
blocking I would actually prefer the Nano Canon. Less sensitive to spin
and higher rebound speed then the Roxon.
Hitting: Really, this isn't what this rubber is intended for, still, it
hits pretty well but if you are aiming for a hitting game, there are
several other rubbers on the market that hits better.
Opening loop: Once again, almost as easy as doing it with tacky rubbers.
I had no problems adjusting to it and managed to open up with it pretty
well, a lot better then the Nano Canon, on par with the 999 Elite Nano.
Looping: This was the true joy with this rubber! I felt like I could
counter loop till the cows went home! Al right, they would have to go
home sooner then usual for this to be true, but the rubber really
excelled in this department. Great spin which created a nice kick on the
ball once it bounced.
Speed: I actually expected it to be a little faster then it was, cause I
felt that although it was (a lot!) easier to loop with then the Nano
Canon, I felt that the Nano Canon had more speed on the mid distance
loops then the Roxon had. I would say that it was somewhere inbetween
Nano Canon and 999 Elite Nano when it comes to speed. Could be due to
age, so I'll leave this one open.
Over all impression, I'm impressed with the rubber, it felt very lively
and provided me with some of the feelings I used to get from speed glue.
I would say that I prefer this rubber over Stiga Boost TC, but that
might be unfair since this rubber was tried on my Wavestone and the
Boost TC I tried on a Stiga blade, that is to stiff for me, so some of
the credit might be because of the blade used.
How ever, if you are either a close to the table or mid-distance looper,
I think this rubber would be an excellent choice. Really easy to play
with, felt rather forgiving and provided enough both speed and spin to
win points, at least at my level.
Review by Glenn:
A new generation of tensor rubbers aimed to solve the problems of the
old generation of tensor rubbers : poor short game and poor durability.
This rubber is among the most spinny compared to other tensors since its
very lightly tacky. I reckon its a hair spinnier than Platin and about
the same as Zeta.
A NEW roxon 450 has incredible speed (as tensors do) and a very good
rebound effect (less than previous tensors for better short game
though). Slower than the Plasma, but still very fast. The short game is
improved, but still nowhere as good as classic rubbers imo.
Blocking with this rubber when paired with the right blade (i believe
any hard outer plied blade will do) is incredible and imo the best
aspect from this rubber. Fast drives are also good. Other things are all
pretty good but nothing special.
However, even though durability has been improved such that the sheet of
rubber isn't torn easily, the bounciness of the rubber is obviously less
den before after a while (dependent on skill level of user). It is still
playable by players whose skill level is not that high yet, but then
again, if one's skill level isn't high, i would suggest a slower rubber
for a better short game.
If i was made of money this would be a good rubber. In short, its almost
a typical tensor and for you to decide if you want it. |
