Isn’t the life too busy? It has become busier these days. I don’t get a lot of time to test new rubbers. I try to find time, but sometimes it is hard. I have written a blog on XIOM Vega Pro a while back on SpinMantra. The plan for testing XIOM Vega Europe was postponed for a while. Now here it is, my observations of XIOM Vega Europe.
What Tenergy rubber I compare XIOM Vega Pro to? I’m not going to. The Butterfly rubber I can see similar to XIOM Vega Europe is Butterfly Sriver. The qualities that make XIOM Vega Europe greater are though its speed glue effect and longer life time compared to other Tensor rubbers.
In the XIOM range of rubber I would compare XIOM Vega Europe to XIOM Zeta Europe and XIOM True Innovation Europe. There are some prominent differences you will see with XIOM Vega Pro. That is its highly durable top sheet and built-in speed glue effect. All other XIOM rubbers like XIOM Zeta, True Innovation and Omega series have built-in speed glue effect. However, stability is what you see in the XIOM Vega series of rubbers. Its porous sponge adds more speed control and spin variation. I would say it adds more touch.
Two weeks ago, a friend approached me to get suggestion to upgrade his equipment. He is a fan of TSP Balsa Fiber blade and XIOM True Innovation. He wanted to choose a little faster rubber than XIOM True Innovation. He said he wanted XIOM Omega III. That was a tough call for me. I did not suggest Omega III for his game. He bought Omega III anyway. A week later he came to me with his dilemma. He can’t handle XIOM Omega III. He is running fine with XIOM Omega I now. What’s the problem of some of these players who go for very fast rubbers like Omega III? The speed is only a component of winning a game. The dangers of using high speed rubbers are many. The speed adds up in a top spin rally. Then it becomes more uncontrollable.
The XIOM Vega Europe has more control comparing to high speed rubbers like XIOM Omega III. It is faster, but less compared to XIOM Omega III. I don’t think I can compare XIOM Vega Europe to any Tenergy in feeling. The feeling of XIOM Vega Europe is different. Its speed and spin is for a controlled top spin player.
I have tried XIOM Vega Europe on a SpinTech Klassic allround blade. The click sound is amazing, that attracted me much than other rubbers. In noisy rooms, I can’t normally hear click sound. The XIOM Vega Europe has explosive click sound.
Unlike XIOM Vega Pro, the XIOM Vega Europe is soft. The sponge is softer, and a great candidate for controlled loopers. There is grabbing at the contact of the ball than Vega Pro. What is amazing about it? The brush looping will add more rotations. Unlike XIOM Vega Pro, the XIOM Vega Europe is not going to raise the ball from the knee level that easy. The Vega Pro shines very well here. May be a hard carbon blades may help.
The skin (or topsheet) is soft, highly spinny and is very grippy. Grabbing a soft underspin ball and looping back is hard thing I have noticed. I did not realize this for a long time until I have found out that Vega Europe can kill short and soft balls with a simple flat hit. I liked that stroke better than looping against softballs. The XIOM Vega Pro or any Tenergy rubbers can’t do this magic.
The XIOM Vega Europe is lighter - lighter as XIOM Zeta. It has little less slower loop angle than Vega pro has. The price tag is $37 in the US.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello
Would you recommend Vega Europe for a player who plays with Omega II (2). What would be advantages and disadvantages? Very good blog
Keep it up!
I would say you will have more control with XIOM Vega Europe. The Omega II is a monster in speed and power.
The feeling is little different with XIOM Vega Europe. It has more natural rubber. The Omega II is for more professional play.
hello
you say that vega europe is like sriver can you confirm does it play like lightly or heavily glue sriver , is the touch good when recieving service or does it take some getting used to like say a tenergy rubber or lively tensor
thanks
Steve
Hey Varghese and all,
I have been using Omega III Europe and Asia, Omega II Europe and Asia, Vega Europe, Asia and Pro, Tenergy 64, 05 and 25. My primary blade is Hinoki
japanese penhold from Butterfly, model Kim Taek Soo (old version). I also started using XIOM’s Stradivarius (chinese penhold) about a year ago.
Thanks for your blog, Varghese, though there is one thing I want to point out. I used Sriver long time ago and I can assure that it is nothing close to Vega
Europe at all, not the original Sriver (which Kim Taek Soo used), FX nor EL. Sriver is primary for fast attack (hit and smash) instead of looping. I would rate the
level of spin for the Vega rubbers to 8.7 out of 10 while I would give Tenergy a 9 out of 10. For those who have experiences using Hurricane from Double
Happiness, I am giving it a 9.5 out of 10. Sriver? Somewhere between 7.5 to 7.8 to me.
The Vega Pro is a bit tackier than Vega Europe/Asia but on the other hand, it is obviously slower. I combo the Pro for the forehand and Europe on the back
makes my Stradivarius literally a machine gun. This impressive result is very similar to my Butterfly Timo Boll ZLC wearing Tenergy 05 on the front and 64 on
the back, only that I prefer Stradivarius’ shape.
Omega III is a special kind of rubber. It is by far the fastest yet most spinny rubber I have ever used. Good huh? Well, there are two downsides other than the
price of it (!):
1) it wears rather quickly;
2) it lacks natural control, that means the ball doesn’t sink well into the rubber.
Let me explain a bit on 2) above. You would have much control of it when you hit and loop hard with it but then when you block (passively, not attacking), the
ball tends to drop/slip. This doesn’t happen as often when playing against offensive opponents ‘cuz their shots are usually strong enough to sink the ball into
your rubber. So like if you play with players who hit instead of chopping with long pips, you might find it difficult to control the ball back well. This results
similarly when playing with lower rating players who can only put the ball back onto the table all the time instead of smashing or looping to score.
The sponge in Omega II is a bit softer than Omega III’s but then the control you have in it (you can say) compensates for Omega III’s level of spin. Both II and
III and very fast rubber anyways.
So what’s the advice? It all depends on what your style of play is. The choice of blade depends on the style while the choice of rubber depends on the blade
you use it on. I have been using Omega III Europe on my Kim Taek Soo hinoki blade for more than 1 year (and FYI, prior I had Tenergy 05 on it for about a year
too). I get used to the speed and (lack of) control of it. Now I am ready to ‘upgrade’ to a harder sponge (faster on hard attack) Omega III Asia. I have another
hinoki japanese penhold which is from Darker (Speed 70), I wear Vega Europe on it and I am ready to upgrade it to Vega Asia, which is harder, i.e. faster on
close to table hard attack. I actually tried Vega Pro on it in the first place but then it kind of slow down the my blade so I took that off right away.
My conclusion is that Omega III is a very professional rubber for absolute offensive style of play (hit and hoop). Vega, to me, is very remarkable for backhand.
I hope the above helps.
Regards,
-Charles
Hello,
I’m looking to buy a Xiom Vega Rubbers. Have not decided on the set though:
FH: Xiom Vega pro and BH: Xiom Vega Europe
Or take a Xiom Vega pro on both sides.
I have a stiff blade. What sponge would you recommend? 2.0 or max?
Thanks!
Have you tried Xiom Vega Japan?
Hi Neville:
We find Vega Japan faster with a lower throw angle than Vega Pro or Vega Europe. A little less easy to control but much much faster. The sponge is harder and the rubber top sheet is actually very thick.