Roxon 500pro

[asr1990]

Anyone tried this yet??

[supachop]

Rob doesnt have the 500 in stock yet. It should be here soon. I am waiting for this too.

[ckhugo]

Supachop,

Yeah, we all are waiting to see what the 500pro is like, but at the meaning time, like to share what you think of the 450? C'mon, I even got Michael to say something  

Cheers,
H

[asr1990]

i will have my 500pro on Tuesday or Wednesday i will let you know what i think about it then

  asr1990

[asr1990]

Hi guys,

  i got my Roxon 500Pro today i havent had the chance to try it as i received it after training this afternoon so i will be trying it tomorrow evening and i will get back to you after then

  asr1990

[asr1990]

i forgot to say that i think the packaging is very nice

[asr1990]

Hi guys,

  i had a 2 hour session with the Roxon 500Pro i took it out of the packaging and glued it on with andro free glue onto a Christophe Legout blade which is a bit faster and stiffer than my Korbel

  Thickness and colour: 2.3mm sheet
 
Serves: the rubber was very grippy so serving with this rubber was pretty good not much difference from previously glued up rubbers, possibly spinnier
   
Short Game and Pushing: the rubber was bouncy yes, but it was surprisingly easy to control for the short game providing you read the spin correctly and time the stroke well. When digging and pushing hard to stop your opponent getting in, i dont push in rallies so not sure what its like in that sense but when pushing short balls and serves it was fairly easy to control and keep low.
   
Looping and Driving: i found the rubber alot slower in comparison to my old glued up setup, my handspeed is fairly quick and it needed to be especially when playing loop kills and bombs against backspin, when hitting hard is where this rubber really shines the ball digs into the sponge and produces quite alot of spin especially when driving,
  the rubber was also suprisingly good for slow looping it had a few gears was good for looping and driving.
  Not much sound though  
   
Relooping: this rubber was very good for relooping close to the table a tad slow but spinny and i adjusted to it,
away from the table i had to swing a bit harder but the rubber was still pretty good for relooping, the rubber was pretty good in this area

  i may need a slightly faster blade for me to fully convert to these rubbers

   cheers asr1990

[asr1990]

this rubber was poor after a week,
super slow,
spin was still there, but there was no glue feeling whatsoever,

im very dissapointed,

[ckhugo]

HI Asr,

Can you give us a bit more information on what you meant by the rubber is dead after a week?

Thanks,
H

[asr1990]

well ckhugo

it felt quite slow on the slow shots when i first got it and the week later it felt even slower and it felt quite slow on the big shots too and felt dead, as in non responsive,

it was horrible away from the table

[gekogark1212]

Actually I read on another Chinese forum that the Roxon500 was inferior to the Plasma 470 in terms of long distance rallying

[pingpongrob]

I find it all hard to believe, I can play all the way back to the Barrier line with my Roxon 450, and have no problems making the table with Speed and spin.

Maybe the blades that your trying it with are 2 slow.

My Son plays the Roxon 500pro on a Donic Dima Sawtec AR and he also has no problems.

I do find if the Rubber is not stuck well to the Blade, that the problems mentioned can occur.

[Wiz]

hmmmm this is interesting news.

I've got the RoXXon 450 on my Strad and I find that plenty fast, easy to loop and definitely no lack of speed or spin. So much that the 500Pro is gonna go on my BH on the HS7 :)

What blade are you using the RoXXon on?

[asr1990]

Rob and Wiz,

  i tried the 500pro on a Legout Off blade, which is faster than my Korbel

   i also tried it on a TBS which felt a bit better but still i found the Energy better away from the table

   asr1990

[Silver]

I'm trying it today on my acoustic.

[Silver]

hmmmmmmmmmm

Just had a good 2 hr hit with the roxon 500. I think ASR is right: it's not very fast, given how hard the sponge feels.

[asr1990]

exactly the sponge feels kind of dead and unresponsive,
very slow away from the table

[Silver]

I wouldn't say it's very slow, but it's slower than EL or Magna with a couple of layers.

[Mars63]

Hi Guys,

I also agree that the 500Pro seem noticeable slower than the 470 max but maybe a better description is that it does not feel anywhere near as explosive or dynamic, i.e. the sponge feels dead. My regular practice partners know my game inside out and I value their feedback and the clear message from them is that although some of  my shots are a little spinnier they lack the penetration and raw speed/power of my 470 setup on the same offensive blade.
I should clarify that I am not a huge looper but more of a flat hitter and this is clearly where this rubber does not shine.

Just my opinion.  

cheers
Mars

[asr1990]

i think it maybe a rubber better suited for looping with a closed racket? seeing as the topsheet is very grippy and the sponge is very hard?

  asr1990

[Wiz]

I've finally had a good hit today with the 500Pro on my HS7 and I have to say that I understand where you guys are coming from, but hear me out on this. Try a chinese style loop and not a typical Euro / Jap loop and you will be able to tell the immediate difference :):) Which is still my favourite BH rubber heh heh heh

[Silver]

I'm coming from a glued up H3 perspective

[Wiz]

I'm coming from a glued up H3 perspective

hmmm... thats interesting cos the moment I changed to a Chinese style hitting style the RoXXon 500p felt superb.

[Silver]

Yeah... I'm not a hitter.

[Wiz]

Yeah... I'm not a hitter.

Neither am I :p...

But anyway - have you tried the RoXXon 500Pro on a softer type of blade, I found it to be pretty avg rubber on my Mizutani - but it feels awesome on my HS7 (all hinoki blade).

However - the 450 feels very very nice on the Strad.

[Silver]

yep.
I didn't like the 500 at all on my acoustic, but it's great on my TBS. Much better feel. Not sure if it's because it's been reglued (free glue), if it's just been hammered in a bit or if it just works a lot better on softer feel blades.

Will try it on my acoustic at a later date, and on my mizutani.

[pingpongrob]

I find with the Roxon 450 and 500pro, that if its not stuck very well, it feels rubbish. So all I can advise, is make sure enough glue is used, and that its fully dried before sticking them together.

[ckhugo]

Hi All,

Just my 2 cents here,

The reason why Roxon 500 doesnt feel as explosive as the Plasma 470 or even 430 is bcoz it isnt. The major differences btw the roxon series and the plasma series are:

1. Roxon's sponge is more elastic/stiffer than the plasma's sponge, so on a similar firmness, it will require more force to hit into the sponge on roxon than plasma.
e.g. Roxon 450 sponge is about 47 degree while plasma 470 is about 48 degree, but it requires more force to hit into the Roxon 450 to get the power.

2. The major difference btw Roxon & Plasma is the "tension" on the topsheet, the firmess of the topsheet and the pip length. Roxon's topsheet is under more tension compares to Plasma, while the pip is 1.1mm compares to Plasma's 1mm.
So, what differences might these make you may ask:
The differences are that:
 a. Even Roxon 500 has a softer topsheet than Plasma 470, but has a firmer sponge than the 470. So, where Plasma 470 with the same firmness of both topsheet and sponge produces a more "linear" feel in rebound and speed. Which makes it feel like you have a total of 4mm of rubber that work together to produce the power for you.
While, for Roxon 500, bcoz the topsheet is about 47 degree while the sponge is about 50 degree. The feel is Soft -> Hard, meaning a soft landing and then you hit the hard sponge.

This characteristic allows the player to play "slow" strokes, hence, the gear. Where Plasma is more linear as said, so that a 3rd gear stroke would still have a feel of 5th gear, while Roxon has expand the speed range to different gears based on how fast and how hard you hit.

The important thing here is that, to dig into the next gear in Roxon, you really would have to make an effort to hit into the sponge.

3. The pip lay out on Roxon is thinner than Plasma, and with its slightly longer pip produces the “softer” feel compares to Plasma. And this allows a better “bite” which translates to the spin and control.

[attachment=1:fa508]r1.JPG[/attachment:fa508]

If you look at the pic above, the red is Roxon 500 and the black is plasma 470 being clamped together. You can see that the plasma’s pips have dig into the sponge and the shape of the topsheet has being slightly deformed, while the Roxon’s pip still has not yet fully dig into the sponge and the topsheet has still maintain its shape.

So this shows the sponge on Roxon is indeed more elastic and requires a greater force to “dig in” say compares to Plasma.

Now, if you look at the pic below for better visual display, Roxon is more like the left one while Plasma is more like the right one as far as impact and the topsheet+sponge behaviour is concerned. Clearly, under the same force, Plasma would have already bite in the ball and then rebound off, while for Roxon, the ball is still on the topsheet.
 
[attachment=0:fa508]r2.jpg[/attachment:fa508]

To offset this, the thinner and longer pip structure allows better bite and warping of the ball on lighter impacts so that Roxon has the ability to do the slow stroke more effectively.

In Summary, Roxon allows you to do "topsheet" play like the Chinese rubber, while still maintain its German nature of tensor, so its more like a Japanese sponge where there are gears but at the same time requires a bit more of adjusting if you are coming off Plasma or other German tensors.

Cheers,
H

[pingpongrob]

Very Nice Hugo,

But the simple explanation is this.
Most people find the Roxon 450 easy to play with - it has Gears, it Has Control, It can Spin & It can Block. More importantly it does all of the above with less effort than prevoius Tensors.

[ckhugo]

hahaha Rob,

Yes, its true that 450 will be easier to hit through to generate the necessary power, but funny enough I actually prefer the 500 more than the 450 so far. I think thats bcoz I have liked the firmer sponge Chinese rubbers on my BH til now. So its just easy for me to adjust and decide on how fast I want the ball to go.

Oh ya, Roxon 500 is really good at counter looping close to table with just a little forward movement.

H