Stiga Calibra LT is very good

atin wrote:   By just bouncing to ball on the blade with a little effect, the Calibra LT sound almost felt the same as the Boost TS. I expected a little more effect there. Topsheet seems the same as the Boost series. The pips of the Calibra LT are closer then the pips of the Sound so the feel is a little harder. I've played in the past with all of the Stiga Boost rubbers and Tenergy's, so i will try to compare them later after i've tried the Calibra's. For now i think the calibra's are more build for the speed than for it's effect/topspin. Later more....

What's the thickness of your red 64 gr Calibra?

Both are in Max the red one is Calibra LT and the black one is the Sound. After a few sessions playing i came to the conclusion that this is not my rubber. I is a sort of upgrade for the boost rubbers. LT Sound plays like Boost TC but with more sound and a little faster. It's an easy and forgiving playing rubber. Blocking and topspin is very easy but the effect is the same as the boost TC/TS, unfortunatily there is also almost no arc when looping. If you like soft rubbers like Boost TC/TS, nimbus sound/soft, desto F3 big slam or other soft tensor rubbers with sound, the Calibra LT Sound is your rubber. The topsheet seems also very durable like the Boost series and the sponge seems stronger build. This rubber is not a tenergy replacement

I have tried this Calibra LT Sound and i liked it a lot, though it wasn´t my type. Way faster than tenergy, not as soft as expected but much lighter than Tenergys, loud sound but not as spinny. It´s the lowerst arc pips-in rubber i´ve ever tried, ball travels almost straight. At the beggining its a little weird coz you have to adapt you bat-angle with some strokes, specially pushing, but once mastered it´s pretty forgiving.

I really would recommend it for BH-Pushers.

I cant get it as well. Furthermore, what is forgiving about extreme low arc? Just be little bit late and you are in deep...trouble.

I think the throw is still low compared to latest Tensors or any Tenergy. I tried it (Calibra LT) today, but it was not as good as I expected. It's fast and it's spinny when hit hard but spin is not good during slower strokes. This is always the best attribute for Tenergy, producing spin with little movement. This is just after a 1,5 hour session, so it may change later if I decide to keep it on my bat. BTW, Boost rubbers were always a bit dead when new but they got much better after a couple of weeks. I wonder whether this does apply to Calibra as well. 

Still getting on well with the Calibra LT. Probably over 30 hours of play in the month since I got the rubber. You can tell by looking at the rubber that is has been used now. There is quite a scuff where my thumb goes on the red rubber though not much of a mark where my finger goes on the black rubber. If you look very carefully just after cleaning, you can see the very beginnings of wear in the middle of the rubber where I hit the ball often. I do tend to wear rubbers out quickly though due to my spinny loops so this one is doing well - Tenergy was at this stage maybe 5-10 hours earlier. Players who drive the ball rather than looping will probably find that it takes quite a bit longer to reach this stage of wear though.

Regular LT was probably the hardest (to play) rubber I've tried. Even after couple of hours, I couldn't feel the bat. It has amazing power but I couldn't figure out the racket angles and "click". Needs more time I guess. 

Edited by speaquinox - 09/29/2010 at 3:37am

I've seen quite some local top players switch from T05/64 to Calibra (and Vega Pro and Omega 4 Pro). Local top players means that they are ranked in the top 20 of Switzerland, which is pretty low level compared to the top players of other countries (probably comparable to the US I guess without wanting to offend anyone), but most likely extremely high level for the standards on MYTT. I'm currently ranked 69 in Switzerland (was 44 some weeks ago), probably around 2300 USATT rating.

So I could not resist the temptation (after also reading Baal's and other peoples review on MYTT) to give this rubber a shot. I bought a black sheet of Calibra LT (max) and a red sheet of Calibra LT Sound (max) and glued them on a spare blade (Viscaria). I asked for a heavy Calibra LT and got a rubber which weights uncut 66 gr, and a medium heavy sheet of Calibra LT Sound (59 gr uncut).

First I must say that it is great fun to play with these rubbers, good sound, impressing catapult and reasonable feeling for the short game.

Besides that statement, I can in principle only repeat what Baal said (if I remember correctly) in my own words.

Claibra LT:
The rubber has a orange non porous sponge and is medium hard (mine is perhaps a tad harder than an average T05). The rubber has an extremely grippy topsheet (it is certainly much harder to tear a ball across the rubber surface as compared to a T05), which is ideal for serves loaded with spin. I certainly get more spin from the top sheet than with a T05, where the sponge needs to work a bit to get that tremendous spin.
The Calibra LT is very very fast, notably faster than a T05, in every aspect. It has a medium high throw, enough to easily loop bottom spin. When the sponge is just involved weakly in the shot, then the rubber is a bit tricky to handle I guess. It asks for proper strokes, then it generates extreme speed and hilarious spin. In fact, during warm up looping and counter looping, my opponents had serious troubles to handle the amount of spin that I generated. Overall it is a bit less spinny than a T05 when not used properly, but also less sensitive to incoming spin.
Summarizing my impressions, I honestly think that the Calibra LT is overall at the level of a T05, a bit better in some respects, a bit worse in others. However, it needs some skills to get the impression that you can to some extent unleash its potential (in contrast to a T05, where everybody can generate loads of spin (but doesn't realize that he's suffering more due to the rubber than he's actually gaining)).

Calibra LT Sound:
The top sheet is the same as for the Calibra LT, but the sponge is notably softer. The rubber is quite a bit slower compared to the non-sound version (somebody said something else on this forum, but I am very very sure of this statement), I think it is also slower than a T05/64 except for people with hmm rather weak strokes. Far off the table, it lacks some gears and the ball penetrates the blade too much for my liking. However, it is still a very fast rubber and it creates a lot of spin also when using small non proper strokes. Further, it gave me a very controlled impression, in particular when blocking, which can be a weak point of soft rubbers.
Summarizing, I think the Calibra LT Sound is an extremely nice rubber for most players with a European technique, and it has a very loud and clear sound, which I really enjoyed.

I glued this rubber on my JM and played with it today. I must say that I have never had such a ridiculously fast racket in my hand in my entire life, even in the times of speed glue!!!

I couldn't keep the ball on the table when doing simple forehand countering for warm up. Things were a bit better when looping, but I simply did not manage to do slow loops loaded with spin. I mean some loops were loaded with spin, but also incredibly fast. Besides the fact that I could not play slow loops, I had surprisingly little problem to handle the rubber in a training match. Even serves and the short game in general worked out just fine, which really surprised me considering my problems during warm up. The throw and trajectory of the Calibra LT are ideal for counter looping in my opinion, even close to the table.

On the Viscaria, this rubber had manners, on the JM it is simply a beast. I will stick to my rubbers till the Christmas break (I think that it is more than three months with these rubbers by now, so I could perhaps add a heart icon), but will give the Calibra LT a serious chance in that break.


Edited by High_Arc - 10/26/2010 at 5:08pm

High_Arc wrote: I've seen quite some local top players switch from T05/64 to Calibra (and Vega Pro and Omega 4 Pro). Local top players means that they are ranked in the top 20 of Switzerland, which is pretty low level compared to the top players of other countries (probably comparable to the US I guess without wanting to offend anyone), but most likely extremely high level for the standards on MYTT. I'm currently ranked 69 in Switzerland (was 44 some weeks ago), probably around 2300 USATT rating.

The Calibra is really fast and it does take a bit of getting used to, but as with High_Arc I found that in matches it is pretty well behaved.  For the rest of this year I will stick with T05 since I have several sheets in reserve.  Once they are used up I will probably switch too. 

FWIW, a Swiss National team member named Christian Hotz played at a tournament in Houston summer of 2008 (which was won by Liu Song over Eugene Wang from Canada in the finals).  The Swiss guy lost in the quarterfinals and ended up with a 2516 USATT rating, so Swiss level at the top end is a bit below top North American, since that would get you somewhere between 30 and 40 in the US at the moment (and the Canadians are stronger). In fact, the guy he beat in the round of 16 at deuce in the last game is currently US #34 (which I remember well, since the later is a friend of mine from Houston, now about 2502, and I watched the match).   This Swiss fellow, very friendly young guy quite smooth style, was willing to hit around with just about anybody including idiots like me -- he ended up being completely and utterly destroyed by Shao Yu from New York City (11-3, 11-2, 11-9).  Sadly, economics have caused that very nice tournament to be put on hold for the time being.  We would always get at least a couple of world top 100 to show up for it since there was pretty decent prize money but the guy who put up the money is a real estate developer who has lost some money of late.  Also, FWIW someone 44 in the US would be about 2450, someone 60 would be around 2400.  All that to say that North American table tennis is not quite as pitiful as it sometimes seems.  Almost but not quite.  Acutally, among girls and women it is almost getting respectable.  And also that High_Arc may well be better than 2300 assuming a comparable number of players in Switzerland as here, which actually does seem possible to me given club systems I have seen in Europe.   

Stavros wrote: debraj wrote: i don't understand what's new 'conceptwise'?   its the same old story for all the rubbers from this factory (the japanese factory making stiga boost, coppa speed, cornellieu rubbers) ... - they are incredibly speedy - non porous sponge  - not heavy like tenergy or gen4 esn rubbers - grippy topsheet which loses part of the grip soon...stilll have some - not great for short game - great for drives   what else? same DNA, new name .. this time 'calibra' ...  !!! Agree.

debraj wrote: i don't understand what's new 'conceptwise'?   its the same old story for all the rubbers from this factory (the japanese factory making stiga boost, coppa speed, cornellieu rubbers) ... - they are incredibly speedy - non porous sponge  - not heavy like tenergy or gen4 esn rubbers - grippy topsheet which loses part of the grip soon...stilll have some - not great for short game - great for drives   what else? same DNA, new name .. this time 'calibra' ...  !!!

probably there is no new 'concept'. i have never used the coppa speed or cornilleau rubbers (the latter have a porous sponge by the way), but in my opinion the calibra lt is 'better' than the boost series in almost every aspect. considering the topsheet, i must repeat what many other have already said: it is very durable. moreover, on the viscaria the rubber had a very nice short game, for me personally easier to handle than a t05. on the mj, the short game suffered a bit but was still not a big issue. i can really recommend the calibra lt to people looking for a very fast rubber with great spin capabilities.

I play with a Viscaria also.  I can't imagine what Calibra LT must be like on a faster blade (although I gave my sheet away to a guy who plays with a Xiom Axelo, resulting in an overall setup that is absolutely insane-- but he likes it).

since calibra is such a fast rubber, is it a good rubber fast counterhitting and blocking?