Tibhar 5Q Sound vs 1Q Sound Review

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   I received the package from Tibhar last thursday and was excited that I got these 2 new rubbers together with their 3 blades (I still need to have the red cypress and rapid carbon light).

Tibhar 1Q Sound Red Max

Weight: 66 grams
Sponge Hardnes: medium
Speed: Off

Tibhar 5Q Sound Black Max

Weight: 64 grams
Sponge Hardness: medium soft
Speed: off-

I was a bit puzzled at first why the 5Q sound has a 5Q+ logo on the topsheet. It is listed in the ITTF LARC also as 5Q+ and not 5Q sound. The 1Q sound topsheet looks like just the former 1Q regular with no special markings. Both rubbers come in the usual shiny and good looking packages and as expected these are very high quality made rubbers from Tibhar.

Concerning the sponge hardness, the 1q Sound is not as soft as the aurus sound or evolution fx-p. I made the Aurus sound as a baseline for comparing softness of rubbers in Tibhar. The 1Q sound is closer to a medium rather than a medium soft rubber. The 5Q sound is soft but it is not as soft as the Aurus Sound. There is a little bit more firmness in the 5Q sound. 

Blades used in testing:
1. Tibhar Furious & Curious Blades
2. Tibhar White Sword
3. Yinhe T-11

On speed

The 1Q sound has a lot of speed with it. Not as fast as the 5Q regular but still got enough springiness. I would say it is almost as fast as the el-p and faster than the fx-p evolution rubbers. The 5Q sound is faster than the Aurus sound and maybe equal to that of the fx-p speed. Both rubbers have a loud elastic sound when hitting flat but the 5Q felt louder.

On Attacks with Spin

Both Q rubbers are spinnier than their predecessor Q brothers. The 1 Q sound was more comfortable than the 1Q regular because it is much easier to spin with and the sponge is softer. The 5Q sound is the spinniest Q rubber on slow loops, push chops and serves. 1Q sound is very spinny too but it is more of a balanced rubber in terms of speed and spin. The 1Q sound has a medium to high arc when looping slow and the 5Q sound has a profound high arc when doing spinny loops. The 1Q sound however felt really good when taking the ball early above the table with spin drives. 

On other strokes

I was more comfortable with the 1Q sound when hitting more through the sponge than the 5Q sound. The sponge compression with the 1Q sound  was not as much compared to the 5Qsound which has the tendency to bottom out when you hit too hard. The aurus sound bottoms out much more. Although the aurus sound is softer, the it flat hits and smashed better than the 5QS (5q sound because its too long to repeat) which both me and a friend share the common view when it was glued to a yinhe t-11 blade. I didn't have any problems smashing with the 1QS. On active or punch blocks the 1QS is good but on passive blocks against strong attacks loaded with spin, the 5QS performs better.

On their purpose

I think 5QS was made for players who wanted more spin out of the 5Q regular. Though the first 5Q was already very spinny, Tibhar made a softer sponge and made it spinnier with some loss of speed. It is more suited on a spinny and controlled strokes close to the table. At medium distance, you need to apply a lil more effort to produce stronger shots. I think it is more of a backhand rubber. The 1QS on the other hand is better until medium distance from the table and it attacks consistently up to that distance. On far distance like 7-8 feet away from the table, it tends to lose some power. I would recommend the 1QS both for the fh and bh because it is much more balanced in terms of performance. I only wish it is as spinny as the 5Qs though then it would be a perfect rubber.

Edited by yogi_bear - 07/29/2013 at 6:46am