Tenergy 64 my contentious review (2009)

Way back in 2009, I had gotten a chance to try out T64. I had waited a long time for my sheet to arrive and was very anxious hoping the rubber would be lighter and springier than the T05 I had previously tried.
my review back then was one of disappointment and I posted my findings, not knowing that Tenergy had such a religious following, I was bound to get flamed for saying anything unfavorable about the Tenergy series.
I still stand by my review for the most part, and here i republish it for the sake of posterity.


Website: https://sites.google.com/site/jamaicadonic/home

So we have been reading all the multiple reviews of Butterfly's Tenergy series in all the forums and we have heard about T64 which is supposed to be the drivers rubber and the fastest of the series yaddah yaddah yaah yaah.
So we combed the far corners of the earth for a couple of sheets of the holy grail of TT , from Iru to Dandoy to Teesports in the Uk to Megaspin to Butterfly USA. Everywhere we searched, the answer was the same "No T64 available, maybe next month maybe next month"
Whoever are the owners of Butterfly in Japan they must be rolling in the dollars and thanking thier lucky stars they were able to get speedglue banned. The demand for this stuff is amazing, where can I buy some of that Tamasu stock again?
So finally I got my sheets from Butterfly USA and I cut the somewhat lighter than T05 sheet to my trusted Gergely blade.
The sheet with 2.1 sponge looked somewhat a little thinner than 4mm total and it definitley made my setup overall lighter than before.

The topsheet feels softer than T05 whcih is probably because the pips seem a little wider apart altough bigger.
So today I took out the holy grail for a twirl and heres what I found.
My loops were like with T05 very spinny, the throw is a little lower than the exaggerated high arcing Timo boll loops T05 produced for me but still were too high.
The dwell time is still too pronounced, just like T05 the ball seems to stick in the sponge and then shoot out. My practice partner told me my loops were spinny but much slower than usual.
My back was beginning to hurt tring to produce my usually more penetrating drives while the guy blocking to me looked bored dealing with my lolipop loops.
The rubber produced a real nice glue sound all the time which I liked but seriously I was dissapointed with the lack of penetration.
I noticed a serious non linearness to the T64's performance, sometimes when I backed off and counterlooped I would produce a frighteningly powerful drive which seemed out of proportion to the modest swing I made and at other times I would underhit. I think this sponge is just too soft and springy to control reliably.
T64 produced real nice spinny serves. i got good bite on my backspins but I could not make put away drives because of the high throw. I had the same problem with T05 and I was hoping the T64 would be more of a  power rubber but really it is not.

Blocking for me was even worse. It was way too springy to control, I was blocking off everything that was spun hard.
And then, I tore it off.
Sorry to dissapoint, but to me this Tenergy 64 is a bunch of steaming crap. Butterfly you can go ahead and enjoy my $100, congratulations on a brilliant marketing strategy and best wishes to the poor EJ's who will continue to line up for and try all the Tenergys yet to come from T29, T88 and the best Tenergy of all T77.
I think this rubber will best be enjoyed by beginners and intermediate players , maybe females, but I dont think many advanced male players will like it.