What do you think of XIOM?

Korean TT manufacturer XIOM made quite an impact on the TT equipment market a few years back, with a spectecular website, fancy packaging, detailed descriptions and charts, and a full range of equipment rivalling many other top products on the market. It seemed to be the talk of the TT forums too, where you'd see another thread about XIOM surface just about every day.
Talk has settled down quite a bit, although they continue to come up new products.
For those of you that have tried their stuff, do you think they as good (or better) as other brands? What do you think are some of the best products to date?

I think XIOM is following Butterfly model: high end awesome quality well finished blades; performing rubbers. 

I owned a Xiom Axelo once and I was amazed at the quality of the plies and the finish of blade. Its just too bad that I dont like the handle shape otherwise I would keep it. Performance wise its as fast as they say it is, just a tad slower than the SC. Its the price to quality ratio thats so nice about xiom products. 

I actually find it very annoying the Asian manufacturers continue building handles that only fit one race of humans. Imagine a suit company that made all different size and style jackets.... and only size extra small arms on all of them..

A bunch of their blades are at least as good as Butterfly's or Stiga's etc.

Also their lines of Vega and Omega rubbers are pretty good and not very expensive. I myself like Omega IV Asia a lot. But Vegas and O4 Europe have very good reputation as well.

The first Xiom blade I ever tried was V1, but didn't quite like it because of thickness, but then I tried Stradivarius and I've been hooked ever since. I played with Yasaka and Donic mostly before that, but when I decided to try a carbon blade, Yasaka only offered few which I didn't quite like and Donic didn't have any appealing non senso carbon blades that I liked either.

I think Xiom made a great progression forward, but just like any growing company it is still learning how to get a bigger piece of the market. For blades, quality wise, I think its on top along with Butterfly and Nittaku. Price wise they are better than both. Selection wise, I like their smaller selection. Seems many other brands offer many types of equipment of identical kind with different names or very minimal differences. Xiom on the other hand has very specific choices.

Regarding Xiom handles, I didn't like the handles at first either. I used anatomic handles most of the time by other brands, but as I got to using Stradivarius more often, I got more comfortable and actually have an easier time adjusting to any other blade handles.

Rubber wise, I am not 100% sold on Xiom. The biggest problem I have is a confusing large selection of varying kinds of rubbers and the multitude of sponges offered. The Pro/Elite/Asia/ and whatever other convention is somewhat difficult to understand. For me I have to go back and review each characteristic since I can't recall which one has more spin and speed ratio. Price wise, the rubbers also come off a bit more expensive than Donic counterparts, so Donic has remained my #1 choice for rubbers.

I do however, look forward to further products, offerings, accessories, and expansion by Xiom. I think the brand will continue growing.

Leshxa wrote: I think Xiom made a great progression forward, but just like any growing company it is still learning how to get a bigger piece of the market. For blades, quality wise, I think its on top along with Butterfly and Nittaku. Price wise they are better than both.

havent tried any of the blades .

Best straight handles in the business. And I think their rubbers are very good bang for the buck.

the older xiom blades such as the aria and amadeus are my favorites. too bad they dont make these blades anymore

assiduous wrote: Vega, Omaga, Sigma, ... euro, pro, asia.. they all have this sponge feel on contact that i find very unpleasant. Like they used a kitchen sponge.

SO you don't get this 'sponge' feel with other ESN rubbers?

Its hard to beat the Hayabusa Series.  There is a lot of thread's on that blade.   I am selling one here..   (in the FS Section).  but check out the gorgeous craftmanship.  

Interesting. It makes me not like it quite as much.   I agree.  it wouldn't be as successful if it was still the "old champion" brand.   Marketers are smart.    

I think the future is good for Xiom. One thing they need to do is to stop manufacturing Omega 3- and only offer modern rubbers to the general public. They need to stick to what they're good at, super fast ESN rubbers, not SP's and only LP's once they have the experience. My advice to Xiom is to keep making new rubbers, and stop manufacturing old rubbers, since that way, Xiom has already caught up with Butterfly. The problem is that not ALL of their products are of Butterfly quality, only some notable ones, Hayabusa, Strad and Omega/Vega/Sigma series.

SmackDAT wrote: The problem is that not ALL of their products are of Butterfly quality, only some notable ones, Hayabusa, Strad and Omega/Vega/Sigma series.