DHS Inner Carbon Blades Comparison: Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin, Long 5 & B2X
DHS has several inner carbon blades that look pretty similar on paper, but they can feel quite different in how they play. In this comparison, I put the DHS Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin, Hurricane Long 5 and Fang Bo B2X head to head to see how they differ in composition, speed, feeling and playing style.
I've been wanting to make this comparison for a while, but never got the time for it until now, so here we are, my head-to-head article of four of my most played (and beloved) inner blades of DHS, I can't wait!
So let me start by saying that a lot of people have asked me about this in the previous months, and that I really hope you will enjoy this guide and that it will help you (the prices are expensive so hope to save you some money). It felt a bit like I was focusing too much on rubbers, so finally I made some time for it, so I can tell you more about some of the blades I've been playing with for the last 2-3 years, and tell you what the differences are, it's subtle things really, but they are there.
I will also try to keep this concise so it does not become a half an hour read, there is so much to say about these blades but I'll try to stick to the core of any blade review for simplicity purposes so I will review the blades based on their main areas: composition/weight/handles (the technicalities), overall speed/controland gears, feeling and dwell time plus finally price and durability. I will also mention at the end which blade is best suited for which play style.
Side note: I'm always going to be talking about the commercial versions here, I do not have the money or the technical level to truly maximize the value of the W968, Q968, or S968.
DHS
Hurricane Long 5
DHS
Hurricane King Wang Chuqin
DHS
Hurricane Sun Yingsha
DHS
Fang Bo B2X
The TL;DR: DHS Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin, Long 5 & B2X
| Category | Blade ranking |
|---|---|
| Composition, Weight, Handles, Ply Thickness | All 4 are ayous/limba with inner AC (aromatic carbon), ply thickness and handles vary. Similar weights |
| Speed, Control & Gears (High to low speed) | Long 5 > Wang Chuqin > B2X ≥ Sun Yingsha |
| Feeling, Vibration & Dwell (High to low hardness) | B2X ≥ Sun Yingsha > Long 5 > Wang Chuqin* |
| Price & Durability | B2X is low-cost, the others premium, they are fragile but durable if sealed and handled correctly. |
*Please note that some players have mentioned that in their experience, the Wang Chuqin blade felt harder than the Long 5 one, for all the details check this in-depth thread.
The technicalities: Weight, size, handles, composition and layer thickness
All my seven blades are in the range of 88g to 92g, and you can request the vendors to send you a specific weight. I like the 89-90g blades, not maximum power but not as toned down as an 88g (or even 87g) blade. But this is very personal anyways.
When it comes to the size, they are pretty much the same, with minor differences that may feel huge or not noticeable depending on the person who holds the frame. Some are a little bit more head heavy like the Wang Chuqin or Long 5 for example.
The handles though, are definitely different, and this is a super subjective topic, but my favourite ones are the B2X and the Long 5. This is because they are a bit bigger (the B2X is like a less polished Long 5 handle, sort of, it's a bit odd), and somehow favour the forehand more than the Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha ones, where I feel they are more backhand grip oriented for the modern trend. The difference is significant enough to me to mention it, but it may not be for you!
Last 2 things about the handles, the Wang Chuqin handle is pretty small, and even though I love the feeling, it sometimes slips from my hands, so that's a thing to be aware of. And the one of the Sun Yingsha is a bit like the Long 5 but with a thicker top part, so the neck was a bit more uncomfortable for me on the middle finger, but I don't own it anymore (sold it to a friend, you may notice this in the hero photo, I had to 'Claude' the Sun Yingsha into it haha the other photos are real though :D) and the friend that got it, has no problem with it, so yeah, subjective stuff. And yes, the Sun Yingsha handle is bigger than the Wang Chuqin one, making the Wang the smalles of all four. You can see I'm a bit sensitive about the handles, it is what it is!
Now the composition, that's a 'boring' one because they are all made of ayous cores, then the inner carbon (AC = aromatic carbon, seems like yellow ALC with a twist, nobody really knows for sure), then another ayous layer and then limba.
The thickness of the plies are slightly different though, and I will add a photo down here so you can see the differences in the four blades. That also determines a little bit how their characters are, with the Sun Yingsha blade and B2X having a noticeably thicker core. Also the Sun Yingsha blade has thicker outer layers on top of the carbon for example, while the B2X almost behaves like an outer carbon blade due to its carbon layer being more 'exposed' to the outside, while the Long 5 and Wang Chuqin have the carbon more 'buried' than B2X. The main difference between the Long 5 and the Wang Chuqin is that the Long 5 is a bit heavier, just a tiny bit, and it seems to have a slightly thinner top limba layer, but it's hard to see on the photo. To be really honest, it's even hard for me to see it if I hold them together. The Long 5 and the Wang Chuqin look pretty similar to the normal eye, maybe if you make blades daily you can see it, I almost don't, maybe I need new glasses!
Overall Speed, Control & Gears
The differences between the 4 blades are not gigantic, but they are there.
Essentially all four blades are fast, not Viscaria fast, that's true, but still fast. Some people play them with unboosted Hurricanes, then they may feel slower, but these blades are made for boosted Hurricanes and also fast hybrids/tensors on the BH, it's just that the DHS philosophy is not to make the blade super fast, in order to have feeling and control with the blade and add 'most' of the speed with very boosted rubbers.
Anyways, that aside, the Long 5 is the clear winner in speed, in its highest gear it is faster than the Wang Chuqin, and you will notice that your balls fly long more often. In the middle and low gears, it is still faster than the Wang Chuqin but it's less noticeable, depending more on other factors like the rubbers, technique, etc. They both have an almost endless amount of gears, so the harder you hit, the more fun it gets (and harder too xD)
The other two blades, the Sun Yingsha and the B2X are slower overall, and to me they are a bit similar in speed but feel and behave differently, I will discuss this later, but for now, if you want to go into the nitty gritty, perhaps the B2X has a notch more speed and power on the higher gears, but it does not mean that the Sun Yingsha is a slow blade by any means. They also both have a lot of gears, but less than the Long 5 and Wang Chuqin, there is a more noticeable cap on these two blades.
So to sum it up, if you want raw power, go for the Long 5, if you want power but a bit more controlled, go for the Wang Chuqin or the B2X, and if you prefer even more control, Sun Yingsha would be the better option.
Last side note for just a little bit of nerdy stuff: My feeling from the past years says that the B2X is the stiffest of all the four blades, followed by the Sun Yingsha, then Long 5 and finally Wang Chuqin. Stiffness is related to the speed of a blade, but there is also the concept of elasticity, how fast the blade recovers to its original shape after deforming, which is also very important. And there are other factors to speed (i.e. weight, carbon type which correlates to all of it) but I wanted to mention this to illustrate that even though the B2X feels to me like the stiffest of the four, it is not the fastest, so don't only check the stiffness value for speed!
Feeling, Vibration & Dwell time
Aside from the overall speed and gears, feeling/vibration (hardness really) is for me the most important thing to look for in a blade, and it also directly impacts dwell time.
So starting with how hard or soft the blades feel, I'm pretty sure that the Wang Chuqin is the softest of them all, followed closely by the Long 5. I just think that the Wang Chuqin is a notch softer and dwelly than the Long 5, but not by a lot. Then you have the other two, the Sun Yingsha and the B2X, where I think that the Sun Yingsha is a little bit softer than the B2X, the B2X being the hardest in the hand of them all.
This correlates almost directly to the vibration in the hand that you will get, and it means that the B2X feels pretty crispy and muted, followed by a bit more vibration from the Sun Yingsha, then even more with the Long 5 and finally the Wang Chuqin, the blade with the most vibration of them all, which sometimes even gave me the feeling of holding a good old Nittaku Acoustic blade.
Finally and logically, when it comes to the dwell time, I think that between the Wang Chuqin and the Long 5 there is not too much difference, I'd say that the Wang Chuqin has a bit more dwell time, but this one is really hard because the Long 5 also has plenty of dwell time, they both feel pretty 'woody' in that way. The other 2 blades are much easier for me to tell you about, they have clearly less dwell time, with the B2X being the one with the least dwell time, that's for sure! That's why I also mentioned in the beginning that the B2X (and the Sun Yingsha to a certain extent) sometimes feels to me like an outer carbon blade with an inner touch to it. And by the way, yes, the B2X and the Sun Yingsha also throw lower and with a flatter trajectory, that's related to their lower dwell as well.
Price & Durability
The first thing I'll say here (because it's very important) is that all four blades need to be sealed before you glue any rubber on top of them, they are all REALLY sensitive to humidity and if you don't seal them first, you may as well buy a new racket after the first rubbers, because pieces of wood will peel off with your rubber when you take it off (yes, even if you do it veeeeery carefully). I learnt this lesson the hard way, and now I give them one or two layers of DHS sealant and all good. One layer normally, two layers if I'm planning on using it as a test blade with a lot of quick changes. That seal layer also lasts a long time so you don't have to seal them every time you remove the rubbers.
That aside, the three premium blades are good quality, and have a decent QA, which is not the norm of DHS (sadly). The B2X is a bit more low-cost so it varies a bit more, but I think I have been lucky, because all my B2X blades (I have 3) have always come in a decent state. For the price the B2X has, the quality is almost as good, so that's nice.
If you ask me about the best price to value ratio, I'd of course say that the B2X is the one to go for, or any of the other similar DHS ones (301 series if you are into koto), they are usually around 50-65 euros, and that price is amazing for what you get (a great blade). But yeah, if you are an advanced player, and need the increase in speed, feeling and quality, the high-end models are definitely worth it, they are really really good blades. So it's just a matter of tradeoffs as always. And again, I'm not talking here about the price of the national blades, that's in my opinion a lot of money for an amateur like me (sure, they look kickass if you have the money)
Durability wise, I have not had many issues after sealing them and taping the edges, but if you don't do any of these 2 things, be ready to change blades pretty soon, because they are beautiful but fragile, and yes, the carbon layer in between is fragile too, be careful when removing the edge tape. Hence why I also seal the edge of the blade always, that's something I learnt by messing it up too ;)
So who are these four blades for?
First of all, they are not for beginners or low intermediates, that's going to be a waste of money and time in my opinion, you can buy them, but they will not bring you forward like a 5 or 7 ply blade with normal rubbers will. And buying such a premium blade to combine it with control rubbers like 729 or Vega Intro doesn't make sense to me either.
From the intermediate level onwards, I'd go more for high intermediates and advanced players, but perhaps the Sun Yingsha can fit 'a little bit' better for normal intermediates. I'd still not do it, but if you want to buy it, don't get a Long 5 first.
Finally, if you are a high intermediate or an advanced player, that's where it gets interesting:
Last thing I'll mention here, if you like playing with boosted Chinese rubbers, all of these blades go wonderfully well with those, it's a match made in heaven, but they can also go well with hard hybrids, not so much with softer hybrids (the ones closer to tensors). I do think the B2X goes slightly better with 'softer' hybrids than the others as those compensate a little bit for its characteristics.
Final thoughts
These four DHS blades are some of the best blades you can have from DHS and they are wonderful but will not fit everybody, mainly depending on play level, style, rubber taste and/or budget. I've enjoyed all four of them for a significant amount of time, and nowadays settled with the B2X as my main test blade, and the Wang Chuqin (but sometimes also B2X, depending on the rubbers I'm testing) as my normal game blades.
So if you are about to buy yourself a new inner carbon blade and are wondering whether any of the above may be for you, I hope this review will guide you in that process, and if you still doubt a lot, you can always get in touch and I'll be happy to help you out!
That was my comparison of the four DHS blades, thanks a lot for taking the time to read this and for your support, and see you at the table!
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