DHS is one of the world’s biggest rubber manufacturers in the world (the biggest in China), producing millions of table tennis products every year.
When we think of rubbers made by DHS, we usually think of Chinese-style rubbers i.e. very hard, sticky, non-bouncy but powerful rubbers, such as the Hurricane 3 NEO.
However, DHS struck a deal with German factory ESN and delved into the world of European-style rubbers. The result was the DHS Gold Arc 8.
We have tested the DHS Gold Arc 8 for 10+ hours to see whether their innovative European rubber was worth the effort, and if it would be right for your game.
It has the ideal balance between speed and control for developing offensive players. This rubber is powerful and controllable in the same proportion, and it is also very spinny.
In addition, it is not very bouncy, so it is a great rubber when it comes to playing difficult shots, such as receiving spinny serves short or counterlooping.
This is a superb offering for offensive players of all levels, provided that you pair it with an OFF-, OFF, or OFF+ blade depending on your level and playing style. The shot quality that can be achieved with the Gold Arc is good enough even for advanced offensive play.
And, if you’re an all-round or even a defensive player, you’ll be able to benefit from its control, feeling, spin, and offensive capabilities of this rubber.
From 10 hours of testing, we had no issues with durability and the rubber was as fresh at the end as it was at the start. This is backed up by reviews from other players who rate it as a highly durable rubber.
Perfect for: Offensive players of all levels on either side. 1-15+ years of playing.
Ace
Recommended Playstyles
We recommend the Gold Arc 8 to players who want a superbly balanced and very capable offensive rubber.
Design of The DHS Gold Arc 8
The DHS Gold Arc 8 comes in a high-quality sealed package:
Inside, we can find the rubber, covered by a protective film.
The rubber we ordered is a black, MAX thickness 47.5° Gold Arc 8. Our initial impressions are that it’s very grippy and slightly tacky.
This is the “catch” with the Gold Arc 8: It’s a European rubber!
It’s not just that this rubber is a European-style rubber, it’s just that it’s 100% European, made in Germany by ESN.
Hence, it is almost not sticky at all, and very grippy.
Upon pressing on the topsheet, we find that the DHS Gold Arc 8 is a medium-hard rubber.
It is available in 2 different hardness options: 47,5° and 50°. As the 47.5° variant is the most popular, we decided to purchase it for this review.
We feel like the 47.5° option is justified in being the most popular, as we think it’s the perfect hardness for its characteristics. We would even have preferred a 45° option for the backhand side over the 50° one.
Our durometer reads the Gold Arc at 46° hardness, and it almost always reads the hardness of our rubbers a few degrees softer, so it is probably 47.5° as DHS says.
When cut to our Donic Original Carbospeed, the Gold Arc 8 weighs 51 grams, just a bit heavier than usual.
Playtesting the DHS Gold Arc 8
The 47.5-degree hardness and its characteristics make this rubber an excellent fit for both the forehand and backhand sides.
The DHS Gold Arc 8 is very controllable for an offensive rubber. It’s not as fast or spinny as top-of-the-line offensive rubbers, but it is no slouch either.
There are levels to offensive rubbers.
If I had to picture offensive table tennis rubbers in terms of potential shot quality, I’d say that the Gold Arc 8 is below rubbers like the Dignics 05, Tibhar Evolution MX-P, any of the Tenergies, or the Hammond Z2.
And, it’s markedly above rubbers like the Rakza 7, Rasanter R42, or the Xiom Vega X.
Hence, the Gold Arc 8 strikes a very interesting balance between speed, spin, and control.
It is a step above rubbers that are recommended just for developing offensive players, but it is a step below top-of-the-line offensive rubbers.
It grants players the capability of producing lots of speed and spin, without sacrificing too much feeling, dwell time, and control.
In terms of what blade to pair it with, it would work superbly on a huge variety of blades. In fact, I think you can pair it with every type of blade there is!
We tested the Gold Arc 8 on a Donic Original Carbospeed, a very fast OFF+ blade.
We liked how it behaved on this blade. This combination had lots of speed, spin, and sufficient control. It meshed together with the blade quite well, as it took the speed of the blade and gave it more control.
In addition, if you were to pair it with slower and flexier offensive blades, you’d have sufficient speed and even more spin, feeling, and control.
And, on allround and defensive blades, this rubber could produce high-quality loops and chops.
If you’re a beginning offensive player, I’d recommend pairing the Gold Arc on either an ALL+ or an OFF- blade. Intermediate-level and advanced offensive players can pair it with OFF and even OFF+ blades to get more speed.
Driving and Looping
The DHS Gold Arc 8 is a great rubber for driving, looping, and counterlooping.
It feels very stable when driving the ball and you get a good sense of control. In addition, the ball travels relatively fast.
Flat hits also work quite well with this rubber, as with any medium-hard European rubber. It is a good rubber to flat-hit and smash with as it is hard enough and relatively fast but not overly bouncy to the point that you lose out on control.
As for looping, the Gold Arc 8 is a very good rubber. It is quite spinny, the feeling upon contact is superb and you get good dwell time with the ball.
Its speed is also high, especially when paired with fast offensive blades.
As you can see in this clip, you can generate good levels of speed and spin with it:
We tested this rubber alongside the Nittaku Hammond Z2, and the main difference we noticed between them was that the Gold Arc felt slightly softer, it had a bit less speed but noticeably less spin.
In addition, there was a noticeable difference in dwell time. Shots played with the Hammond Z2 shot off more violently, while shots played with the Gold Arc stayed in the racket for more time.
The other difference we noticed is that shots played with the Hammond dipped violently on the other side of the table because of the amount of spin it was able to generate.
With this rubber, you can generate good levels of spin, but it’s hard to generate as much spin as with rubbers that have extreme grip. The Gold Arc doesn’t have the grippiest topsheet, so it simply can’t generate as much spin as other rubbers.
To further prove our point, we tried opening up against backspin with both rubbers, and this was the result:
As you can see, my opponent struggled to block my loops with the Hammond, but not so much with the Gold Arc.
The Gold Arc does generate good amounts of spin on open-ups, and any shot for that matter, but it’s very hard to generate the extremely spinny shots that a top-of-the-line rubber can.
However, we did find it much easier to land shots on the table when we looped with this rubber, so it’s a great rubber for players who want to up their consistency when playing topspin attacks.
The lesser amount of speed and spin can sometimes be beneficial. When it comes to counterlooping, the Gold Arc 8 is an excellent rubber because of this reason.
It has more than enough speed and spin to produce high-quality counterloops, but it isn’t affected by spin as much as the grippiest rubbers, and you get a lot more dwell time with the ball.
Paired with the Donic Original Carbospeed, counterloops felt deadly and controllable at the same time.
As for playing away from the table, this rubber’s performance will vary greatly depending on what blade you pair it with.
It behaved amazingly with our OFF+ blade, but you may find it a tad too slow if you pair it with slower blades, as it’s not the fastest rubber out there.
Serve and Receive
The DHS Gold Arc 8 is an excellent rubber for serving and receiving.
As for serving, it is quite good because you get good dwell time with the ball. It was easy to control the ball, place it wherever I wanted, and I really liked its feel when serving.
However, it doesn’t have as much grip as top-of-the-line rubbers, so it won’t generate as much spin as them.
In terms of receiving serves, the Gold Arc 8 is even better.
It’s quite easy to touch short, push long, push half-long, you name it. Because it’s relatively hard and not that bouncy, the touch game feels superb. It behaves very predictably when receiving.
It is quite a bit easier to play out the short game with the Gold Arc 8 than with other rubbers such as the Tenergy 05, and this is an advantage that shouldn’t be underestimated if you don’t feel that confident in your serve-receive abilities.
Blocking and Chopping
Blocking with the DHS Gold Arc 8 is simply superb.
It has the perfect speed, hardness, throw angle, and feeling for blocking. It’s very easy to control the ball when passive blocking and you can also produce dangerous active blocks quite safely. See for yourselves:
Chopping with this rubber was what we expected: Good control, good spin, not the best on this blade.
However, I think it could be a very interesting rubber for modern defensive players on slower blades.
Alternatives to The Gold Arc 8
The Butterfly Glayzer is a spinnier and slightly faster version of the Gold Arc 8.
The Xiom Vega X is a slightly slower and more controllable alternative to the Gold Arc 8.
It would be a great upgrade in terms of speed and spin without losing feeling and control.
Overall Reflections on The DHS Gold Arc 8
We really liked the Gold Arc 8 and we think it’s a very versatile offensive rubber.
It could work on a wide variety of blades to suit the needs of players with completely different playing styles.
This is because this rubber is quite controllable and very offensively capable but not that bouncy.
On a blade like a Viscaria, it would make an excellent offensive setup for intermediate and upper-intermediate offensive players.
I think that the Gold Arc is a great alternative for these situations. If you’re a developing offensive player and you want a rubber that you can’t go wrong with, look no further!
In my opinion, most intermediate-level players should go for rubbers like this one instead of jumping onto top-of-the-line rubbers too prematurely, especially if they use a fast offensive blade.
Alvaro’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 100 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favourite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller
