E-Drum Amplifier

Hello, all.

Lately I've been forced to run my Roland TD-4s through my television's surround speaker setup whenever I want to play out loud, but the sound really ain't that great.

To get a high quality sound for practicing with my band, is it worthwhile to go out and buy one of Roland's purpose-built amps? Is the difference that great? And if so, keeping in mind that I'm just a beginner, can you recommend any amps that are a particularly good balance between price & quality?

Thanks for your time!

I had this dilemma some months ago. In the end one of my bands were in the middle of buying a little P.A. system for practice, so it worked out well for me.

They ended up getting this: http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/pa_systems/stagepas_300/?mode=series

It only cost £350 or so and it's fine for home practice. I would never gig with it (but then no one would - it's only 2x 150w speakers). That said the band in question plays metalcore and it is loud enough to go over that.

I didn't have to pay for it, but I have claimed it as my e-drum amplification and it now sits next to my PC We also run vocals through the P.A., and any backing tracks/laptops as needed.

I still practice with my headphones, but it's nice to not have to use them all the time.

Roland also has other amps, like the KC series that excel at amping up their drums. If it's just for practicing at home, you could probably get away with the KC-300 (350?) it's a 12" woofer with a horn and it sounds great. The bigger KC-550 is nice, but I don't know what you're budget is, those are almost $600. But they work for keyboards and drums. Definitely stop plugging into your home theatre system - you might damage something sooner than later!

Thanks very much for the responses! I'm convinced to go pick up a true sound setup for my set now. I found a few stores in a town nearby that each sell both amps and PA systems, and the $500ish price range sounds just right for me. Thanks again!

The Roland amps truly excel at reproducing cymbal sounds. Other amps can be plenty adequate for practice, but the Roland is the only one I've heard that made the cymbals sound at all natural.

Simmons DA200S....underrated

I have the Roland PM-10 ($250) which is pretty good for practice, and I have also used it as a monitor in small gigs. Nice sound (punchy drums, and especially nice bright cymbals when you turn up the treble). For practice and portability I think it's almost perfect; I would suggest something more powerful for gigging if it's the only sound output for the drums though (i.e. if drums don't go through PA).

I have a very old Peavey ED300 purpose built e-drum amp. It's a 300 watt animal with a 15" scorpion and a nice big horn. Weighs a LOT. Too much for lugging around to be sure. Good luck finding one of them anyway. Probably 3 left in existence.
Having said that I would look for a single (or two) powered PA speaker biamped with a 15" speaker and horn minimum. You need some thump and that requires cone surface and power. Anything that reproduces vocals well will be able to handle cymbal sounds fine.

The Trans Active Drummer is the amplifier designed for today's and the electronic drummer. This complete and active system contains a powerful as well as active two-way speaker wedge with two sets of inputs, stereo outputs, and a dock for iPod. It is the perfect for practicing alone and playing with a band of the amplifier.