Ordered some Aquarian Studio-X...what do you think?

JesusMySavior

Silver Member
Just bit the bullet and bought some Studio X's with Power Dot for my toms. Was this a good choice? My initial thought was to go with these, then I started researching a bunch of tom heads and trying a few older ones out that I had laying around on my new drums. I tried some old Pinstripes, Super 2's, and Response 2 Clears. I don't think my drums like 2-ply heads so I came right back to these. Never tried them but I hope it's what I'm looking for.

I can't wait for them to get here but how would you describe the sound? Are they pretty good heads? I tune my 12 and 13 toms high and my 14 and 15 toms lower.
 
I switched to Studio X's a few years ago and I will never use another head. I read a lot about them denting easily but I have not found this to be true. I think they really brought out the tone in my toms and I always get compliments about the sound of my drums. They are amazing. Let us know what you think when you get them. I have 10,12,13,14,16,18 toms and the small ones a re high and the 16, and 18 are like thunder now.
 
I have studio X heads on my kit.. They have pretty good tone, and would probably be good for recording, but i just dont like to dampen down the drum like that.
 
I tried these out once. They sound amazing, my kit sounded like an end-result studio compressed drumset. I loved them! The problem was that they only lasted one night. Single ply heads don't hold up with my playing. I use Responce 2s now.
 
I use the Response 2 heads too. I don't think I hit hard enough to dent single ply heads, buy I just love the sound of these heads.

To the OP, if you found that your kit doesn't like 2 ply heads, you've probably made a good choice. The Studio-X is a pretty good head. Out of curiosity, what type of kit do you have?
 
I really liked the original film Aquarian used, and I had the dot heads, and some Carmine heads that were great. I did remove the ring on the Carmine heads though, and then I really dug them.
The Classic Coated were great too.....then they changed the film.
When that happened, dent city and they lasted one gig. I was pretty bummed.

They sound real nice, but I just can't use them because of the denting. I felt bad because Roy is a great guy and I wanted to support his company, but I just couldn't use the heads, and the 2 ply just didn't sound good to me.

What's funny to me is, I use a plain Coated Ambassador, play the same way, and rarely ever get any dents.
They're both 10mil heads too...

A similar thing happened to me with Evans heads, I LOVED the UNO58 head, but they discontinued it in favor of the G1 which didn't give me the sound I wanted.
The UNO was a white film with coating, very similar to the Ambassador.

Well, have fun with the Aquarian Studio X Power Dot's JMS! They are a nice sounding head.

Maybe I'll even give the Carmine heads a try again (without the ring haha!) they have a little bigger dot which I liked.
 
To the OP, if you found that your kit doesn't like 2 ply heads, you've probably made a good choice. The Studio-X is a pretty good head. Out of curiosity, what type of kit do you have?

It's in my sig, it's a Yamaha YD7000 from 1978. It's like the equivalent of a Yamaha Rock Tour Custom (according to the Yamaha Drum Rep); it's Camilla Birch and Philippine Mahogany.
 
I use the coated Studio-X heads without the power dot.
I use them for recording.
When I am finished recording, I remove the dampening rings and I use them for general playing and gigging.

The coating lasts and lasts. I whack the snots out of them and they do not dent easily.
They make great tones for recording.
I tune medium tension. About 76 on the Drum Dial before fine tuning.
They have just enough ring with or without the dampening rings on.
They are warm.

Here they are being played outside without the dampening rings on the heads. 8x12 and 12x14 toms. no mics
 

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Got them in the mail and retuned my reso heads with a Drum Dial, then I tuned up the Studio-X heads.

They sound terrific. Defined, warm, and powerful. Lots of smack. I also ordered an Evans G Plus for my 12" tom to try, and I liked the sound of the G Plus better (more open and louder) but since I ordered Studio-X heads for most of my toms, I'm just gonna stick with those this time around. Next time all I gotta do is buy a 13, 14, and 15 for the G Plus if I go with those, since I already have the 12!

Thanks for your input guys and gals!
 
studio x on all toms, classic clear reso side, studio x coated on snares, classic clear snare bottoms, super kick and regulator front on bass drum, sounds better than any other head ive tried and the aquarians last me at least 2 to 3 times longer than evans or remo.
 
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