Doraemon
Well-known Member
I had a chance to visit Thomann on a trip to Germany and finally was able to try a lot of ekits that I only knew by repute. Especially their in-house Millenium kits. It was a little overwhelming to run around playing all those kits in a short time, and had only written a few words of memos to myself, so it's not a comprehensive review, just a very superficial (probably useless) list of impressions.
Roland, Alesis: these are widely available in the US, so I didn't play them. I sat down to the Strata though, it's nice, but sounds worse than the Strike imo.
Yamaha: finally I was able to try the silicone TCS heads on the DTX6 and DTX8. I already played the mesh versions, so I knew the module is nice and the sounds are great. To me the TCS heads felt really weird, I didn't like it at all. It may be more realistic than mesh, but felt more like a tabletop than a drum, and was just plain weird. Maybe you can get used to it?
GEWA - G9 Pro, a very pretty acoustic look kit with brown shells. The sounds were great, but the kit felt weird. It had some strange looking cymbals. There is a huge LCD screen on the module that people might appreciate (I prefer faders and dials).
ATV aDrums Artist Series: my notes say "meh". It was an acoustic look kit, but the module (AD5?) is not that great, a big block of metal with a few buttons and a small screen.
2Box Speedlight kit: It was OK. It's cheaper, fine, may be a good deal for what it is, but nothing special after sitting at all those high-end kits.
As for Thomann's Millenium kits, my main observation was that the newer modules are much better, e.g. 750x is pretty decent vs. old 850 that sounded really bad in comparison. I think the new Nitro Max sounds better, but with the extra features and low price the 750x is a good contender in the budget range. The acoustic look versions only add the looks, but didn't feel high-end by any means.
Efnote 7x: Mea culpa, I didn't like them based on their youtube demos, but in person - and compared to all these other kits - these were the absolute winners. It felt like a real kit and in person they sounded pretty good. Not counting Roland, this would have been my choice if I had the means.
I wonder if there are any similar stores (maybe Edrumcenter?) in the US where you can try and compare this many kits? It's so much more useful than just finding a few in a store or trying to remember one you played months ago in another city. It's like with shoes, you can't really judge them without trying just based on reviews.
Roland, Alesis: these are widely available in the US, so I didn't play them. I sat down to the Strata though, it's nice, but sounds worse than the Strike imo.
Yamaha: finally I was able to try the silicone TCS heads on the DTX6 and DTX8. I already played the mesh versions, so I knew the module is nice and the sounds are great. To me the TCS heads felt really weird, I didn't like it at all. It may be more realistic than mesh, but felt more like a tabletop than a drum, and was just plain weird. Maybe you can get used to it?
GEWA - G9 Pro, a very pretty acoustic look kit with brown shells. The sounds were great, but the kit felt weird. It had some strange looking cymbals. There is a huge LCD screen on the module that people might appreciate (I prefer faders and dials).
ATV aDrums Artist Series: my notes say "meh". It was an acoustic look kit, but the module (AD5?) is not that great, a big block of metal with a few buttons and a small screen.
2Box Speedlight kit: It was OK. It's cheaper, fine, may be a good deal for what it is, but nothing special after sitting at all those high-end kits.
As for Thomann's Millenium kits, my main observation was that the newer modules are much better, e.g. 750x is pretty decent vs. old 850 that sounded really bad in comparison. I think the new Nitro Max sounds better, but with the extra features and low price the 750x is a good contender in the budget range. The acoustic look versions only add the looks, but didn't feel high-end by any means.
Efnote 7x: Mea culpa, I didn't like them based on their youtube demos, but in person - and compared to all these other kits - these were the absolute winners. It felt like a real kit and in person they sounded pretty good. Not counting Roland, this would have been my choice if I had the means.
I wonder if there are any similar stores (maybe Edrumcenter?) in the US where you can try and compare this many kits? It's so much more useful than just finding a few in a store or trying to remember one you played months ago in another city. It's like with shoes, you can't really judge them without trying just based on reviews.
