Roland TD17KVX2 or Yamaha DTX6K3.. what one to buy?

Rozzy80

Rozzy80

New Member
Hey everyone!

I'm upgrading my old Yamaha DT Explorer kit (my son has recently taken up lessons as well so he too uses it to practice).

I've narrowed my two choices down to the Roland TD17KVX2 and the Yamaha DTX6K3 as they both seem like great pieces of kit for a mid-range/higher quality set. (The TD27, VAD, DTX8/10 kits are a bit more than I want to pay).

They both have their pros and cons but am wondering what the general consensus is around here regarding the two?

The DTX6K3 just went on sale here new for $1999 CAD which is $450 off.

I've also found a couple used TD17KVX2 for around $2100 to $2200 CAD.

Wanting to hear some insight!

Thank you!
 
Personally, I prefer Yamaha's samples over Roland's, but you might disagree. With Yamaha, you also avoid having a cable snake. I like the larger snare on the Roland kit. Another difference is mesh vs. TCS pads. If possible, I would strongly urge you to find a shop where you can try both to personally evaluate the sounds and the feel of the pads.
 
If you can play both of them and see which one you like better, a lot of people don’t think Roland sounds are up to speed, but that is subjective, you can make Roland kits sound very good if you make the right adjustments. I have very little experience with Yamaha to give you an educated opinion, there is one of our members who is a long time Yamaha player and he swears by them. He will tell you that Yamaha is better than Roland because they use multi layer samples and don’t use a proprietary and evil cable snake. The sounds again are subjective so you might like one better than the other hence why I suggested you try both if able and form your own opinion. The evil cable snake is very cheaply replaced if it was to fail so to me is inconsequential to me buying the kit or not. Mesh heads IMO feel much better than the Yamaha TCS heads but again I can’t tell you what you are going to like. I was not too impressed with the sounds of the Yamaha kits but that is me probably being accustomed to Roland and Alesis sounds. My Roland sounds:
 
As above - you need to try both and see what you prefer - the quality of the sounds and the feel of the pads.

The core differences are:
Roland uses synthesized/modelled sounds and a proprietary cable snake.
Yamaha uses multi-layered samples (up to 120 samples per pad) and individual cables (and multiple 3-zone pads)

If you have a DTXplorer, it's plug-and-play to use those pads and bits in the DTX-PRO, obs, Up to 14 pads on that module if you wanted.
 
electrodrummer said:
As above - you need to try both and see what you prefer - the quality of the sounds and the feel of the pads.

The core differences are:
Roland uses synthesized/modelled sounds and a proprietary cable snake.
Yamaha uses multi-layered samples (up to 120 samples per pad) and individual cables (and multiple 3-zone pads)

If you have a DTXplorer, it's plug-and-play to use those pads and bits in the DTX-PRO, obs, Up to 14 pads on that module if you wanted.
Click to expand...
The one thing that we also didn't mention is that if you bought a Roland module and wanted to used your Yamaha pads they will not work out of the box because they are wired backwards (neither Roland nor Yamaha is wrong for doing this just different . That is how each wire their pads.) so you would have to open the pads and invert the cables internally to make them work) So, maybe one reason to remain loyal to Yamaha??

The best of both worlds is you build your own acoustic conversion (so you play properly sized pads) and you choose what module you want and use VST software such as Superior Drummer Nothing beats that at this point.

This guy did that:


And those drums look awesome and sound great.
 
Core difference for me is mesh vs TCS silicone heads. Sound samples aside, they both have a very different feel.
 
PS I've had a DTX6 K3-X for the last 2 years and it's awesome. The sample layering is great and I like the feel of TCS heads which is the important bit.
 
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