I have a differing opinion on the S hoops.
I bought a whole set of them for my drums, both top and bottom.
I bought them because the designs of the new drum heads like Evans 360 and even the new Remos have a new, slightly tighter fit on the seamless Sonor rims.
It's exactly the problem that is fixed with the new heads fitting to the shell which causes the new heads to have a similar problem with the old rims. They rock a little bit and don't sit perfectly flat in the rim. I'm sure it's only an issue with the old Sonor rims, and I really can't notice a difference in sound when the heads are seated, but I wanted to see if new rims might make the larger drums more articulate because they're extremely open sounding, which sort of translates to being more tympanic and less hard. Modern heads plop right in and lay flat in the S hoop.
I thought maybe the S hoops might give me a little of that Gretsch hardness on the lighter hits, but it didn't.
They allow a more obvious tuning, but so what? It didn't sound better for my drums and the tuning made for a smaller noticeable tuning window at each lug where it wants to sound best.
They seem to have an advantage in squelching some of the high midrange, but on my drums they brought out that short high pitch attack ping that I often notice on maple drums.
I don't know why Guru drums sound so good with them. Maybe it's because they use roundover edges and no, or very minimal venting.
They didn't sound good on my drums, but I'll keep them and maybe use them to make a keller set of vintage style toms.