Hey Everyone!
With all the "spirited discussion" my innocent little post has sparked, I wanted to come back and give you all an update.
First off, I learned a lot from this thread, and I hope others will too. My big takeaway was the discussion on cymbals. Of course I knew there were many different grades and price points of cymbals. What I didn't know was the auditory difference that I didn't realize until I went to a music store and banged on them myself!
As a violinist and string teacher I can only compare the whole "cymbal debate" to when I recommend to a parent to buy decent strings instead of the stock school grade strings that come on most rental instruments. Yes, the nice strings can cost 4-5X more than a set of steel strings, but they sound soooo much better. Does a beginner, need a set of $75 violin strings (even more for cello and bass)? No, they don't. Will it make a $300 violin sound like a $8000 violin, no. But will it make their violin sound 2-3x better? Will this make the student feel better about their playing and hopefully cause them to practice more and love the instrument? In my experience yes. So I totally understand where people are coming from who say to start out with a nice set of cymbals because it will only benefit the student.
I will also say I was quite overwhelmed by all the opinions presented here, and I really appreciate all of them. I should have mentioned in the beginning that my outside budget was $450 for an upgrade, any upgrade. So when the whole cymbal debate happened, I realized that I could buy the original set I posted (with the low end cymbals) or, upgrade his cymbals, but not both at this time. I went back and forth debating which would benefit him more right now, upgraded hardware and drums (as you saw the SPL sets hardware is far from professional) or, keep current setup and upgrade cymbals (upgrading whatever I didn't somewhere down the road)
So, as some predicted, I waited too long and missed out on that set. But the story has a happy ending! Today I logged into my account and a forum member here has generously offered to send my son a very nice set of cymbals that he doesn't use anymore (free of charge!) I am not mentioning his name (unless he wants to himself) - but I will say I am overwhelmed by his generosity, so much so I had to walk outside and compose myself before I could start work again today. I was literally in tears when I called my wife to tell her!
So now, I am looking for a 5 piece set (no cymbals necessary) and I am pretty sure I can find something nice by his birthday which is the middle of this month.
Thanks again everyone - your help is much appreciated.