Because you like the sound?  Because you decide to go with the best available option, at that moment, using your best available judgement?  (Yes, these are all meant to be rhetorical questions.)

I think it's safe to say that I'm the Cafe "poster boy" for snare drum minutae.  I love the "granular" details.  I love exploring different shells, different parts, different tunings - far more than most drummers I know (at the Cafe and elsewhere).  However, there comes a time where one just "picks a horse and rides it."  That's why I suggested that Danny get something fairly "middle of the road" to start with for this next purchase, and if he decides in the future that it's not to his liking, he can move on from there.  

Very few of us are still playing the first snare drum we ever owned (or the second, or even the third).  Time passes, we accumulate knowledge, our tastes change, we become aware of different makes and models of drums...but at some point, you've got to go out, trust your ears, and find the best that's available to you.  If it's a wrong decision, that's OK - sell that drum and get another one.  Or keep the first drum and get another one.  Or modify the drum.  Or modify the first drum and get another one.  Or...you get the idea.

One shouldn't fall victim to the idea that you have to have X-amount of research completed before you can find something you like.  That can stop a shopper in his tracks, and at various times in this thread it has started to look like Danny was beginning to fall into that trap.  If it's time to buy something, buy something.  It's not an irreversible decision.


Lots of guys do just that.

I remember being playing at school band concert about 10 years ago. The top drummer of the band (there's always one; I was his second ) brought his drums and cymbals (from his teacher). That was the first time I ever played a 20" K ride and a 16" K medium-thin dark crash (my first love ... ah!).

To do a long story short, I have fallen in love with most of my cymbals before purchasing them. I'll think I'll be applying that same theory to this situation because as I have said before: THERES NO HURRY FOR THE DRUM!!! Im just asking for opinions based your experiences.

Going back to snares, I only remember just a few snares that had made say OMG!, but the most impressive was a 5x14 Ludwig Hammered Bronze. Oh my friends, that was a beautiful sounding drum.

I know that Im looking again at an out of my budget range drum, but if remember well no of my cymbals were in my budget range when I bought them. I had to save my coins (from scholarship and a part-time job) to be able to have them. I still owe some of it to MasterCard^tm, but I dont regret it.

I have received a lot of good feedback from you guys and I thank you all.

I think Ill follow my hart again.

man, you guys don't screw around in this forum! I am impressed with the Drummer Cafe to say the least.