I could be wrong, but that boinging may be the cause of the shells w/out the rings. Do your DW kits have rings, Felix? If so, that may make the boinging that you are talking about dissapate quicker. I personally love the sound of the starclassics. The DW shells with rings sound a little too thuddy for my tastes. I love Portnoy's tom sound on the purple monster, but with just a tad more resonance than that. I also love his snare sound on his Mapex Kit (listen to "A Change of Seasons" by his band, Dream Theater to hear it). It has a really poppy, tight sound, which I like. Of course, I like my snares to be a lot tighter than his. I heard him say on a Tama video that he likes his snares somewhat loose. I like mine to be very tight and crisp. As for my bass drum, I don't like mine to sound like his. He likes his to be tuned loose and flappy, and to be stuffed with pillows. It sounds like a very short sound that you can barely hear. I like mine to give off a low end response with lots of mid-end included in it. I don't stuff my kick at all.

But with that starclassic kit that I heard (it was at church, not at a store. A couple of DW kits were at that same place. I didn't like the sound), the toms were very resonant, despite being tuned loose (and with Evans G2 Coated heads on them, too ). The snare was not the sound I like, but that's ok. I can get a different snare. I also liked the kick drum. It was also tuned very loose, and it still sounded monstrous (and it was only a 20x18). But the DW drums, like you said, sound to me like drums that need to be miked up live. But the Starclassic sounded both good when I stood next to the speakers, and when I was next to it. DW drums sound good in the moniter to me, but not when you are behind the kit. I just like the warm yet resonant sound of the SC Maple drums. But if you like the DW sound, that's fine.

I personally hate the DW sound, but love the Starclassic Sound. Thank you for voicing your opinion, Felix.  

Your welcome!  I love it when people thank me for my own opinion.  

When I had my DW kit back in 1989/90 how old were you?  1?  Did your kit have focus rings on it back then?  Mine did and I actually go them to seperate from the shell.  Must have been from all the gigging I did all over NE ohio.  What were you doing back then?  

 Don't think I've lost much since then either.  I'm better than ever playing twice as mad and 3X bigger.  I'm so good I can have the luxury of playing with bad technique.  I still have my @$%# hearing and when I wear my wig, still make the teeny boppers giggle and barmaids get me drinks (don't even need a wig for that one).  In fact I'm at the point in my career now that I have to turn down the teeny boppers, free drinks, barmaids and everything else cause I've already been there and done that.  Yep, I've had about 3 or 4 different styles already and I still practice every day (we don't even get Sundays off cause we are playing from 12am to 2 am).  And on top of all those road chops I have probably had enough music lessons and schooling for 3 people.

Just thought I would remind you who it was you were thanking for their opinion.

Xdrummer2000, as the proud owner of a fine DW kit, I thank you sincerely for allowing me to like thier sound.  Likewise you have my permission to dislike them!

Everybody wins!

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Regarding your perdicament, drummer1202, I currently own Slingerland, Ludwig, and DW kits.  I've never owned a Tama kit, so I can't offer an experienced-based opinion on them.  But I can vouch for the quality of the other two.  They're both fine reputable companies and they both make excellent drums.  You can't really go wrong with either.  In your original post you state:

The thing that I don't like about the Tama's and the DW's is that the drums sizes are kind of small. . .  It seems that the Ludwigs offer more for the money.

It sounds like you had a lean toward the Ludwigs all along.  They make a great drum.  They have for many, many years.  You won't be disappointed.

Hey, all of us here at the drummer cafe are glad to be of help.

Anyway, if you have kicked the DW drums out of the picture because of their priciness, and you are still looking at the Starclassic Maple (which I HIGHLY recommend you look into; they sound great, IMO). Do you have any friends or acquaintances who have a Starclassic Maple? If so, arrange a time with them when you can try it out. If your ears like the same sound mine do, than you will most likely like what you hear.

Get Ludwigs and start choppin'