The Mapex Armory is one of the best sounding, most well-constructed, most thoughtfully designed and engineered drumkits on the market, regardless of price range. When you take into consideration the price point it's an amazing value as well. I'm currently in the studio with it at the moment and myself and the engineer A/B'd the Armory against DW collectors, Premier Genista and others and it was the clear winner in terms of delivering a focused, round, punchy tone from the toms and bass drum. The all maple DW had a lower fundamental and more resonance. While that's a great sound, I favor the punchier focused sound of the birch, especially for metal drumming. Since the Armory is a hybrid birch/maple shell it adds just a bit of extra warmth and low end that birch alone could be missing. I also love the Soniclear bearing edge. I've been wanting a more old school, woody drum sound, that emphasizes the shell tonality and the rounded edge does exactly that. I think they mistakenly market as something that makes the drum easier to tune, which it does, because I think the sound characteristic is even more appealing. I also think the Soniclear tom mounts are the best of any drum. No special hoops needed like on Tamas, and no mounts that put pressure on the tuning lug receiver like DW. Simply mounts to 2 lugs and rests freely on a single rubber node. The steel Tomahawk snare is killer as well. Very heavy and solid steel shell that sounds great out of the box. Also focused and great body to it with a slight amount of ring that's easily controlled to taste. Now the finish is what seals the deal. The black dawn looks stunning in person and makes the kit look thousands more than it is. I've gotten tons of compliments on it. This is obviously subjective, but I love the Mapex shield lug design and black hardware which also help this kit stand out. Overall this I would highly recommend this kit from the beginner to gigging musician to recording.

Great drum to have at home ..fast sound response . really good for R&B funk music . just the tom 2 is really hard to get a good tune out of . ( i think is because of the deep size . other thant that .. Great for the price .

I've owned 5 different kits now and i paid a hell of a lot more for the others and this guy is right up there with them! I replaced the kick head with an emad2 evans and it made it much punchier. I've played tama, dw, pearl, pdp and an sic kit. Proud to add mapex with a positive feeling! spend the 900 and get the six piece.

I have played for over three decades, played many drums/ companies. Really enjoy this kit. Very tonal, responsive. Great hardware and finish. I have the trans black with black hardware in fast tom sizes. Don't let the short sizes fool you. Plenty of tone and volume; even with stock heads. Mapex was easy to work with and quick to deliver this kit to my local GC. Thanks also to GC for helping with the order. 5/ 5 for me. cw from STL