If you don't want maple, and are considering DW, you should check out their Cherry kits. I played a cherry collector's kit a couple of months ago and it blew my mind. Warmer than maple but plenty of resonance and attack. I love all maple and all birch kits, but the Cherry Collector's series I played was just something else. I highly recommend that you check them out.
Here is my personal experience with owning DW drums.
I've owned a DW Collector's maple kit for 13 years now and it has been fantastic. After 12 years of gigging, studio recording, and constant playing everything has held up extremely well. The hardware is still in great shape, no chrome issues, the shells are still as nice as the day I bought them, the bearing edges are perfect, and the sound, well it's great! I played soo many high end kits before purchasing my ddubs, and the DW's just spoke to me.
Since you live in a small town with little access to try out high end drum kits, I'd look into surrounding music stores. I took a 3 hour drive to Chicago to visit a drum shop to buy some cymbals and I am so glad that I did. Not sure where you live or how far you are willing to drive, but perhaps you could look into taking a day trip to a drum shop.