Hey Buddy'First: I am really digging that barrel kick! It would be a hoot to have an all oak-barrel kit!
Bad Kits:
I define bad kit in the same way Harry outlined. If the kit of any name falls apart in 2 years, it's simply a bad kit. Potmetal hardware, Asian mysterywood and generally poor workmanship. I have tried some entry level kits, and the dynamic range is horrible. They make a muted "thud" and little else.
Hardware:
On the same shells, I have used large lugs and small single-point lugs. The smaller lugs do contribute to letting a drum resonate. Big lugs (like DW) dampen the shell not just from weight, but surface area they consume. Hardware does make a bit of a difference. Perhaps 5-10%, but it's noticeable, much like taking toms off a kick drum. It's not always a bad thing, but there is a difference.
In the 70's/80's when almost everything was set up to "thud," CB700 could thud right along with them.
Say what?
Since I began drumming when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, a little perspective.
With name-brand drums, the bottom kits in the line-up are so much better today than "cheap" kits used to be it isn't even funny. You get round shells, some kind of hardwood, and almost always decent bearing edges.
As others have observed, you give a kit like that good heads and good tuning and you've got a pretty nice sound. Far and away better than the "cheap" drums of even 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, anyone who started drumming in the 1960s will tell you that the most amazing difference is in the hardware. The hardware that comes with the lowliest Forum-type kit makes the professional-level hardware we used back then look like the junk it was. Slipping tom mounts were a daily facet of drumming life--you just hoped it didn't happen in the middle of a song. Same thing for the snare stand basket.
Bass drum pedals were pretty good: we had Speed Kings and Camcos. But hihats? Today for $80 I can buy a hihat that's solid, silent, with adjustable spring tension and rotating legs. Back then hihats couldn't suck enough. Crappy and noisy.
Small-footprint flat-based cymbal stands--no booms available--were a nightmare. I routinely sent crash cymbal stands tipping over in the middle of a show. (Always a big hit with the ladies.)
Part of the problem was that everything was made of pot metal. You had tiny little wingnuts to hold your toms up, and you couldn't tighten them much for fear of breaking them right off. Happened all the time.
So as far as hardware goes, the worst stuff available today was miles better than the best you could buy back then.
I really really want to hear that barrel kick!
I heard these played pretty well and they sounded great. So yeah, no bad drums, just bad drummers.
Perfect...................
In the 70's/80's when almost everything was set up to "thud," CB700 could thud right along with them.
Say what?
AS FOR:
"1 . The wood has not been moistened and then had its fibers stretched unnaturally..........etc
&
2. The grain of the wood runs vertically allowing for ...blah blah blah... "
COME ON!!!!!!!! really?
Now...Difference between birch shells and maple shells....SURE.
the difference between coated heads and clear....or calf...sure.
the DIFFERENCE between RIMS mounts and shell mounts...
I DEFINITELY BELIEVE THAT ONE!
BUT the difference between vertical vs horizontal grain...seriously?
I'd REALLY REALLY LIKE TO SEE the blind taste test.
I want to read the statistical analysis doc's that DW did
to prove it to themselves that this matters sonically....
maybe there is a SLIGHT difference....5% change in one resonance or another....(how does one subjectively measure "tone")
but really....I fail to see the diff.
AS FOR:
"1 . The wood has not been moistened and then had its fibers stretched unnaturally..........etc
&
2. The grain of the wood runs vertically allowing for ...blah blah blah... "
COME ON!!!!!!!! really?
Now...Difference between birch shells and maple shells....SURE.
the difference between coated heads and clear....or calf...sure.
the DIFFERENCE between RIMS mounts and shell mounts...
I DEFINITELY BELIEVE THAT ONE!
BUT the difference between vertical vs horizontal grain...seriously?
I'd REALLY REALLY LIKE TO SEE the blind taste test.
I want to read the statistical analysis doc's that DW did
to prove it to themselves that this matters sonically....
maybe there is a SLIGHT difference....5% change in one resonance or another....(how does one subjectively measure "tone")
but really....I fail to see the diff.
I believe it was Omar Hamkim that said..."It aint the drums, it's how you play them".
Obviously, just another Keller customizer.