My first kit was a '91 (2nd gen) Rockstar kit. Even then I thought the snare sounded a lil' funky, in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on. I then read a review of the kit somewhere (MD, maybe?) that gave it good marks for the level of kit that it was, but also described the snare as having a very "Alex Van Halen" tone to it that couldn't be tuned out. I immediately recognized that description was spot-on- it sounded just like the snare in "I'll Wait". Then I couldn't un-hear it. A guy I knew had a Pearl Export snare in the same dimensions (6.5x14); he wanted to trade for my Tama snare for some reason, but his strainer was broken. So we traded but I moved my Tama strainer to his shell. It sounded more "normal"- better than it should've- and it was my metal snare option even after I bought my first "pro" level snare, a Legend 5.5x14 maple.
Several years after buying the Legend I got my Pacific CX kit that is now named as my rehearsal kit in my signature, but was my gig kit for a while because it sounded much better (pro level) and was in sizes I preferred. Pacific snares around this period became widely known as punching way above their weight, and this stock snare was no exception (it still gets compliments)- so much so that the Legend became redundant and I sold it. Next kit was a Mapex Pro-M (in my sig as my gig kit), which sounded as good as the Pacific and its hardware was nicer, so it got promoted. Its snare is also pro sounding. I also just recently purchased a PDP Concept Maple kit that sounds equally phenomenal all-around, including the 6x14 snare. It's going to become my gig kit.
While I worked in instrument retail for a while, I noticed that even entry Tama & Mapex kit snares were better than decent. And oddly, one snare I definitely never cared for its boxy tone no matter the tuning was the Starclassic Performer birch one that came with the 1st gen SCP kit we stocked. Maybe that one was just a lemon and they're generally great, but
this one wasn't.
So I wonder if, going back to the 50s and 60s, the nicer snares included with kits like in
@jda 's catalog examples that landed with kids/teenagers just got hit so much more often and without much care (especially as rock got rowdier and louder) than the toms & bass, that they just got thrashed, then replaced with whatever snare drums they or their parents could afford, so the companies took notice and started offering lower quality snares with the kits and kept the nicer ones as upgrade options. Then by the time of my era, kit snares were certainly not pro level, but nicer with more attention to detail paid (and increasingly so, that by the 00s, kit snares were
very nice), so they wouldn't get labeled as junk so quickly, but the rep of kit snares is so hard to shake that they still get a bad rap? Those of you who mentioned Gretsch RN2, Yamaha, etc. snares being better than you originally thought after giving them a 2nd evaluation- maybe there's a good reason for that.
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