I've heard the pearl forum and export. And from the ones i heard i didn't really like the sound. I haven't really looked at the vision but will definitely give it a listen. From tama i heard i think one called the stagestar and thought that didn't sound very good. Then again i don't know what heads the people were using and the cymbals on the pearl export i heard were terrible. I appreciate all the help you guys have given to me, i'm pretty naive when it comes to drums and i'm just trying to retain all the info. I am more of a guitarist just coming into the "real" drumming world and finding out how darn expensive it can be.
forums, I believe are made with 100% poplar. Poplar is a non tonal wood so the shells can sound a little dead. People loved it on the old ludwigs when they used it as an inner ply with Maple, but it was more to stabalize the mid range tones to make the drums a little less ringy.
Exports have been discontinued since 2007 I believe. The older exports made with phillipine mohogany sounded great. Later they switched this out to poplar and they just didn't sound as good. Now the visions are made with birch, sound much better.
Stagestar is about equivalent to Pearl Forum (i.e. bottom of the line). The Swingstars are a mid range kit and are much better built, have better shell material.
Also keep in mind the cheaper the drum, the less accurate the bearing edge is. The bearing edge is the equivalent to a bridge on a guitar. This is where you get the majority of your tone from the head. You can get them recut if they're not accurate, but if your shelling out the money in the first place, better to have them done right the first time.
And yeah as someone mentioned check PDP. They're build to DW specs, but made in Mexico where the labor is cheaper. Some very good stuff I've seen from them.
Regarding cymbals, don't go cheap here. You're better to go out and buy some used Zildjian/Sabian/Paiste/Meinl than to buy anything that's a brass cymbal, or even B8 pro, ZBT, etc. If you must buy a student cymbal pack look at Sabian X's, Zildjian ZHT, and Paiste Alpha.
High quality cymbals are made with bell bronze or what they call B20 bronze (Zlidjian A, A Custom, K, K Custom, Z, Sabian AA,AAX,HH,HHX) Paiste and Meinl use B8 bronze (i.e. sheet metal), but their manufacturing process for these lines is much better than what Zildjian and Sabian do for their sheet cymbals. The B8 or B20, refers to the amount of tin in the alloy (i.e. B8 = 8% tin/92% copper, B20 = 20% tin/80% copper) My preference is for cast B20 cymbals (I play Zildjian K's), but there are good sounding Paiste's and Meinl's out there. Sabian X's are the only student model cast cymbal made, but they have a cheaper lathing process (what makes the grooves in a cymbal) and they are not hammered, so they vary wildly between the same model cymbal. Zildjian ZHT is a specialty B12 Bronze, and is a little less ultra high frequency than some of the other student model B8 cymbals.
As I said with cymbals my recomendation on a budget is buy used if you're on a budget, or shell out of a good quality cymbal pack. A new Zildjian A pack will run around $650, but you will get 14" hats, 20" ride, 16" crash, 18" crash and a cymbal bag. The other manufacturers have similar priced packages.
