My first kit was a cheap asian Royce kit. Never knew what wood it was
Slapped some pinstripes/ambs on toms, pinstripe/PS3 on kick and coated amb/snareside amb on snare. I have to admit, while it was far far away from being a middle line kit, it served me well. Gigged with it, recorded with it, and sounded good.
I upgraded all hardware though, the one that came with the kit was just too crappy
Bottom line is, they are drums, and they serve their purpose
Yeah, I use it for practicing mostly, and some recordings too. I have a Zildjian ZBT cymbals set also. It isn't a pro kit, but at least I have a complete drumset. Check it out here. It ended up sounding pretty good imo.
And those heads I used when I recorded are like 3 years old. Still using those