I have not heard any Peavey drums in real life but I've read quite a bit about them. Normally a drum shell has many things going into it like lugs, vent holes, mounting hardware, etc. These things are said to hamper the natural resonance of the shell - therefore the sound of the drum.
Peavey has somewhat omitted this problem by putting the all the hardware on a seperate piece which surrounds the inner "free" shell. The result is lot's of resonance and a nice tone.
But ofcourse the whole drum looks a bit weird and sort of weak. And people are not very into buying something which looks a bit different than what a drum is supposed to look like.
I think the drummers from Eve6 and Grand Funk Railroad play Peavey drums. So, there is nothing really wrong with the sound of it, just personal preferance. I would definately play on one if I planned to purchase it though.