Tama PMM146 Starphonic Maple

I bought this snare. To be honest the buy was quite impulsive. I already have a SLP walnut snare. I think that one compared to this in sound are quite similar. This has a lot of attack and smack when tuned high. I mainly use it for recording, it fits very well in electronic music like drum-n-bass and dubstep, or in funky/jazzy things. Other genres would probably work nice as well. The rimshots are not as pronounced as with my SLP snare. This makes this snare more "controlled". It does not have the same snare wire count, though these snares are of better quality - hence this snare is not as snare-wet as the SLP which I really like.

The build quality is top notch all way around. It is made in Japan. It comes with a dampening ring, I'm pretty sure this is used on the demo on this page. That's why the drum is so dry and crisp. I have discarded the ring, instead I use a HD dry head. With this and no dampening the drum sits very nice in the mix - short clean sustain, a lot of smack and a pleasant body.