27 Best Drum Sets 2025

Sonor AQX Studio

The Sonor AQX Studio (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is one of the highest-quality beginner drum sets available.

The way the shells are constructed makes them sound incredible, and they have a seriously impressive tuning range.

You get a set of Sabian’s SBr entry-level cymbals with this set and a full set of Sonor’s 1000 Series hardware.

It’s another to-tier beginner kit for new drummers that want to take things seriously. However, it’s the most expensive beginner kit that I’ve mentioned so far. It will be a tricky decision to get this kit, as there are great intermediate maple kits that cost less.

With that being said, it’s a drum set that comes with everything you need to get started, and that makes it more valuable than many intermediate sets that only come as shell packs.

One last thing to mention is that it’s another set that offers studio shell sizes, meaning the floor tom is 14”, and the kick drum is 20”.

Shell material: Poplar

Included hardware: Snare stand, hi-hat stand, crash cymbal stand, kick pedal

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 14” floor tom, 20” kick drum

Best Intermediate Drum Sets

Yamaha Stage Custom Birch

The Yamaha Stage Custom Birch (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is the ultimate intermediate kit, in my opinion. It’s one of my favorite kits from Yamaha, purely due to how much value it offers and how affordably it’s priced.

This kit has birch shells that make it sound very tight and punchy. It’s the ideal option to use for live gigs with its lively tones, and you’ll find plenty of drummers using it in professional settings.

I’ve even seen this kit being used in a few professional recording studios. That’s how good it is, and you’d never expect it to cost less than $1000 when hearing it being played.

Its limitations come in the shell hardware. While the YESS mounting system for the toms is incredible, all the other components don’t match up to what you get with professional sets. You can feel that the kit is inferior to those due to it feeling a bit flimsier in its design.

With that being said, I strongly recommend this set to any drummer looking to buy the most cost-effective drum set out there. This is the kind of set to mix with pro-tier cymbals to get an overall professional kit sound on a bargain deal.

Shell material: Birch

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

PDP Concept Maple

The PDP Concept Maple (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is a fantastic intermediate maple drum set to consider. This is the option that many drummers go for when they want DW quality, but they’re not prepared to spend the higher price for a proper DW kit.

PDP kits are made with many of the same parts as DW sets, and you’ll find those making this particular set perform very well.

The European maple shells offer warm and rounded tones, but you’ll find that they have plenty of attack as well. The toms tend to sing and then get out of the way a lot quicker than what you’ll hear from the other maple kits in this price range. It’s one of my favorite things about these Concept Maple sets.

The DW-inspired components are the True-Pitch tension rods and the MAG throw-off on the snare drum. Both these hardware components make the kit feel pristine.

You’ll find a lot of drummers getting the 7-piece version of this set, as that one tends to be the most popular. However, the 5-piece version is the perfect option for drummers looking for a standard setup.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Pearl Decade Maple

The Pearl Decade Maple (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is another compelling option in the intermediate maple drum kit segment. These drums have some of the best tones I’ve heard from a kit at this price.

The maple shells produce warm and musical tones from the toms, while the bass drum sounds incredibly thick and punchy. The included snare drum is decent enough, but it’s the toms and bass drum that stand out here.

The shells have mini lugs that are inspired by Pearl’s high-end Reference Series. They don’t have too much effect on the sound, but I love how they look on the toms and snare drum.

If you’re a fan of Pearl’s Export Series kits, the Decade Maple essentially has the same design, but it sounds so much better.

The only big drawback for me is the way that the toms are mounted. The Opti-Loc suspension mounts are great in the fact that they allow the drums to resonate, but they get in the way when you’re trying to replace the drumheads on the toms.

It’s never a simple thing of removing the head and placing a new one. You need to remove the Opti-Loc mounts too, as they’re attached to the tension rods.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Tama Superstar Classic

The Tama Superstar Classic (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) has been one of the most popular intermediate drum sets since the late 70s and 80s. You’ll see hundreds of pictures of rock drummers from that era playing Superstar kits with large tom sizes.

The kit has been simplified a bit, but it’s now become a highly versatile option to use for almost every style of music.

It’s competing with all the other maple kits in the price segment, so you’re spoiled for choice in this area. The thing that I specifically love about this Superstar kit is that it has intuitive tom mounts.

The rack toms are easy to position in any way you feel comfortable, and that makes a big difference compared to the other kits, where getting them in place may take a bit longer.

The sound quality is mostly the same as the other maple options in this segment, so it’s the hardware that you need to look at. It’s also the finish options, and there are some fantastic ones on offer from Tama.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Mapex Armory Studioease

The Mapex Armory Studioease (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is an incredible intermediate drum set that is packed with value.

The shells are a mixture of birch and maple, so you get punchy sounds that are rounded out by the warm qualities of the maple plies.

The included snare drum has a steel shell, so it has plenty of bite and volume. The mixture of the snare with the rest of the kit gives you a setup that sounds fantastic in live settings.

I also love the finish options given to you with these Armory sets. All of them are classy yet very artistic.

Another thing to mention is that this is one of the few intermediate drum sets that has the rack toms mounted to cymbal stands. If you’re someone who prefers that setup, you’ll love this kit a lot more than the other intermediate options.

Shell material: Birch/maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” and 12” rack toms, 14” and 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Best Professional Drum Sets

Pearl Masters Maple Complete

The Pearl Masters Maple Complete (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) has been one of the go-to professional drum sets for most of the 21^st century. You’ll find this kit being used by professional drummers all over the world, and it’s regularly used as a house kit in various gigging venues.

It has two great things going for it. Firstly, the tones are amazing. Pearl’s 6-ply maple shell construction gives these drums a good balance of sensitivity, projection, and sustain. You get warm sounds that are full of energy and power, no matter how high or low you tune the drums.

The second great aspect is the shell hardware. Pearl’s SuperHoop II counter hoops are pristine hoops that round the tones out fantastically. They keep the drums in tune, and they look good while doing it.

The one area that some drummers don’t like about this kit is the OptiMount tom suspension system. Tom mounts have often been one of the great frustrations of drummers that play Pearl kits, and I don’t think the brand gave us the best design with these tom mounts.

They can be a bit frustrating to set up, but you won’t actually think about them too much once the kit is ready to play.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Ludwig Classic Maple Fab

The Ludwig Classic Maple Fab (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is a fantastic kit for drummers that want both high-quality sounds and a bit of historical goodness. Ludwig’s Classic Maple sets have been go-to options for decades, and these drums were first made seriously famous by Ringo Starr and The Beatles.

This is just a simple 3-piece shell pack, but each drum sounds huge. You get so much resonance from each shell, and the tones just get bigger and bigger as you play down the drums.

It’s the perfect kit for styles like heavy rock and country. This is also a great set to have in a recording studio.

You’re going to need a second snare drum stand to mount the rack tom, and I know many drummers that find that arrangement quite uncomfortable. So, this may not be the kit for you if you fall into that camp.

However, the 7-ply maple shells mixed with Ludwig’s Radio Frequency Shell Technology make these drums just too good to pass up.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 13” rack tom, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

DW Performance Series

The DW Performance Series (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is another highly popular pro drum set option. These Performance Series kits are heavily inspired by DW’s flagship Collector’s Series line, but they have more standardized setups to keep the costs a bit lower.

They look and sound just as good as the higher-end kits, which is why they’re such a highly regarded option for professional drummers.

The HVX maple shells offer a wide range of tones and nuances. You can tune these drums in any way you want to, and they’ll even sound brilliant with just the stock drumheads.

I’m also highly impressed by the shell hardware you get on these drums. The turret lugs are the first thing that everyone notices, but it’s DW’s Graduated Counter Hoops that get me excited. They do a great job of boosting the attack and sustain of each drum.

I just wish these kits came with a bass drum resonant head that had a port hole. It would finish the package off quite nicely, and it would stop drummers from needing to buy a new reso head when they want to use this kit for recording and live gigging settings.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 10” and 12” rack toms, 16” floor tom, 22” kick drum

Mapex Saturn Evolution Workhorse

The Mapex Saturn Evolution Workhorse (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is a highly unique professional drum kit option, as its shells are a mixture of walnut and birch.

This combination gives the toms a very distinct modern sound. They have a good amount of sustain, but they’re also punchy enough to get out of the way quickly if you want them to.

These drums offer several of Mapex’s best hardware qualities. The SONIClear bearing edges ensure that they’re very easy to tune, and the Sonic Saver hoops fall somewhere in between triple-fanged and die-cast qualities.

The drums have plenty of resonance due to floor toms having special legs and all the shells having Mapex’s Nodal Line Air Venting scheme.

This kit is a work of art, and I’m quite surprised that it doesn’t cost more than it does. The only thing that disappoints me a bit is the finish options available. The ones you can choose are fantastic, but I wish there were a few more exciting ones.

Shell material: Birch/walnut

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 10” and 12” rack toms, 14” and 16” floor toms, 22” kick drum