27 Best Drum Sets 2025

Yamaha Recording Custom

The Yamaha Recording Custom is one of the most iconic kits in Yamaha’s acoustic drum range. It’s been on the market for years, but Yamaha did a revamp on the line with the help of Steve Gadd at some stage in the last decade.

It’s a top-quality drum kit that you can use faithfully for live gigs and studio recordings. The birch shells give it plenty of bite, but you’ll find an undeniable sense of musicality from each drum in this set. They’re just so easy to tune, and they sing beautifully when you play them.

The kit comes shipped with Remo Ambassador heads, which are perfect for bringing out all the best tones, so you won’t need to worry about getting new heads when buying it.

The hardware of the set is also immaculate.

The downside is that it’s a bit pricey, but it’s a kit that will last you a lifetime.

Shell material: Birch

Included hardware: None

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

Sonor SQ2 Beech

The Sonor SQ2 Beech is one of my favorite drum kits available. It has such pristine construction quality, and it offers all the musical tones that Sonor’s top drum kits are known to have. It’s a dream drum kit that many drummers wish to own one day.

The beech shells offer a seriously impressive dynamic range. You can tune these drums to sound low and booming, or you can easily tune them to sound resonant for jazz drumming.

You get incredible sustain from each shell, thanks to the 45-degree bearing edges. That sustain is further boosted by all of Sonor’s shell design technology.

These SQ2 sets are typically custom-made, but you can find prebuilt ones all over, and most of them are exactly what certain drummers are looking for.

So, if you’re looking for a premium kit to own for the rest of your life, I highly recommend the beech version of the SQ2.

The downside is the high price tag. You’ll also need to find a good snare drum to go with this set.

Shell material: Beech

Included hardware: None

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

Best Compact Drum Sets

Ludwig Breakbeats

The Ludwig Breakbeats (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is one of the more affordable compact drum set options, but I found that it’s a lot lighter than all the other picks. It has 7-ply hardwood shells that give it plenty of attack as well as sustain.

The 45-degree bearing edges have been hand-sanded, giving this kit a bit more personality than many others in the same price range.

One of the main ideas behind Questlove helping Ludwig create this set was to give drummers that play in busy cities something light that they can take with them on subways. It works perfectly for that use, and you can even get bags to go with it that allow you to carry the entire shell pack over your shoulder.

It’s a fantastic kit for drummers who gig in clubs and pubs to have. It’s incredibly easy to fit it into a tight corner. You just need to get cymbal stands that match the compact energy.

It naturally doesn’t sound as warm or musical as higher-end compact kits, but it does what it needs to do, and it’s one the lightest compact set available.

Shell material: Hardwood

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 10” rack tom, 13” floor tom, 16” kick drum

Tama Club-JAM

The Tama Club-JAM (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is the smallest compact kit that I’m suggesting on this list. It’s a tiny kit, but it has plenty of heart.

The cymbal arm mounted to the bass drum is one of the biggest reasons for this kit having such a small footprint. It’s incredibly useful for drummers who want to eliminate the need for a ride cymbal stand. You just can’t place a 24-inch ride on this arm, as it will take up too much space.

In terms of sound, these drums sound incredibly bright and punchy. They have popping tones that cause them to cut through mixes easily, and you can only comfortably tune them in mid to high ranges.

The shells have a mixture of poplar and mersawa, and the added mersawa wood is what sets this kit apart from the other options in this price range.

With the floor tom being so shallow, it tends to be the hardest drum to tune in the set, but most drummers just end up muffling it a good amount to control the nasty overtones.

You’ll find several different Club-JAM versions from Tama, but I think this standard one will always be your best option.

Shell material: Poplar/mersawa

Included hardware: Cymbal arm

Drum sizes: 13” snare, 10” rack tom, 14” floor tom, 18” kick drum

Yamaha Stage Custom Hip

The Yamaha Stage Custom Hip (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is one of the most unique compact drum sets available, and its innovative design has caused its popularity to skyrocket since it got released.

It’s one of the only compact kits available that has birch shells, which is its first defining feature. The birch wood mixed with the shallow drum shells gives you incredibly punchy tones that are short but very effective.

The next thing that I love about this set is that the bass drum is 20”. Like the DW Frequent Flyer, it’s just shallower to make it more compact. This one is much smaller than the DW kit, though.

The final interesting feature is that the floor tom also has snare wires, making it work as what people have started calling “snoms.” You have a floor tom when the wires are loose, and then you have a deep and thuddy snare drum when the wires are switched on by the throw-off.

Overall, it’s a fantastically unique drum set. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to any drummers looking for toms that resonate and sing. These ones only give you short tones.

Shell material: Birch

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 13” snare, 10” rack tom, 13” floor tom, 20” kick drum

Sonor AQ2 Bop

The Sonor AQ2 Bop (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is one of the most reliable compact drum kits that I know of. It comes in standard bop sizes, meaning the kick drum is 18”, and the toms are 12” and 14”. A lot of jazz drummers love this kit due to its size but it works well for any style of music.

The reason it’s so reliable is that it accurately reflects the high build quality features that Sonor is so well-known for.

I’d say that this is the best compact kit on the market if the DW Frequent Flyer wasn’t in the picture. This set is far more affordable, though, so it’s the best option for drummers who aren’t looking to spend over $1000 on a small drum set.

The maple shells have some seriously sweet and musical tones, and you can tune these drums in a wide range of different tunings to get both high and low sounds.

I’m also a big fan of the snare drum that comes with the kit, and that is something that I typically wouldn’t say about a compact kit.

On top of all of that, the finish options offered with these AQ2 sets are beautiful. They easily compare to the finishes that you get with professional sets.

Shell material: Maple

Included hardware: None

Drum sizes: 14” snare, 12” rack tom, 14” floor tom, 18” kick drum

Tama Cocktail Jam

The Tama Cocktail Jam (compare price on Sweetwater and Amazon) is very unique compact drum set option, as it’s designed a bit differently from how typically drum sets are set up.

The shells are stacked on top of each other to give you the most compact setup possible, and the kit comes with a special kick drum pedal that you need to use to play the bass drum that sits on the bottom of the stack.

Cocktail drum kits have been around for countless years, but they’re not the most popular options out there. I recommend getting this kit if you’re looking for something fun and different.

In terms of tones, it produces very short and bright sounds. You have a bit of control over the tuning, but you’ll mostly get punchy tones that get out of the way quickly. However, you’ll be surprised at how deep the bass drum can sound.

You get two carry bags to transport the set with, which are a great addition to the overall purchase.

One of the benefits of this set is that you can play it while standing up. It’s a bit of a unique experience, but it’s one that I think every drummer should try at some stage.

The downside is that this is the least versatile drum set on this list. It’s good for a very specific purpose, but it will fall short in most other areas.

Shell material: Birch

Included hardware: Unique kick drum pedal

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

What To Look For In a Drum Set

Understanding Different Drum Set Types

It helps a lot when you categorize drum kits into different segments. It will make finding a kit much easier, as you’ll be able to identify what you need for the types of settings you play in and how much experience you have.

The four main categories of acoustic kits are beginner, intermediate, professional, and compact drum sets.

Beginner drum kits are designed for drummers buying their first-ever set. These kits are very affordably priced, and they often come with everything you need to set up and start playing. This includes drum shells, cymbals, and hardware.

Intermediate kits come as shell packs, but they’re made with higher-quality materials than beginner kits. This includes woods like maple and birch. They’re mostly labeled intermediate kits due to their price tags, but all of them are perfectly usable in professional settings.

Pro-tier kits are the best options that drum brands have available. These are made with the best design techniques and materials, and they sound and look incredible. The easiest way to know if you’re getting a pro kit is to look at the price, but you can also tell a pro kit by its shell hardware.

Pro kits have much sturdier and more intricate hardware than intermediate kits, and that often leads them to have better sound quality.

Finally, compact drum sets have shells that are much smaller than what you typically get. The smaller shells lead these kits to have smaller footprints, making them easier to fit in tight spots.

They’re great to get as secondary kits to use at gigs when you aren’t offered much space. They’re also good options for kids to learn on.

Some compact kits have beginner quality, while others are designed in the same way as pro-tier drum sets.

Cymbals

When browsing through different drum sets, you’ll see that some of them come with cymbals included. It’s important to know that only beginner drum kits come with cymbals. You’ll never get them with intermediate, professional, or compact sets unless you buy them secondhand.

You’ll also get two distinct kinds of cymbals with these more affordable kits. The most affordable sets will come with brass cymbals that aren’t branded.

Typically, this includes a single pair of hi-hats and a single crash cymbal. The problem with these cheap brass cymbals is that they don’t sound great. They don’t last very long, either. So, don’t expect to use these cymbals for years to come.

The slightly pricier kits will also come with brass cymbals, but they’ll be higher-quality ones from brands like Zildjian, Sabian, Meinl, and Paiste.

These cymbals are a bit more reliable, and they tend to sound better. They’re still regarded as beginner cymbals, though, as experienced drummers won’t like how they sound.

If you buy a non-beginner kit, you’ll need to purchase cymbals separately.

Something important to note is that you can make an intermediate kit sound like a professional kit if you just pair it with high-end cymbals. This means that it’s often a better idea to spend more on cymbals and less on acoustic drum shells.

A professional set paired with low-quality cymbals will make the entire setup sound bad.

Hardware Stands

Hardware is another set of components that may or may not come with a drum kit. The term you need to look for when buying a kit is a shell pack. If it says it’s a shell pack, it means that you won’t get any stands coming with it.

If it doesn’t, you may get a few cymbal stands, a drum throne, and a kick drum pedal. There are more kits that come with hardware than there are ones that come with cymbals, so grouping those together will lower your options.

Many intermediate kits come with a full set of hardware, and that will end up saving you a good amount of money in the long run.

The best thing about hardware packs is that you can use them for kits of every level. As long as the hardware comes from a major brand, it will be reliable enough to use with high-end drum kits.

A lot of drummers start with beginner or intermediate kits, and then they use the same hardware stands when they upgrade to a high-end kit.

Shell Material

The shell material used to create the drum shells is one of the biggest factors that determines how the drums sound. There are several popular types of wood that drum companies love to use. These include poplar, maple, birch, mahogany, and walnut. There are a few others, but those ones are the most common.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the tones that each wood offers when used to make drum shells:

Poplar – A good amount of low-end with softer mids and highs. It’s a wood that is mostly used for cheaper kits.

Maple – The most popular type of wood. It’s highly versatile, having even tones in every frequency range.

Birch – One of the more aggressive types of woods. It heightens the attacking tones of drum shells, making them sound a lot punchier. It’s a great material to have on a kit that is used for live gigging.

Mahogany – Drums with this wood have warm low-end tones. They sound amazing when tuned low, as the high frequencies are a bit muted. The mid-range frequencies also sound wonderful, though.

Walnut – Another very versatile type of wood. You’ll only find high-end drums made from it, and they sound similar to maple drum sets. The timbre is slightly different, though.

Number of Toms

Every drum kit needs to have a snare drum and bass drum, but the number of toms you get will differ between every option.

We refer to the size of drum kits by the number of shells there are in a setup. A 3-piece kit will only have one tom, while a 7-piece drum set will have five.

The number of toms you need will mostly depend on the style of music you play. For example, most metal drummers need several toms in their setup to be able to play intricate fills with different voices.

On the other hand, jazz drummers rarely need more than two toms, as they like to have minimal setups. A minimal setup does a good job of pushing creativity, which is what you need within that style of music.

A 4-piece would be the sweet spot for most gigging drummers. Having one rack tom and one floor tom allows you to play a wide array of different drum fills, but it also stops your kit from being too big.

It’s a great idea to get a 4-piece kit if you’re looking to save money on a pro-tier set. Having one extra tom can often boost the price by up to $500.

Sizes

The sizes of all the drums will affect how much they resonate, as well as how high or low-pitched they are.

A typical drum set will have shells with the following sizes:

• 14 x 5.5” snare drum
• 10 x 8” rack tom
• 12 x 9” rack tom
• 16 x 14” floor tom
• 22 x 16” kick drum

Shells that are larger than that will sound more open and resonant, while smaller shells will sound tighter and higher pitched.

The other benefit of having smaller shells is that they take up less space. That’s why compact drum kits have the smallest shell sizes available.

Shells with deeper depths are a bit easier to tune, though, so that’s something else you need to factor in.

With all this being said, the sizes of your shells don’t play as much of a role compared to other features you need to look at. So, I wouldn’t stress too much about this specific point. As long as you’re getting a kit that sounds and looks great, you’ll be happy with how big the shells are.

Shell Hardware

When someone mentions shell hardware, it refers to all the metal components that go into keeping the drum shells structured.

On toms, this includes lugs, tension rods, and counterhoops. On a snare drum, it also includes the throw-off, snare wires, and butt plate. For a bass drum, it includes the claw hooks and spurs.

These components don’t have a big effect on how the drums sound, but they play a massive role in determining how the drums feel when you play them.

A good example is triple-flanged and die-cast counterhoops. Some high-end kits have die-cast hoops, which are much heavier than the standard triple-flanged hoops that you get on most affordable kits.

These die-cast hoops round out the tones, but they also add a lot of tuning stability to the shells. They make the drums feel more premium.

Higher-end kits also have much better leg hardware on their bass drums and floor toms. It’s often designed to maximize resonance, making the drums sing for longer.

The lugs and tension rods establish how easy the shells are to tune. They look cosmetic, for the most part, but some drum lugs just hold tension rods much better than others.

Bearing Edges

Bearing edge is another term that you’ll commonly hear when looking at drum kits to buy. When you take the rims and drumheads off a shell, the bearing edges are the top and bottom parts of the shell that are angled.

The bearing edges determine how much contact the shell has with the drumheads, so they play a huge role in establishing certain tonal qualities.

The flatter the angle of the bearing edge, the more contact it will have with the drumhead. That will dampen the tones a bit and give you a dry sound.

Bearing edges with sharper angles offer more sustain. They have a much livelier sound that is characterized by bright and attacking tones.

The most common type of bearing edge you’ll find are 45-degree ones. They’re typically used in most mid-level kits. Especially the ones in the maple shell category.

High-end drum sets will have varied types of bearing edges, and that’s one of the key features that set them apart from each other. With the quality gap being so small between different ones, it’s good to look at the bearing edges to establish what tones they may have.

Mounting Mechanisms

Something to look at with each drum set is how the toms are mounted. There are two main types of setups. One of them has the toms attached to the bass drum, while the other has the toms attached to cymbal stands.

When a bass drum doesn’t have any hardware piece drilled into it to mount the toms, it’s referred to as a virgin bass drum. Many people think that these bass drums produce fuller tones than ones that have toms on them.

However, most drummers end up muffling their bass drums a bit, so the extra bit of tone from not having a hole gets cut out anyway.

It’s more of a personal preference choice on which type of setup you want. You’ll also only get the choice with intermediate and pro kits. All beginner and compact drum sets have toms that mount directly onto the bass drum.

The benefit of having rack toms mounted to cymbal stands is that you have more room to angle them. If you need a very specific angle to feel comfortable, it will be easier to achieve with these.

The downside is that they tend to wobble when you play, as they’re not as stable as toms mounted to the bass drum.

Toms on the bass drum are far more secure in their place, but they have limited mobility on most kits, especially if the depths are bigger than normal.

Drumheads

The drumheads that come equipped on a drum kit that you buy are called stock heads. The unfortunate reality is that most stock heads have very poor quality. This is especially true with drum kits in the beginner, intermediate, and compact segments.

Many professional drum kits come with high-quality drumheads from Evans and Remo, but it’s not a guarantee.

So, it’s a good idea to consider getting new high-quality drumheads when you buy a new drum set. It’s the best way of making the kit sound as good as it possibly can, as the stock heads will always be limiting.

You can also use certain drumheads to change the quality of tones that you get from the set. Sounds often come more from the drumheads than they do from the drums, and you can make an intermediate kit sound like a professional one with some good heads and tuning.

I’ve found that picking good drumheads is vitally important with compact kits, as the smaller shell structures of those often lead to poorer sound quality. Drummers are regularly disappointed with how many compact kits sound, but a good set of drumheads will completely change that.

Snare Drums

When you buy a professional drum set, the chances are slim that it will come with a snare drum. At the professional stage of playing, most drummers obtain standalone snare drums that they love to use.

Drum companies know this, so they don’t include matching snare drums with their high-end sets. It keeps the costs low, and it’s also common that pro drummers won’t even use them.

Stock snare drums often share the same reputation as stock drumheads.

However, this can be a bit disappointing for drummers buying a pro kit that don’t already have a snare drum to use. You’ll find a matching snare drum for most professional drum sets, but I highly suggest looking at different options.

You’ll find better value in snare drums that are part of a standalone series. Look at a few snare drum lines like Mapex’s Black Panther line or Tama’s Starphonic line.

You’ll get snare drums when buying beginner, intermediate, and compact kits. Out of all those segments, compact kits tend to have the lowest-quality snare drums. Drummers mostly just use the toms and bass drum of a compact kit with a larger snare if they’re using the setup for gigging.

Finishes

A finish refers to the colors and patterns that are on the shells of drums. Finishes have zero effect on how the drums sound, but they establish how the drums look.

Most drum sets have several finish options available, so you can establish your personal touch by choosing a finish that you love.

As the prices increase of different drum sets, you’ll start seeing more intricate and artistic drum finishes. The finishes on pro drum sets also look much more pristine. You’ll find that a pure black finish on a $5000 drum set will look far better than a pure black finish on a $500 drum set.

Some brands offer far better finish options than others. Out of all my years of playing on different drum kits, I’ve noted that Tama offers the best-looking finishes on their kits. However, that’s just my opinion, and that’s the beauty of being able to choose different finish options.

Price

Acoustic drum kits aren’t cheap. There’s no getting past that fact. However, most acoustic drum kits will last decades if you take care of them, even if they’re the cheapest sets in a certain brand’s product range.

Here are all the prices that you can expect to see from the different drum kit segments:

Beginner drum sets – $300 to $1000

Intermediate drum sets – $600 to $1500

Professional drum sets – $1500 to $10 000

Compact drum sets – $200 to $2000

Remember that only beginner drum sets will come with everything you need. That means that all the other drum sets may cost even more if you don’t have hardware and cymbals to pair with them.

Something to note is that you can get an amazing professional drum set for around $2500. It could be one that will last you a lifetime. I strongly recommend sticking in that price range if you’re not someone who can easily afford a $10 000 drum set.

Those luxury kits have a very small quality difference compared to the more affordable professional sets, so they’re often not worth the extra thousands of dollars. However, you should get one of them happily if it’s your dream drum kit.

Resale Value

If you get a beginner or intermediate drum kit, the chances are high that you’re going to sell it eventually to buy a better set. To set yourself up for success in that area, I suggest getting a kit from one of the nine brands I’m about to mention below.

The major drum brands have the best resale value, as they’re highly trusted. If you buy a drum kit from a smaller and lesser-known brand, the chances are high that you won’t be able to sell it for as much as it’s actually worth.

Best Drum Set Brands

There are essentially nine big drum kit brands that you’ll find selling kits all around the world. They’re the most accessible brands, and they tend to have the most options in each price segment.

If you don’t see a brand listed here, it just means that the company doesn’t have as wide of a reach.

DW

DW is regularly referred to as one of the top drum kit brands in the world. They’re based in the US, and they only make professional drum sets.

They also have a reputation for being expensive, though. So, they’re not a brand that every drummer will consider when getting a new kit.

Yamaha

Yamaha is a Japanese drum kit brand that has been in the business for decades. They also make several other types of instruments, but their drums tend to be one of their most impressive offerings.

The best thing about Yamaha kits is that you get unparalleled consistency between options in different price ranges.

Tama

Tama is another top-quality drum kit brand from Japan. The brand is arguably most well-known for their Starclassic drum kits, but they have plenty of options in every price range.

One of the best things about Tama kits is the unique finish options available on their intermediate and pro sets. They also have solid hardware.

Pearl

Pearl was the most famous drum brand in the world at one stage due to the popularity of the Export kits. They’ve always been a top player, and the professional Pearl kits have amazing sound and build quality.

Here’s another brand well-known for their solid hardware quality in every kit they offer.

Mapex

Mapex is a slightly less popular drum brand than the other ones, but they’re well-known for offering affordable professional kits.

The best thing about Mapex kits is that they mix woods to create unique sounds from the shells. With other brands, you only get that feature in the higher-end options, but Mapex offer it with their affordable sets.

Gretsch

Gretsch is one of the oldest companies mentioned here. They’ve been making drums for over a century, and many of the modern drum sets have vintage appeal.

The brand is based in the United States, and they make excellent kits that work well for styles like rock and jazz.

Sonor

Sonor is a German drum kit brand that creates luxury drum sets. Like DW, Sonor kits are known to be a bit more expensive than competitor kits, but the build and sound quality you get from a Sonor kit are always superb.

The brand has an impressive range of compact kits as well.

Ludwig

Ludwig is another old drum company. In fact, many of the designs we see today were first started with Ludwig sets in the early 20^th century.

The brand’s drums also have a big vintage appeal, and a lot of modern rock drummers love to play them. However, they work well for all styles of music.

PDP

PDP is a sister company to DW. The idea behind this brand is that you get affordable drums that have designs inspired by high-end DW sets.

They’re made in China instead of the US, which is a big reason why all the kits are more affordable. The PDP Concept Maple kit is one of the most popular intermediate kits that is often used in professional settings.

Top Drum Sets, Final Thoughts

The big difference between professional and intermediate drum sets is the quality of the shell hardware. All pro kits feel far more stable and rigid and then tend to stay in tune much longer. However, you can make an intermediate kit sound amazing with some good tuning.

Every drum kit that I mentioned on this list has the potential to sound incredible. Some just have an easier path to getting there than others. They also look a lot better!