Bought a DTXP III two weeks ago - first observations / experiences
2004-03-12 by bongokonzelmann
Just two weeks ago I purchased my DTXP III (Standard) set in a shop in the Netherlands (Interdrum) which is quite close to where I live in Germany. Here are some of my observations / experiences I made with it: - First of all my former kit was a DTXP I so I skipped the second generation. I therefore probably mention points that already became a standard feature in the II series. Bear with me. - The rack and ist fittings impress me. Visual appearance is much better and seems less sensitive for scratches. Major progress has been made through the fact that the surface of all bars now is slightly lined (good English?) so that all the pad holders can be adjusted much better and rarely move even under hard beats - I had some problems with cross-talking between hi-hat and snare and in the end went for and old snare-stand with a Yess tom-holder on top where the three zone snare pad is mounted to - I´m pretty keen to learn about the new stand-alone type hi-hat. Will have the chance to try it within the next two weeks and then will come back with a report ... - The sounds never really were a problem for me. Even in the DTXP I environment I always found a way to create a kit with sounds that came close to my favourite. It sometimes needed a bit tweaking here, a bit layering there, playing around with tuning, decay and all the rest of it. In the end it was more a matter of spending some time and patience but it always worked out well (don´t forget to save ...) – The tom and snare sounds are top, kick and snare need some attention, the cymbals are now a bit better – especially in the Ride area - but probably the hihat sounds are still the most critical ones. Especially in a band practising or live situation I always perceived them as too quiet compared to other sounds on the kit. They do not really get through. - The Kick pad is much better than the old DTXP I had. Larger pad, more natural feel (rebound, dynamics) - The manual I always found a bit confusing and not really clear in its descriptions, also a bit far away from normal user practice. Without this forum some issues would have turned out into a nightmare ... - I´m missing a fourth brace on the right arm (floor tom side) as most of us I think at some point of time will consider to mount a further cymbalholder (2nd crash) - Recently there was a question in this forum about the III series capability to fold/unfold the rack. Well, that´s somewhat tricky if you are inspired by that little video animation that Yamaha posted on their American website. If you expect the rack to really fold wind-screen-wiper like you´ll be disappointed. Actually you have to do it the hands-on DIY way: Loosen 6 screws on the left, and the 4 ones on the right side that adjust the arms and foot stands. If you then also wanted to „fold“ the tom pads and cymbal holders you would have to loosen further screws. This second step I think rarely somebody will take as it is quite time consuming to find the „ideal“ position for all the pads and you would not really want to repeat that every few days - The cables are now marked and clipped together, much better and easier to setup after transport - Just a remark on earphones: After having tried a number of different types (Philips, Sennheiser, beyer-dynamic) I came back to my beloved beyer-dynamic DT990s. I think that the sound quality is much more dependent on the quality of the earphones or PA-speakers than on any other component following the brain´s output socket. It also makes a huge difference how effectively the earphones close up the ears against outside noise – without heating up the inner side. The DT990 really does a great job in both ways. However they are not the cheapest ones (a good deal would be 150-170 USD) That´s it for the moment. -Bongo-