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ddrum claims the diagonal seams and cross-laminated plies make its shells some of the strongest around

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• Review

Moving on to the shell fittings, this is a mixed bunch. ddrum is a relatively new company and tooling up for all the metal parts is a huge investment. The company seems to be fairly early in the process, with a mixture of generic metal parts with ddrum exclusives.

The latter includes the nicely proportioned, classic twin post, short tube lugs. We also liked the handsome, enclosed die-cast bass drum claws with elaborately moulded rubber grommets. The lugs also have quality rubber isolation washers.

The other generic fittings are perfectly adequate, although we have one or two minor comments. For example, the wing nuts on tom holder and floor tom legs have squared-off, sharp-ish inner edges. Uncomfortable and old fashioned, these could do with rounding off. Similarly, the small tom resonance mount bracket has an inside edge which is quite sharp.

On the plus side, this bracket has a 90 degree angle cross section, ie: it's not a simple flat plate, and is thus far more rigid. The memory locks for the floor tom legs are not the most integrated of designs. Hoops are 2.3mm chrome plated, triple flanged steel, not always perfectly circular, but again we must emphasise this is not at all unusual at this price level and not something to lose sleep over.

The 14"x7" snare is fitted with the improved, new edition Nickelworks Piston strainer (only available on the two Dios M snares). It's a top quality strainer with a delightful action. It's a shame its reputation suffered when early models occasionally proved flimsy. This problem has now been rectified and the throw-off should prove wholly reliable.

Hands on

On taking the mighty Dios for its road test, it did fine, and the drummers in the audience said it cut through well. The kit wasn't miked, so we took a chance and played it straight out of the boxes, ie: with both intact heads on the bass drum and no damping whatsoever.

One advantage of 20" deep kicks (although a pain to transport) is that the extended depth means the note is so low you don't need damping or a cut-out, at least so long as you're not miking up.

It's a joy to play the drum au naturel. And it sounded suitably cannon-like. Hard edged but beefy. Although we only used the 12" and 14" toms, they were everything you want from a maple kit. In truth most decent contemporary kits sound pretty much alike. They all tend to have straightsided maple shells with 45 degree edges, so it's impossible to say much new about the sound.

We were grateful ddrum had shipped the kit with Remo coated Ambassador-style UT batters, as this is the sound we always come back to - bright and punchy with an underlying warmth, the shallow tom sizes giving immediacy and clout once they were tweaked up a bit.

These Taiwanese Remos sound virtually the same as the American ones, although the metal hoops are clinched not poured.

We also enjoyed playing the 13"x7" snare. You get more body and a tubbier tone with a 13"x7", a tone which many prefer. The only drawback with this size is you get less of a cross stick sound, yet rim shots are just as penetrating. Because the Dios is only available in two configurations, if you're not keen on a 13"x7" snare, you're a bit stuck.