I've always found that, for what you pay for it, Tama offers great products, whether it be kits, hardware, pedals, whatever. Yamaha and DW make fantastic stuff, but they are expensive$$$.
Tama's also tend to be a little heavier and have a very deep and powerful sound relative to kits of about the same price, but a lot of that depends on the heads you get too. If a thick and heavy sound is what you are after, go for a thicker and heavier shell and get some descent Remo heads, maybe pinstrips, but if you want a really powerful tone Remo makes some heads which are black in colour (one type is called Ebony I think), very thick and heavy duty and sure to shake the walls
My beef with a lot of drums is that they sound wimpy and kinda shallow, cymbals too. Sabian cymbals are kinda wimpy, but great for recording or close micing which doesn't need much projection. If you want a powerful sound from your cymbals stick with Zildjuan, and if you got the cash, either the brutal Z or the very bright Avedis types of Zildjuans. You can find all this sort of stuff on EBay for like half the price (or much less if you're lucky) as you would pay in the stores.
A word of advice, if you can avoid buying new stuff you'll save a shitload of money, or you'll get twice the drum kit for the same amount of money. New drums, like new cars, cost way way more than used ones and the used one's are every bit as good because drum shells don't wear out (and neither do descent cymbals which haven't been severely mistreated), they always sound just as good (or better) as the day they were made. They may not look as pretty, the colour may be not be as cool as the new stuff you see in the stores, but looks aren't everything, music is blind.
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