How does the drum kit sound on your rig?

Mine Sounds exactly like a drum kit is there in the room. I should know because I have a drum kit also. You need an appropriate recording like Sheffield labs drum tracks as most drums are compressed on the majority of commercially available music.

This is if course loud, very very loud and dynamic, very very dynamic but that is exactly how a drum kit sounds. Timbre is extremely important.

A drum kit is the ultimate test of a system

Johnnyb53

I have all those discs you mention and indeed David Garibldi is awesome.

I expect you likely enjoy Dennis Chambers. He does an amazing job on Roots and Grooves by Maceo Parker.

ToP

To get the full effect of a live kit in-room, I think I'd need about 2,000 wpc driving a pair of Wilson Alexandrias or equivalent from YG, Magico

A pair of ATC 100 ASL and an ATC 0.1/15 is more than sufficient in most home environments. Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Lenny Kravitz uses a pair ATC 200ASL and I have heard that a pair of Barefoot MM27 will also do the job (according to legendary producer and drummer Butch Vig).

Those who completely dismiss the need for such capabilities in a Hi-Fi are missing the point. It is about "High - Fidelity" which means that the setup can handle anything with the greatest fidelity. Anything less is guaranteed to deliver oodles of distortion even at modest levels when playing a "high-fidelity" recording (one that has the dynamic range of real instruments rather than compressed crap)

The big challenge with dynamics and percussion is "compression and distortion" - in order to sound realistic the system must not give out at the usual maximum of around 95 dB (mediocrity). Thermal compression and system distortion often rise exponentially above 95 dB meanwhile a drum set plays up to 110 dB cleanly....

Good Sounding Drums:
Any Tom Petty album
Jim Capaldi sounds great on "Living on the outside"
Police (Synchronicity in particular)
Harvey Mason on Weekend in LA Live (George Benson)
Harvey Mason on Homage to Duke (Dave Grusin)
Dennis Chambers on Maceo Parker Roots & Grooves Live
Duran Duran Strange Behaviour (particularly Steve Ferrone's chops on Meet El Presidente - the 12 inch version was marketed to night clubs and is less compressed than radio friendly versions)

FWIW: Most drums available on commercial sold music are compressed because most systems can't handle the truth (that includes most systems here too). This is one of the principal reasons recorded music rarely sounds realistic (it lacks the dynamic range of the real thing).

The Police Certifiable Blu-ray has an alternate angle just on Stewart Copeland for two tracks. Sound quality is good (not great) but it is fun to watch.

I don't think any home system is going to really do drums. I mean the REAL THING.

If this is true, then why is there so much effort expended on high resolution audio (24 bit) and high quality vinyl if any home system cannot even replicate a drum kit? What is the point of all this pursuit of high resolution (16 bit to 24 bit equates directly to increased dynamic range) if it cannot be delivered to the listener?

The new formats of high resolution audio allow us to hear what the sound engineer can hear in the studio - why then does this not demand that the amp/speakers be capable of the same level of quality?