I wanted an aluminum snare and I had a chance to try this in the store and compare it with many other aluminum snares from Yamaha, Sonor, Tama, Drumcraft, etc... This won out over all of them.
Aesthetics are subjective, but in my opinion this looks very classy, no imperfections and build quality is perfect. As far as aluminum snares are concerned, this is actually among the heavier ones.
Throw-off is fairly classic but very smooth. You should still pay attention if you don't want the "smack" in the middle of a quiet part.
Comes with genuine Remo Ambassadors top and bottom and 22 strand wires. This combo is usually not my cup of tea and will definitely experiment with a thicker batter head and fewer strands of wire. As is, the sound is lively and surprisingly full, with a snappy attack and a fairly prominent wire sound. The Ambassador really lets you hear all the harmonics and I use a little dampening to bring them to a level I like.
I should also mention that the tuning lugs have some kind of built-in tuning retention mechanism which works quite well. They rods become stiff to turn quite soon, but then remain at more or less the same stiffness going forward. I found this actually helps with tuning as I get more control and the turning remains smooth, with no slipping or jerking.
It's not a cheap drum by any means, but it's actually just as expensive as other similar sized aluminum snares from other big brands, which is impressive coming from a smaller company building it in Italy instead of overseas.
