SABIAN 19" AAX X-Treme Chinese

I really like this 19" Sabian AAX X-Treme china cymbal. However, if I were to buy it over again I'd select the 17" size. Honestly, I wanted a dark trashy crash sound, and this cymbal delivers. Loudly. It's actually a little "too" loud, if you can have a cymbal too loud. It overpowers my 16" and 18" Sabian AAX crashes. It's a great cymbal! I would have selected the 17" size if I could buy it again only because I want the cymbal to "blend" in and not overpower my other brass.It's a good cymbal, just remember that it's a huge loud cymbal and you might want to consider the 17" size unless you mainly play 18" and 20" crashes.**UPDATE** I changed my review to 5-stars. After recording my drumset for the past few months, I've noticed that this 19" china is really a great choice. I'm glad I bought the 19" as it has more volume. In my earlier review, I thought the larger size would make the cymbal too loud, and it was too loud to my ears. However after recording my brass w/ my drumset and a band, the larger size adds just enough "oomph" to power though a rock band without being drowned out. Overall, I made a good choice w/ this cymbal. Sounds great. Worth the extra $ for the 19" size.

This Chinese cymbal is perfect for my tastes. It's got a great sustain that is bright and has a long duration, and it's a versatile cymbal. You can hit it towards the edge with a shank for a trashy sound, or if you hit it with the stick flat against the cymbal you can obtain a more metallic sound that you hear with many Zildjian or Paiste China cymbals.And, of course, as an acoustic drummer, my favorite part about any piece of my kit is the volume. My whole kit is loud, but this China really stands out about the rest of the kit. Everyone and their mother can hear this China from my home, even with a light touch. The volume of this China should really preserve it for any drummer. You can lightly hit this cymbal and get the volume of an 18" medium crash at least, so you shouldn't have to hit this hard at all. Should keep it in pretty good shape.

This is, by far, the best sounding china I have ever played. Has perfect sustain, and trashiness, that it just cuts through all of the music amazingly. However, the only downside is that it cracks very easily if played wrong. I only had mine a few days before it cracked, and I was very disappointed. But that's because I had been playing it with the cymbal too tight on the stand. But even after the cracks, it still sounds brand new! Definitely recommend it, but be careful about playing it too hard.