A really nice balance of responsiveness, sensitivity and warmth, without too many overtones and ringing, so that you can often get away without any dampening. I think it suits any genre of music, but obviously it is a little less responsive for jazz, (although I do play jazz with it.) I wanted to try this out as I prefer not to dampen the heads and in this regard I'm happy with how it sounds when recorded. It's also easy to tune and get the best out of the snare. So far it appears very durable, after three months of regular playing it is only showing minimal signs of use. Highly recommend and I would buy again.