Paiste PST3 14" Hi-Hat

These high-hats are mediocre at best.

For the quality for sound, they're actually very nice! I find Paiste to be a funny cymbal brand as, in my experience, I have no mid ground with the sound in their cymbals. They're either very good or not great. But it's really open to opinion. Right now I only use Sabian cymbals. And sometime Zidjian too. But i did have these cymbals for a while and for sound I was actually impressed, considering they're not the most top tier cymbals by Paiste!

The endurance quality is awful. Truly awful. I hate to be blunt, but in a matter of a year or so, these cymbals started cracking quite viciously! I've heard other cases from other drummers that the very same cymbals started cracking even earlier. Something along the line of 5 or 6 months! Now cracked cymbals aren't always bad...in fact, they can make pretty sweet effects cymbals! But these cymbals just kept getting worse and worse until they were completely bent out of shape, nearly cracked in half and just sounded awful. And I don't use heavy sticks at all! I use 7a or 8a drum sticks and I stay away from nylon tipped sticks, like the plague, as they have a tendency of damaging cymbals and causing cracks and nasty scratchings. These cymbals were a real shame in terms of durability. Not a whole lot can be done with them after they crack because they don't sound very nice afterwords....on the plus side..for a very heavy metal drummer, they sound quite trashy, once cracked and can be used as pretty loud effects cymbals in that way!

This is really my opinion. They're actually really nice sounding cymbals, which is the funny thing about them, considering their dodgy endurance quality...but they're a good starting cymbal and they're pretty affordable too! Overall, they're fine. And usable. Just, in my experience, not for a very long time. But that's open to opinion. :)

I bought these hi hats as replacement for the ones that came with a startone kit (which are bottom of the barrel in terms of sound and feel). I have a lot of experience playing the pst 5 hi hats and these are actually pretty close in terms of sound and feel to what you'd expect from a more expensive set of cymbals. the playing feel is excellent and the sound is perfect for live settings, where the unpleasant overtones of the cymbals will be lost on the mix. I have recorded 3 drum tracks for my band using these cymbals and they sit in the mix pretty well (that being said they don't stack up to even a set of cheap bronze cymbals like those offered by millennium but they will suffice if you have no other option, it's not like anyone other than drummers and engineers are going to notice) overall they are an excellent set of all rounders for the price and definitely worth the buy.