are we talking vintage or modern a's and k's?

personally i don't find the modern ones are all that different from one another...

Vintage vs modern could also be compared.

Beauty is in the ear's of the beholder(drummer).

I have sets of crashes,16 and 18's including A's K's an K customs and Saluda mists,all thins,except the K customs which are med thin.I always thought the K's were the quietest,because of the hammering/dark factor and the fact that they are thin,so near feild on the kit they were less bright and sounded cutting and aggressive,but I brought them to a couple of Rock jams and they really cut thru and projected much more than I thought they would,and I think unless you are playing really loud music with no mics they will work well in a variety of scenarios/applications.

Its tonality difference to me, the K's are darker, smokier and more complex where as the A's are brighter and a little more to the point.

Yet again, this is what my ears hear with my A's and K.

I have a pair of very old vintage 14" K hi-hats and when I strike each one separately, they both sound like someone hitting a can of worms.I much prefer my various A pairs and my Zanchis and Super Zyns and Ufips. One sounds like a 14 oz. can of worms and the other sounds like an 18 oz. can of worms. When I play them together they sound like two different sized cans of worms being banged together. Now, I did an experiment. I smoked a couple of cans of worms in my smoker(i didn't know that worms turn white when they are cooked!) and to my surprise my vintage zildjian K. cymbals sound more like smoked cans of worms than regular cans of worms.-----so I guess , yes my K's are more smokey but not dark at all-----they're more like white cans of worms.

Vintage Ks are what you hear on the majority of classic jazz albums. They're darker. If A hats say "chick", K hats say "chup". If you're going for a vintage jazz sound, I'd go old K every single time. What might sound like a can of worms might turn out to be "authentic" once the ear gets educated...?

I don't know about modern As and Ks. Seems like Zildjian is more focused on recreating the old K sound with their Renaissance and Bounce and Over-Hammered lines...

Just imo...

It's not a simple equation.

As a general rule, K's tend to be darker or smokier sounding, and A's tend to be brighter and pingier. But there are lots of exceptions. To my ears vintage A's don't sound anything like modern A's. I frankly would never buy a modern A, meaning one made after the very early '70s. I also have little interest in most modern K's, although we have a few modern K Constinople rides and a pair of kcon hats that are quite nice.

Some A's, especially hand hammered Trans stamps from the late '40s can sound very old K like. Vintage A's and K's, used as jazz cymbals, tend to be dark with a woody sounding stick and a nice wash which doesn't overwhelm the sticking while keeping time. Heaven on earth to a vintage cymbal fan.

Cymbals are made of hardened and tempered molten metal. it doesn't matter whether they are from cast or sheetcut metal----they all start out the same, melted metal containing a predominance of copper, with variations dependent on the origins and formula of that molten metal. Whether they sound good or not is a factor of the specifics of that metal x the specifics of the designer and executor of the specific product realized. The religion around vintage Zildjian K's is just that, a religion. It is a belief system. As a rule Zildjian K's are very fine but in the specific , certain individual cymbals are pretty mediocre. They were whacked out of molten primitive bronze ,in a dirt floor workshop, by some people who may have been peed out of their gills on any given day by too much Raki, the night before, or had a bad day or were otherwise preoccupied----so some cymbals turn out to be mediocre. You can't overcome this variability by brandishing the label Zildjian K in every drummer's face, as though it is a bottle of Heinz Ketchup---totally consistent and predictable.. Zildjian ,themselves have taken s**t for that, with their modern K line but how many drummers doorknock the K religion ,simply by wrote? Cymbals are meant to be listened to not worshipped. In the world of wine there is a study called a blind tasting. In the world of musical instruments there should be a study called a blind listening. That way , the dedicated artisans who laboured to create unheralded treasures will be appreciated for their efforts, not simply cast aside because legions of witless devotees do not notice them because they are too busy slobbering at the altar.