If I could, I'd re-head at least one of my kits with calfskin heads. That aside, the tom in question sounds very open so long as it's (A) Not mounted with the Ludwig-Like Kent mount or (B) is not sitting in a snare stand. This leads me to believe that any contact with the shell or even the hoops, is causing the tom to distort it's shape.
When suspended from a RIMS type mount, the tom sings just fine. So I think that heads are not the issue here. It's the thin shell and the force exerted by having the weight of the tom put on the tiny 3" X 3" square of the mount, or the weight of the tom when sitting in a snare basket. I tried the snare stand in a variety of positions and tensions. At a nearly flat position with no tension on the hoop, it was fairly open sounding. But if I removed the tom from the basket and held it by the top hoop, it rang out even longer.
Just rotating the tom slightly left or right when in the snare basket made a big difference in the *ring time*. The problem here was getting it to stay in the optimum position when playing it. The least amount of movement in the snare basket would cause the tom to choke out.
Again, this tom seems to be highly sensitive to contact, be it on the shell or the hoops. For my satisfaction, a RIMS mount was the best route. I would have used an Optimount but I don't like the fact that it contacts both the top and bottom hoops.
With the RIMS style mount, the only real contact with the drum is the top hoop. For whatever reason, this made the tom open up as if I were holding it by the top hoop.
Yes, it's not as stable and tends to bounce around a bit if you are a heavy hitter, but I am not (or no longer) a heavy hitter and the RIMS mount doesn't really take away from the look that much, IMHO.
just my $0.03 on the subject ;)