[COLOR="DarkRed"]Whichever one sounds better to your ears...:o

Seriously...the Armand might have a higher market value....

But ...nothin' like a good ol' A, either....

so, if the older one's weight is in a good zone, they are both likely very good....[/COLOR]

I agree with Jaye...trust you ears.....but....the Armand ride may be worth more in the future since it was a specific signature model as opposed to a "generic" A Zildjian......something to think about if you are a collector.....

Pick the best sounding one of course, but I couldn't disagree more with the premise that somehow the Armands could be worth more in the future as a collectible.

There's only so many old A's out there, and depending on their vintage in certain cases have been seen to be worth more than anything ever produced from Zildjian today, and they are continually increasing in value as time goes on. And what Zildjian currently makes at best are mass produced cookie cutter cymbals.

So I think that the idea that a mass produced modern A could somehow ever overtake the value of an older classic A is patently ridiculous.

Actually all but the earliest of A's were/are mass produced.....cookie cutter cymbals they are not, since they are all just a bit different from each other....you can get some good modern ones and some real clankers, just like a totally hand crafted, hand hammered cymbal. Now, if you want to talk cookie cutter cymbals...take a look over at Paiste. They have a master cymbal for each model and EVERY cymbal they produce is compared to that master cymbal for that model. If it doesn't sound exactly like the master cymbal it gets scrapped. Now thats cookie cutter cymbals at their best!

The small amount of difference that can be seen from one cymbal to the next is minimal at best, and not that way by design but by chance. In other words they try as much as possible to make them all sound as close to each other as possible.

And as far as the master cymbal thing goes, Zildjian in essence does the same thing.

The bottom line is that vinatge Zildjians have more character. And more character is what results from less mechanized methods of manufacturing.

I really like my Armand ride, also purchased used. When I bought it from Fork's Drum Closet, I was advised that it works great as a crash/ride, and it does!

The character is probably due to the type of metal used more than the method of manufacture. Cast Zildjians have always been B20....Most Paistes over the years have been B8, excepting the Signature series, twenty series, and the 602 series and its derivatives like the sound creation series. Paiste's to me have always seemed a bit too bright sounding, even their B20's over the years. Zildjian's B8 series over the years I've found to be not appealing in sound to my ears at all. A ZBT/ZXT does not sound as good as Paiste's old 505 series or their new PST5 series, but the cast Zildjians (As, Ks and Customs) ave always sounded good to me. The Z series not so much......

Like you just said:

We're talking character difference from old Zildjians to new Zildjians. So the type of metal used is not even an issue here. Just leave Pasite out of this for the time being. We're not even talking about them.

...and Sound Formula! My absolute favorite of all Paiste cymbals.