WOOD, I like them Natural, stained and with Inlays, Metal are Ugly and cheap!! and they are a super big visual on the bass drum and the kit!!

black, with inlays...

I'm a fan of black hoops with matching inlays or not. I hate metal. Natural wood hoops I can live with, but I'd prefer the appearance of a flat black paint.

Man thats a good question wayne. I definitely think that hoops add to the visual appeal of the kick. I really love the look of natural maple hoops, if I were to build a custom kit I would probably go with a dark stain on the drums against natural maple hoops without inlays (ayotte comes to mind). I think the contrast between the dark and light really pops. I'm not a huge fan of matching stained hoops though, it looks ok when you're dealing with natural colored stains like maple, mahogany, walnut etc, but I think it looks tacky when the stain is blue or green etc., some midranged overseas kits come to mind. However, on a sparkle wraped kick I would want black hoops with a matching sparkle inlay, I just think it looks sharp and classic vintage.

I like natural hoops with an inlay. One thing I have noticed is that the bass hoops have a pretty big impact on the apparent condition of the drum kit. I have a kit that is in great shape except for the hoops.....because of that the whole kit looks like it is in rough condition, haha! I don't know why but I think it is similar to dirty wheels/tires on a car.....

For vintage drums:

I like black-painted wood hoops with the routed channel for inlays. I like the inlays to match the wrap -with the exception of black wrapped drums, on which I prefer silver sparkle inlays.

If the set is a natural wood finish, then I prefer un-routed hoops that are of the same wood and color as the finish of the drums.

For modern drums:

Anything goes!

Depends.

For sound, I have to say I threw an old steel MIJ 20" hoop on a Ludwig kick, and it was the business for years. Now it has a wooden hoop and doesn't have quite the same bite and presence. Ditto my 18" FT conversion, which I found I like with the metal hoop on the front head, rather than the wood hoop I bought (sigh).

Patrick

I like black wooden hoops with matching inlay for classic finishes or wraps.

I got drums in this finish and I really like the matching hoops: http://www.sonor.com/pbas/Sonor_FE/sonor/english/kategorie.html?a-quicklink-n_katid=902

I'm not a fan of metal hoops, but they seem to work on my Sonors.