I believe Orion's are an all maple shell ,considering the sharp bearing edges combined with a maple shell,bright and will project well, good tuning range, I have owned a mapex armory,maple ,birch shell combination,great intermediate kit, really worth the money,great laquer finishes under1000 dollars,you do need to change out the factory batter heads,now, I traded thatkit for a mapex Saturn v tour edition,maple walnut shells, they came with remo ambassador heads ps3 on bass drum, they tune mid to mid low, lots of bottom end,lots of resonance and sustain,hello moon gel ,me ,I leave them opened, I use them from rock and roll ,to bigband,a bit of tweaking for those gigs, the snaredrum took some getting used to,a bit dark,change out the stocksnares,went with pure sound blasters, at a high reso tuning,that did the trick..great all around kit,here is the bomb,3. Piece kit,1300 dollars, I have a5 piece kit,24,14,13,14,16,1900+ dollars well worth the money. Both kits will sound very different .Saturn's for my taste,there is a used mapex Saturn silver or gold sparkle on the guitar center used mapex drum web.one thing to think about,resale value is not very good.hope this helps

Yes, that helps a lot, thanks. Even though I can get a crazy deal on the Orions, I think im going to look for a Saturn. I,ve never played them before, but I like what drummers say about them....thx again

I have the original Saturns from the last century. Maple and basswood instead of walnut. Really big sounding with lots of sustain like Wayne said. Mine came with oil filled heads back in the day. I put coated Ambassadors on the toms and Remo Controlled Sound on all of the bass drums.

The Orions have fancier finishes and hardware that make them cost more. I've never played them but expect they would be brighter. I love my Saturns and got a killer deal. The guy started at $2400 for two bass drums, two ride toms, two floor toms (16 and 18), snare, tom stand and hi hat stand. From there he started mumbling about how the roof kinda leaked in that part of the store and he could sell them for $2100, $1900, $1400, $1200... When he got to $900 I told him I would pull my van up next to the door.

Probably the only brand new set I've ever bought.