I don't get it.

A & F is the most pretentious drum company. And those hats sound worse than the cymbals included with beginner kits and probably cost $700.

Sometimes, you need to do the "Is it good or is it stupid" test.

This is definitely stupid.

But I guess A & F is happy. Now they have $700 hi hats to go with their $15,000 4 piece kit.

Ridiculous.

A cut and paste from the You Tube page description is below. A & F is really proud of themselves, aren't they? And yes, my guess at a price of $700 was spot on! Who in their right mind would pay more than $5 for these pieces of garbage? I know everyone has different tastes, but in all seriousness and objectivity, can anyone honestly say those hi-hats sound any better than the brass, beginner hats included on a budget kit?

Sabian is the perfect collaborator for A & F. Now that can take their "We are unbound by rules" mantra and play their "sick" and "vibey hats, brah" for all the pretentious A & F fanboys.

You Tube Description:

MAKING HISTORY!!!

FiIRST TIME brass is tempered, formed, circled, and hand hammered into cymbals.

FIRST TIME a Cymbal company and a Drum company collaborate on Cymbals.

FIRST TIME 2 companies in our industry introduce a series of instruments together under a new brand.

And so it begins....

We are excited to introduce for the first time ever, a full line of instruments designed and created by SABIAN and A&F Drum Co. called the ANKH!

ANKH-/äNGk/ noun An object or design resembling a cross but having a loop instead of the top arm, used in ancient Egypt as a symbol of new life, and now chosen to be the symbol that represents the instrument collaborations of SABIAN and A&F Drum Co.

Our first offering in the ANKH Instrument Series is a limited series of Brass(14”&16”) and Bronze(16”) Hi Hat creations, exclusively curated and designed by SABIAN and A&F Drum Co., for YOU!!!

-ANKH Brass Hats-

Designed by our very own Ramy Antoun and SABIAN's legendary Mark Love. The first ever of their kind, Ankh brass hats have HUGE BELLS, are tempered, formed, circled to size, and hand hammered to shape at the sabian factory in Meductic, Canada. Sold ala cart so you can mix and match between MEDIUM and THIN thicknesses.

A sonic departure from the norm by every means, these hats are dry, low fi, warm, and vibeyyyyyyy!

-ANKH Bronze B20 Hats-

Also designed Ramy and Mark and also with HUGE BELLS. We started with Sabian's exclusive B20 bronze casting, heated, cupped, circled to size and hand hammered to shape at the sabian factory in Meductic, Canada

The sound is as pure and Hi-Fi as it gets with the added feature of a large Ride Bell for even more creative inspirations!

-LIMITED-

The ANKH series Hi Hats are limited to a production of 75 total pairs per month, due to the amount of time, care, mastery, and effort it takes to make these instruments. Compared to the 10k plus HH sold globally per month , that’s a tiny number of HH lol!!!

-ANKH Pricing-

14” Brass Thin Single Hat...$299.50

14” Brass Med Single Hat...$299.50

16” Brass Thin Single Hat...$349.50

16” Brass Med Single Hat...$349.50

16” Bronze Matched Pair...$699.00

-Purchasing-

ANKH instruments will exclusively be available through all Sabian and A&F Dealers, so call your local shop to see when they are coming!

The first batch of 75 pairs are already heading to the following shops:

1-Drum Center of Portsmouth in New Hampshire, USA

2-Ikebe Music in Tokyo, JAPAN

3-Timpano Music in Montreal, CANADA

4-Philadelphia Drum Shop in PA, USA

5-Servette Music in Geneva, SWITZERLAND

6-Boston Drum Center, in Massachusetts, USA

AND you can call your local dealer to place orders for July-December!

Well yeah, 700 bucks might be a bit too much.

agree with mr v. A & F are laughing all the way to the bank. theyve really creamed off the "easier" to reproduce basic drum designs of the pre-swing era---single tension, large size, funky looking---and the whole tube lug fantasy. the shells on the snare drums have no formed bearing edges, the lugs are crude , and they score off the whole earthy vibe of easy-to-produce-funkiness. get the look and market it. i have a friend who bought a couple of snare drums from them. the parts move on the shell : there's no stability to the turret design. same in this hi hat video. the mushy playing masks any detailed perception of the sound. they look good, and for sure brass is a cheaper , more readily-available alloy and can be marketed in that A &F over-priced way as a new hip thing , but you dont actually get to hear anything in a precise way. that's A & F all over. their base in austin is a small carpeted room crowded with big drumsets, that the old acid-toothed beards-with-berets ( the A and F new vintage entrepreneurs---it is austin after all ) lurk around like hopeful vultures. naff in the extreme. they really cream off the unwitting . see their prices. what you pay for what looks old, but is essentially cheap to produce. welcome to the new drum marketeer.

Come on dude. I’m having a hard time believing you’re a 90yo jazz drummer. That’s poser talk with a capital Soul Patch.

AND THIS IS THE VINTAGE CYMBAL SECTION.

I think you got half of that right.

https://soundcloud.com/jda56

The rest didn't seem to be English

"Who in their right mind would pay more than $5 for these pieces of garbage? I know everyone has different tastes, but in all seriousness and objectivity, can anyone honestly say those hi-hats sound any better than the brass, beginner hats included on a budget kit?"

These cymbals sound like interesting effects hats, but they are not my cup of tea at all. And at $700, a pair they seem way overpriced. But I have to completely disagree with your suggestion that they don't sound any better than the cheap brass hats on some beginner sets. They have a refined and complex sound that it goes way beyond that of any cheap starter brass hats, not to mention most B8 cymbals I've heard. These have a very distinctive sound that some folks might find appealing. To me the sound might work for some very eclectic new music. That doesn't mean you or I should love them or even like them. But your suggestion that they sound like cheap starter brass hats makes me wonder how many cheap brass hats you've actually heard in your life. I've certainly never heard any that sounded 1/10 as good. And just to reiterate, these hats don't really do anything for me, but they sure don't sound like $5 garbage.

Ordinarily I'm all for funky, dark, dry cymbals. But those are just bad. It's startling how, near the end, he hits the B20 version a few times, and how much better they sound.

Wow some real hate going on here. I expected them to sound really bad but they’re actually pretty good sounding. The brass aren’t what I would call an everyday instrument but good nonetheless. The bronze are cleaner sounding for sure.