Sabian AA

This is the Sabian AA 16 inch medium crash and I've had the chance to use it for the last few hours and I must say that I am truly truly impressed wit...

AA cymbals that we talked about being fairly bright, AA was the first series of cymbals that Sabien introduced when we started back in the end of 1981...

* An incomplete list: Zildjian A, K, A Custom, K Custom; Sabian AA, AAX, HH, HHX; Paiste 2002, Signature; Meinl [ask a Meinl guy, don't know their products well, but definitely not HCS]. A 16" to 18" would be the most versatile size. Do not waste your money on "beginner" cymbals. You will delay your ability to own the good kind by months or years, depending on how often you can buy cymbals - for most of us, that's not often.

For ride cymbals and hats, I think the Zildjian A and Sabian AA are still the gold standard. They just work, they make the sounds you expect, and engineers know how to mix them well.

A good, middle-of-the-road cymbal like Sabian AA, Zildjian A or the Meinl Classics (I think that's their comp for A and AA) would be a good place to start for the genres you list. But it really depends on you. But... again... buy used.

Sounded better than they should have, and cost me $50 together - the clock came into my local music store with a broken mechanism, and they put just the cymbal out for sale. Protip, broke young drummers: if your hi-hats are ass, and you have a chance to buy half a decent set of hi-hats, like a single A or K Zildjian, Sabian AA or AAX, Paiste 2002 like OP has here, etc., you'd be *shocked* what an upgrade it is to get only a new top hat.

Go used!. Especially hi hats and rides, they don’t go bad and they don’t typically get damaged unless dropped. The good stuff I see used all the time are. Hi hat: Zildjian New Beats, Sabian AA, Sabian AAX.

With regard to cymbals, I wouldn't change a thing about my A Zildjian/K Zildjian/Z Zildjian/Sabian AA/Sabian B8 Pro/Wuhan Lion/Wuhan S Series/Wuhan Western Traditional cymbal rig, other than to add a Meinl or a Paiste to it for maximum cognitive dissonance. The only time brand loyalty makes any sense is when mounting new hardware and making sure everything fits. Even then, hardware is extremely modular, and my (yes, North) hardware rig serves all my needs. I do understand brand loyalty for things like sticks and heads, because those are some of the most personal choices we make for gear, but even then, that tends to be model loyalty more than brand loyalty.