Categories: Cymbals

Sabian 18″ AA Medium Crash Cymbal

If one were to be asked what is the most often used crash cymbal model, regardless of the brand, it would probably be the Medium Crash. Sabian has some in their AA line, and the 18″ is reviewed here. They also have them in the HH line, which have a darker sound. The AA’s are at the bright end of the scale.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: AA
Type: Crash
Style: Medium
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 18″
Metal Work: CNC Hammered, Hand Lathed, Buffed Finish
Weight: 3 Pounds
MSRP: $ 377 USA; Street Price $209
Sabian

The cymbal is lightly hammered, but deeply lathed, and the lathe lines are widely spaced. The bell is also lathed.

The spectrum shows a relatively smooth response between 350 Hz and 6 kHz, afterwhich it delines slowly to 45 kHz. Because of the attenuation beyond 6 kHz, the cymbal has a mellow sound rather than piercing. It has no unusual ringing (audible single frequencies, sounding like a hum), and the overall tonality is neutral. It crashes easily, and also has a nice ride sound, and the bell has a beautiful tone. We also reviewed the Sabian AA Medium Thin Crash, which has a higher pitch, but the same neutral tone. The two cymbals make a great pair.

The Level vs. Time spectrum indicates the peak at 0.2 seconds, and a steady slow decay. “Medium” is the perfect name for this cymbal.

Click HERE to listen to an audio sample, which will include crash (when appropriate), ride, and bell sounds (these are 24 bit, 176.4 kHz wav files, so be sure your sound card is capable of handling these high resolution sound files).

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John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.