Sabian 18″ AAX X-Plosion Crash Cymbal

With the high sound volume levels being used in concerts performed by today’s rock groups, there is definitely a need for crash cymbals that will cut through the thousands of watts in the guitar amplifiers, not to mention an auditorium full of screaming fans. Such cymbals have to be bright with a full bodied, piercing sound. Sabian’s X-Plosion crash cymbals serve this purpose. This review covers the 18″ X-Plosion Crash, which would be classified as a medium weight. The “X-Plosion Fast Crash”, which is covered in a separate review, would be equivalent to medium-thin.

Specifications

  • Manufacturer Line: AAX X-Plosion
  • Type: Crash
  • Style: Medium
  • Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
  • Diameter: 18″
  • Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Machine Lathed, Brilliant Finish
  • Weight: 3 Pounds
  • MSRP: $ 377 USA; Street Price $225
  • Sabian

This cymbal has very light hammering, is lathed with lines moderately close together, and has an unhammered, unlathed bell. The crash sound is very bright and loud, and the bell cuts through as well. You can ride this cymbal, although there are better choices for that purpose.

sabian-18-inch-aax-x-plosion-crash-photo-closeup

The spectrum shows a slowly rising response to 8 kHz, then declines to 50 kHz. There are large peaks at 420 Hz, 1.6 kHz, and 2.7 kHz that give the cymbal its tonality. The decay occurs throughout most of the spectrum over the 2 second audio sample.

sabian-18-inch-aax-x-plosion-crash-spectrum

The Level vs. Time spectrum shows a loudness peak at 0.17 seconds.

sabian-18-inch-aax-x-plosion-crash-level-vs-time

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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