Categories: Cymbals

Sabian 18″ AAX X-Plosion Fast 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 Fast Crash, which would be classified as a medium-thin weight. The “X-Plosion Crash”, which is covered in a separate review, would be equivalent to medium.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: AAX X-Plosion Fast
Type: Crash
Style: Medium Thin
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 18″
Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Machine Lathed, Brilliant Finish
Weight: 2.8 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. This cymbal is too thin to be used as a ride, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ride it anyway. If you like the sound, ride the heck out of it.

The spectrum shows a slowly rising response to 8 kHz, then declines to 52 kHz. There are large peaks at 420 Hz, 1.5 kHz, and 3.9 kHz that give the cymbal its tonality. If you compare this spectrum to the X-Plosion Crash, you can see that the decline after 9 kHz in the X-Plosion Fast Crash is not quite as steep. The peak at 3.9 kHz in the X-Plosion Fast Crash vs. 2.7 kHz in the X-Plosion Crash gives the Fast Crash a brighter sound, which is what you would expect and want. The decay occurs throughout most of the spectrum over the 2 second audio sample, and it decays faster than the 18″ X-Plosion Crash (see the green Level vs. Time spectrum below).

The Level vs. Time spectrum shows a loudness peak at 0.18 seconds, which is not really any “faster” than the AAX X-Plosion Crash in terms of the peak sound level. That surprised me a bit. However, it’s the overall sound that is important, and the X-Plosion Fast Crash is definitely brighter than the X-Plosion Crash.

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.