Although it is not technically a part of the drum set, the amplifier and speaker(s) you will use to hear the sounds from the electronic drum set are an important consideration.  The cheapest and easiest solution is a set of headphones; the wider the frequency range and the flatter the frequency response, the better.  These are great for practice, but if you want anyone else to hear the drums, you will need some form of amplifier and speaker system.

I started out plugging my drum set into my guitar practice amp, because that is what I had available.  It worked, but I thought the module was bad because most of the drum sounds sucked (the cymbals were ok).  Then I got a deal on a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs studio monitor headphones for $50 (they’ve since gone up, but should still be well under $100).  These boasted a 5 – 28 KHz flat frequency response.  Plugging them in, what a difference!  Bass drum sounds which were little more than a dull thump through the guitar amp, came alive in the headphones, deep and rich.  Silly me, of course a cheap guitar amp is not going to have any bass response.  I picked up a used bass amp, and the lower frequencies were fine, but as I half expected, the higher frequencies (snare drum and cymbals) were lousy.  I played around with a crossover network and high frequency speakers, but never got good results.

The best bet is a system specifically designed for electronic drums.  Roland and Yamaha each have good systems with an amplifier/sub woofer unit and a pair of satellite high frequency speakers which mount on the drum rack and can give a stereo image of the drum set (i.e., ride cymbal sound comes from the right side and crash cymbal sound from the left side).  The same companies, and others, have ‘all in one’ units with amplifiers, sub woofer, and high frequency speakers in the same box; these should work well too.  My personal favorite is the discontinued Roland PM-3 system, with a 100 watt amplifier for the sub woofer and a 50 watt amplifier for each satellite.  I have not seen the replacement PM-30, but the specs lead me to think that it may have been produced for economic reasons rather than technical advancement.  But even if it is a better solution, a used PM-3 will probably be much cheaper.

Of course, a full range public address system, if you have one, will work just fine.  One other thing you could consider would be a ‘keyboard’ amp/speaker system.  Just keep in mind that good bass depends on larger speaker size, and good treble depends on smaller speaker size.  So a good unit will have multiple speakers of various sizes.  It would be best if you could try out such a sound system, with an actual electronic drum set, prior to purchase, to ensure the system will really do what you want it to.  If the store does not have any e-drums you can hook up, you could take just your module (and power supply), and hook it to the potential speaker system and play it‘s ‘demo’ songs to see if the speaker system is appropriate.

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