I am revitalizing a late 60's vintage Slingerland drum set for day-to-day use in my family room/home studio. My main reason for revitalizing this particular set is to display it's rare finish, and I have opted not to use original vintage mounts and stands because I find that the originals do not offer enough stability, adjustability, or set-up flexibility for my needs, and are usually in poor condition and/or are really expensive. Therefore, I have looked at nearly every mounting system currently available on the market to find one that accentuates the rare drum finish as much as possible, that does not require new holes to be cut into the tom or bass drum shells, that hides holes and/or plates that already exist from previous mounts, and that provides stability, adjustability, and set-up flexibility. This is it. Using rubber grommets around two top and two bottom tensioning rods, instead of around four or six tensioning rods at just the top, this mount is extremely small and unobtrusive for the impressive stability it provides. However, because the outer perimeters of the rubber grommets around the tensioning rods press pretty hard against the shell, this mount may not allow quite as much resonance as styles that loosely suspend the tom from four or six grommets along the top, but the resonance is still excellent. It's also a little difficult to initially install the tension rods through the grommets when changing heads, and you won't be able to freely rotate the tensioning rods, so you will have to rely entirely on head tightness and pitch, rather than turning resistance, when tuning. Stability of this mount is much, much better than systems that clamp only onto the top rim and don't use any tensioning rods. I am using these mounts with individual combination tom/cymbal stands, so my bass drums are also completely free of tom or cymbal mounting hardware, leaving the bass drum finish visible, and leaving the bass shells free to resonate as much as possible. Also, having separate stands allows great freedom for arranging the drums and cymbals, and I can temporarily use them with other sets if needed. By using combination stands, there are also fewer tripods blocking the view of the drum finish and competing for floor space. Although these mounts are listed as being aluminum, the finish out of the box is highly polished and shines like a mirror, reflecting and making the mounts blend right into the drum finish, and matching the polished chrome stands. I had a couple of the original Pearl Optimounts with the black mounting plate and black cross bars. Although I really liked them, once I forked over the big bucks and got these new ones, that black metal on the original ones looked clunky as hell in comparison (unless you have a black drum set to start with). It's also important to note that these new OPTA-series Optimounts are not merely chromed versions of the original OPT-series Optimounts. The original OPT-series had a standard, stand-alone chrome BT-3 bolted to a black metal plate that slid along vertical chromed bars, but on the new OPTA-series, the BT-3 has been replaced by a much sleeker piece, cast specifically for this mount, that slides along two sleek vertical chromed rods to adjust to the vertical spacing between your lugs. In either case, even if you already have a hole bored through your tom shell for the tube from your stand or bass drum mount, you will probably not be able to adjust the mount to line up with that hole, so the shell will limit how far you can stick the tube from your stand into the mount. In summary, if looks are as important as sound quality, stability, and set-up flexibility for your drumming situation, the substantial extra cost of these mounts is very much justified, particularly if you would otherwise be paying top dollar for vintage stuff. If appearance isn't as critical for you, though, I'm sure you can find a cheaper suitable alternative. Without a doubt, though, these are the sleekest and best-looking resonant tom mounts currently available, IMHO.

Works and looks great, seems worth the money.