[revo15]

I have owned and extensively played Pearl and Tama drums (mid to higher end sets more than beginner sets). Here's how I would break up their differences in my opinion...

Hardware - Tama is by far superior in durability and utility in this area (the Iron Cobra and extra wide cymbal stands are the selling points here) I really like the omni-ball tom mounts compared to the pearl style hinged approach. Plus almost every Pearl set has a bass drum mount for the toms and is almost always restricted to the 2 up, 1 down tom setup where Tama switches it up a lot more. The one exception might be the demon drive but I haven't had the opportunity to play one of those extensively so I'm not sure if it would be worth the price tag.

Looks - There's not even any competition here with Tama's extensive use of black nickel hardware and beautiful lacquers compared to Pearl using mostly wraps and plain chrome unless your getting a custom Reference or Masterworks set. Even the mid range Superstars beat out 99 percent of all Pearl sets I've seen as far as aesthetics go.

Sound - For the low priced beginner sets and some of the mid-ranged drums they seem to have about the same quality tones for the most part - however, the higher end Tama sets are significantly better than those of Pearl. The Starclassic Bubinga and Birch/Bubinga sets have yet to be rivaled by any drums I've ever sat behind (and that's including the overpriced DW sets). I've never played a Reference set but the Masters and Masterworks just don't live up to what Tama has come up with.

Please note I have never played Pearl Reference or Forum, or Tama Starclassic Maple or Imperialstar so they could be exceptions.