How fancy a set do you want? Are you looking just for a 4 piece(bass, snare and two toms) basic set? The standard 5 piece kit?
Personally, I prefer a bass drum that doesn't have any tom mounts on it. I'm not sure what acoustic principles apply, but those bass drums just seem to sound more solid. Toms can be either all rack mounted, stand and rack mounted or stand and floor mounted.
But as these other drummers have pointed out, first you need to decide how much you want to spend and how quickly you wish to purchase. And then, do you want maple drums, birch, oak or what?
The church I play at has a great
pearl masters studio birch set. But my set is a
DW maple. I love playing both. I think the birch tend to sustain less.
Once you've set your budget, get to the music stores if you can. Preferably, a music store that doesn't mind letting people try the drums. In my area, I prefer to sometimes take a week day off and go while school is in session. It's usually less busy then.
Once you've picked out a drumset, then slow down. Cymbals take a lot longer to shop for than drums in my opinion. Especially on crashes and rides. Two cymbals of the same make, size and model may sound significantly different. So if the music store will let you, mount up some cymbals and try the set to make sure they sound good together with the other cymbals "and" with the drums. On the crashes, make sure that the tonal intervals between the crashes sound good.
Lastly, I would say that unless you're buying used equipment... your cymbal budget should be at least as much as the budget for the drums.
Have fun and good luck
EPH
ps - I guess what you'll find depends on where you live, but I've heard some pretty good stuff from
ddrum company. Like their Diablo Punx set for 500 bucks at musicians friend
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