Tama TSP9 Practice Pad

Great pad with very realistic rebound while remaining quiet and soft enough on the hands.

Comparing the rebound of this surface to a double-sided Vic Firth 12" pad that I have - the VF has one softer gray surface and one very hard black surface. The softer one is quiet but too bouncy, the black one gets closer to a snare rebound-wise, but is too noisy and very hard so that your wrists may suffer after a while. This TAMA new pad is almost as quiet as the gray surface of the VF, but response is only a little bit bouncier then the hard black surface of the VF, and IMO gets VERY close to a real snare. 9" as size is the perfect IMO - not too small as a 6", and not too big as a 12". Pad has also soft and non-slippery foam on the back so it can be played on the table top as good as in a stand. I remove one star from "quality" because the play surface of mine was not glued exactly in the center of the wood-alike base, which does not affect playability, but optically is not pleasant.