With due respects Natman, this is the stuff that makes me nuts.
I've been playing these damn fool things (that you hit with a stick, imagine that, a freakin' stick) for almost 62 years, and have no idea what a "bigger" sound is short of hitting it harder. A quick, sensitive response, as opposed to what, a slow unsensitive response.
I have used Diplomat batter heads 95% of the time on my snare with my ever faithful popsicle stick 2 1/2" to 3" from the hoop right between where my left hand and right hand fall. There is no metal snare drum "ring", yet I keep my crisp snare sound.
"I hear a tad more volume and focus". How can 1 really tell? Hit it harder=more volume, hit it softer=less volume. As for "focus", I still don't get that. Does it mean that the drum can "focus" it's sound from 1 side of wherever you are playing to the other?
Rimshots/cross sticking. 2" from rim to tip of stick, more ring, 3" to 3 1/2" from rim to tip of stick, less ring (and less broken sticks). As for cross sticking, most drummers I've seen, from Buddy to the guy down the block, have the stick about 2" past the rim.
Don't read too much into reviews. Everyone from top line drummers to guys that suck, have a instructional video up that will tell you how to tune your drums (Good and Getzen come to mind, 2 guys I wouldn't let within 100' of my drums) to guys that will tell you "the secret" to playing paradiddles, to someone who will show you how to get a sip of beer in the middle of a song. Maybe 20% of the instructional videos are useful, the rest are just a rehash of things that started with that ape in 2001.
If your snare is close to where you want it, leave it alone. Snare drums are like women, doesn't take much to pi$$ them off.
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