For me, the 'Traditionals' are the most satisfying, I suppose because they come closest to the old Turkish Ks, yet, with their own 'vibe'.
Of course, they're the costliest in Paiste's line, but I've had good luck buying two on Ebay at 1/2 the new CYMBALS ONLY price.
BTW, I believe, with Paiste, if you choose by series type & weight, you won't go wrong.
It's been rumored(?) that they were actually made by the Dirils and their current limited availability is the result of a business disagreement.
Ron
This letter from Eric Paiste addresses some of the issues:
I’ve received some information about rumors travelling around the world on internet blogs and forums, regarding our Twenty Series. I thought it might be a good idea to make our side of the story public. Because I do not believe in marketing BS, I will keep it brief and to the point:
Paiste received raw materials, specifically unfinished goods, from Murat and Ibrahim Diril in Turkey. We then hammered and lathed this material to make Paiste cymbals, the Twenty series. It is not true that Twenty cymbals were made entirely by Diril, or that we just applied logos to “finished cymbals” received from them.
Unfortunately, what we are dealing with is a disgruntled supplier, who has lost both Paiste and another cymbal company as customers. Be that as may be, I still wish them well for the future.
We discontinued our relationship with the Diril brothers because of quality problems. A significant portion of the raw materials received did not conform to our standards, resulting in cymbals we had to destroy after our final quality control inspection. We had no choice but to wind up the relationship.
We will continue to offer the Twenty series, we will not discontinue it, and we will ensure that our customary quality and consistency applies. That’s the bottom line.
Any questions or comments are welcome to my attention at
produktionsleiter@paiste.com.
My deep appreciation to all our fans and supporters for allowing us to continue to make great cymbals.
Erik Paiste