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Spectacular , but...
Let me start with something which is most probably obvious to everyone. Demon pedals are state-of-the-art. A spectacular piece of work. Works smoothly, almost effortlessly. Beautifully finished with plenty of details in place, such as small red felt installed in the direct drive mechanism preventing it from hitting metal parts each other. To me, there is no doubt this is the highest quality that can be offered by a hardware company.
Therefore, the question is why 3* only? There are at least three huge gaps that are hard to fix.
1. The most disturbing thing is that there is no setting that allows changing the angle of the beater head. This results in hitting with just the upper part of the beater (approx. 2% of the beater surface is used that way). The beaters are worn in a bad way (just the upper part, the rest is untouched) and I can see an upside-down "U" mark on the drumhead. There is a significant angle and gap between the beater and drumhead and I cannot reduce it in any way. The only way is to replace the kick drum hoop with slimmer than 2", but in most cases, this is not an option. After I replaced the original beaters with DW SM110 beaters (with self-adjustment) everything works perfectly in this area, but please note that price of those beaters is equal to 10% of Deamon XR price.
2. No spikes are coming together with the pedal in the box. There is rubber attached to the pedal on the bottom, you can also find velcros in the box which you can easily install. But for my setup, it wasn't enough, the left pedal was sliding on my carpet, so I had to buy an additional "pedal stabilizer" set. In Europe you can barely find any of the "pedal stabilizers" available, so I had to buy them in a different country and pay for international shipping (which was more expensive than stabilizer). It may change over time, but keep in mind that you can face additional challenges here.
3. The third missing thing is the memory lock for Z-link. And you cannot buy any online. Again something standard for DW is missing here. So the only way is going back to rubbers or tapes, but even then there is no place in the bag for dismantled Z Link since the bag fits only fully squizzed Z Link in one piece. Therefore you need to find another way of marking the Z Link setting and transporting it or you need to adjust it after every travel.
One small detail I love about this pedal which is unique to Demon XR is possibility of replacing big instalation screw with small one which is operated by drum key. Both are included in the box from the very beginning.
The bottom line is that Demon XR are great and for the most part, they do their job perfectly. However, there are a few areas where they lack some details and maybe the final touch. As I described, nothing you cannot deal with, but still there might be some additional money involved and challenges you need to face.
Therefore, the question is why 3* only? There are at least three huge gaps that are hard to fix.
1. The most disturbing thing is that there is no setting that allows changing the angle of the beater head. This results in hitting with just the upper part of the beater (approx. 2% of the beater surface is used that way). The beaters are worn in a bad way (just the upper part, the rest is untouched) and I can see an upside-down "U" mark on the drumhead. There is a significant angle and gap between the beater and drumhead and I cannot reduce it in any way. The only way is to replace the kick drum hoop with slimmer than 2", but in most cases, this is not an option. After I replaced the original beaters with DW SM110 beaters (with self-adjustment) everything works perfectly in this area, but please note that price of those beaters is equal to 10% of Deamon XR price.
2. No spikes are coming together with the pedal in the box. There is rubber attached to the pedal on the bottom, you can also find velcros in the box which you can easily install. But for my setup, it wasn't enough, the left pedal was sliding on my carpet, so I had to buy an additional "pedal stabilizer" set. In Europe you can barely find any of the "pedal stabilizers" available, so I had to buy them in a different country and pay for international shipping (which was more expensive than stabilizer). It may change over time, but keep in mind that you can face additional challenges here.
3. The third missing thing is the memory lock for Z-link. And you cannot buy any online. Again something standard for DW is missing here. So the only way is going back to rubbers or tapes, but even then there is no place in the bag for dismantled Z Link since the bag fits only fully squizzed Z Link in one piece. Therefore you need to find another way of marking the Z Link setting and transporting it or you need to adjust it after every travel.
One small detail I love about this pedal which is unique to Demon XR is possibility of replacing big instalation screw with small one which is operated by drum key. Both are included in the box from the very beginning.
The bottom line is that Demon XR are great and for the most part, they do their job perfectly. However, there are a few areas where they lack some details and maybe the final touch. As I described, nothing you cannot deal with, but still there might be some additional money involved and challenges you need to face.
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