Excellent points brother. The market has pushed percussionist to use lage timbales which may not be ideal for the sized group or the rooms they play in. Large timbales and timbales made of steel are actualy too loud and lack balance with the typical Latin drum section and hand percussion instruments that should all be dynamicly balanced. You know how much I love vintage American drum company timbales like Leedy, Rogers, Gretsch, Slingerland , Gon Bop's and also old Premier timbales from England . All my timbales are brass shell 13" & 14 " from the 1960's. I never cared for the crude LP design and those that copied the same design flaws as LP. Do you know any horn players that play a steel horn ? NO ! If the music volumes are loud and the band is large, thats what microphones and sound syatems are there for ~ sound re inforcement to balance the band. Drummers should think as musicians and not compete to be the loudest drummers on stage. I do use a 15" timbale as an add on to my set to create a melodic 3 drum set up. Most timbaleros using large timbales are tuning the drums to the range of smaller timbales, but that only chokes the heads tonal voice and they use crapy thin heads that have many ringy over tones as well as timbale shells with to much ringy over tones. The drum companies are pushing these crapy drums onto the market and artist are using them and endorsing them because there are no quality alternatives to represent a better Timbale. ( I guess I will have to make my own model for you all ! ? )