Hi Jimmy. I bought the CY-5 for my first ekit as a replacement hi-hat pad and found it only work-ed when I struck it on top, it didn't respond well to hitting on the side (shank?). But it worked great as a splash/crash cymbal. When I got my DM10X the hi-hat cymbal was a nice size and it worked pretty well, and I wasn't impressed with how the Alesis crash choked, but the CY-5 chokes beautifully, so it's my primary crash now and I tend to use it as a splash, china or small crash and it chokes easily with a simple grab anywhere along the choke strip, unlike the Alesis where you seem to have to pinch it really hard in the middle of the strip and even then the reaction is delayed a bit.
