WHEN I WERE a lad and just starting out, cymbals came in two types and two types only: Cheap and Nasty, or Expensive and Unattainable.

Now of course, it's a very different matter, with the price of decent quality metals plummeting in line with budget kits. The standard at the bottom end of the market seems to be rising steadily, while the cost descends in direct inverse proportion.

The reasons for this are quite obvious. First, you can't flog someone a high-quality drum kit for £400 and then expect them to either augment it with a set of bin lids, or splash out over a grand on top-of-the-line professional cymbals. Second, since the music industry as a whole has discovered how much money can be made from "entry-level" players, no individual company can afford to ignore this particular area any longer.

What all this means is that you and I have more choice, more buying power, and basically a better deal all round.

One manufacturer who has displayed a consistent commitment to this scenario is the German-based Meinl company. In fact, Meinl have blazed a trail for others to follow in the budget cymbal world. The latest addition to their excellent roster, and possibly the cheapest ever cymbals to warrant the name, are the Meteor Turbos. A performance pack of these (14" Hi-Hats, 16" Crash and 20" Ride) will set you back the unbelievably meagre sum of £79.

This really is a silly amount of money, and you could be forgiven for treating it with some suspicion. I mean, can a set of cymbals costing less than eighty quid really be worth playing? Well, yes they can, actually...

Pulling the Meteors from their gold plastic carrying bag, I was immediately pleased at their appearance. No dazzling reflective surface unfortunately, but a business-like and thoroughly adequate yellowish tinge nevertheless. They are unfinished around the bell area, which lends them a form of contemporary visual charm. The bell in question is quite shallow on all the cymbals, but as I shall soon relate, this doesn't seem to affect the sound adversely.

The tonal grooves look too shallow and uniform to have been lathed in the traditional manner, and I would guess their purpose is more cosmetic than acoustic. Even so, once I'd removed the cymbals from under the microscope and placed them on stands (where they belong), I soon discovered how much they had to offer in the latter category as well.

The 14" hi-hats come as a matched pair, with the bottom cymbal slightly heavier and consequently higher-pitched than the top. This is fairly standard procedure, but all the same I was pleased at the marked difference in tone between the two, which in practice makes them highly usable. Bringing the hi-hats together smartly with the foot creates a well-defined and fairly sharp "chip". Lacking a little in power, perhaps, but the quality of the sound can't really be faulted. Played with sticks, the top cymbal is sharp and responsive with little of the dissipating dullness that cheap cymbals so often suffer from.

The 16" Crash displays many of the characteristics of the hi-hats, being tolerably bright and again surprisingly responsive. This is not the loudest crash you will ever hear, and in some conditions the sound seems to have a slightly blunt edge. But the "crash" itself is very rapid, and in terms of sound quality very credible: there are virtually no overtones and the decay is extremely swift. Overall, the sound reminds me of an early digital drum machine sample, where the sampling time was not sufficient to capture the sound's full duration. That's not really a criticism, because short crashes are pretty much the in thing these days, and this one may appeal to you for precisely that reason.

I did find this crash to be a bit wanting in the projection department, however, and to be honest its lack of volume could be a problem. But what sound I did coax from it was as focused and un-clangy as you could reasonably expect.

All the Meteors have a reassuring weight to them, and this was nowhere more appreciated than with the 20" Ride. Its bell sound has many of the same drawbacks as the crash, being something less than sparkling and not as meaty, level-wise as it might be. Yet despite the struggling volume, it's solid and piercing enough. Stick response is consistent across the whole surface, and I found a number of tonal variations were possible between the bell and the outer edge - not something you'd expect from a cymbal in this price category. The volume is slightly disappointing and the depth of sound leaves a bit to be desired, but fast ride beats remain controlled and articulate, with a marked lack of overtone build-up.

In the end, what tips you off as to the price of these cymbals is not so much the sound they make - which is better than it has any right to be - but the amount of it they actually produce. By this, I don't just mean they are relatively quiet, but that the depth and fullness of tone is not as rich as it might be. Some of the upper-level frequencies are missing, and consequently these Meinls lose the brightness found in more expensive cymbals.

Yet there's no denying this trio fulfil their respective functions absurdly well. The Ride is a ride cymbal, the Crash is a crash cymbal, and the hi-hats are not merely a couple of comparably-sized cheap cymbals thrown into the same bag.

At a price that's less than you'd pay for a top-of-the-tree 10" Splash cymbal, you should be more amazed at the shortcomings the Meteor Turbos don't possess, than at the ones they do.

MEINL METEOR TURBO CYMBALS: £79 for three-cymbal performance pack

INFO: John E Dodds & Co, (Contact Details)