The Aquarians are very similiar in tone and texture to the regular Aquarian white texture coated or Remo Ambassador heads. The Fiberskyn 3's have a warmer more rounded vintage vibe to them in my opinion, even more so than remo's renaissance series heads which they claim to be like calfskin heads.

I'd say you couldn't go wrong with the Fiberskyns

+1 regarding the Remo Renaissance series heads! I've been using them on my snare drums as of late.

Thanks LD, thats what I needed to know. I've always used Ambassadors on all my drums, and I'm really looking for a different tone. I think I'll pass on the Aquarians if they are pretty similar. I was pretty set on the Fibers anyways just wanted to be sure before I drop $150.

Not to be contraversal however the fiberskyns I tried were dull and thuddy,real boxy. The Aquarian vintage heads have much more life and tone,plus they seat better and much smoother. Tune them and play. The Aquarians are rich and warm and once on aren't coming off anytime soon.

Hope things work out.

I put the Aquarians on my 1960s Luddies and found they had a lot of life and warmth to them -- much more resonant than the Fiberskyns I put on my RBs. The American Vintage heads are not really a simulated calfskin; they're more like a warmer, rounder version of an Ambassador, with less of a "plastic" sound than Ambassadors. If you're looking for a simulated calf sound, you'll want the Remos. If you're after a warm Ambassador-style sound, the Aquarians are great. I like mine a lot.

Oh, and from what I can tell, the coating on the Aquarians seems to be thicker and more durable than the coating on Ambassadors. I haven't tried brushes on mine, but I imagine they'd sound great.

Aquarian also has a good snare on some kind of promo, touting a new coating that is really very cool for brush work. It is called Z-100 coating and I like it a lot, but then again that is on my thin shelled MIJ, and one of the 5 ply shells and it makes that drum sing. I also have a Fyberskin on my COS and uit is an amazingly different sound than any otuer head I have put on it, and that is saying something as I have tried everything under the sun on it and this just works. So, you keed to ask yourself, what is it you want to hear? The Aquarian Z100 is only like 10 bucks, so next time you are at the GC, grab one for grins, you will be surprised at the coating and how it plays brushes. Effortless.

Believe me, I am a BIG proponant of Aquarian's drumheads in general, but......the Vintage series heads really don't sound like the calfskin they are supposed to simulate. Like I said, they sound like regular texture coated or ambassadors to me. The Fiberskyn heads that Remo makes are a lot closer to sounding like real calf than any other synthetic head. I put a set of them on my Leedy's and they sounded great! Not boxy at all. Maybe the experience with boxiness was issues with those particular drums bearing edges or the way they were tuned?

Thanks for all the replies, you guys got me thinking again. I'm still leaning towards the Remos though. How is the fiber on snares though? I'm always iffy about putting one on. Seems like a coated/textured head would work better than fiber for brushes?