Sabian 16" AAX X-Plosion Hats: big-format hi-hats for hard rock and metal

Sabian's AAX X-Plosion Hats take the brand's X-Plosion Crash design, a medium-top, medium-heavy-bottom pairing with a high-profile bell and sustain-enhancing hammering, and apply it to a hi-hat. Sabian sells the pair at 14 inches (2140287XB) and 16 inches (2160287XB); both share the same B20 bronze alloy and brilliant finish, just scaled differently. Long & McQuade's own listing for the 16-inch pair markets it plainly as the choice "for those who love BIG Hats."

The 16-inch pairing runs heavier than the standard 14-inch hi-hat, which is the point: more surface area and more mass mean a louder open hat and a bigger-sounding chick, at the cost of a slightly slower response than a standard-size pair.

Closed, the 16-inch pair reads bigger and trashier than a standard 14-inch AAX hat: more low-end weight in the chick, still with the X-Plosion design's cutting brilliant-finish edge on top. Open, the extra surface area gives a wash that's louder and slower to decay than a smaller pair, useful for filling space in a loud three-piece or four-piece hard-rock mix where the hi-hat needs to read as its own distinct layer rather than get buried under crash and ride.

The tradeoff against a standard 14-inch pair is foot speed: the added mass responds a beat slower to fast, articulate foot patterns. For straight-ahead rock and metal time-keeping, that's rarely a problem; for fast jazz or funk foot work, a 14-inch pair (or smaller) stays more responsive.

Hard rock and metal drummers who need hi-hat volume and low-end weight to compete with distorted, downtuned guitar, Bill Ward's Black Sabbath context being the documented reference case. Doom and stoner-rock setups where a bigger, trashier hat fits the genre's overall heavier sound. Drummers who already run oversized crashes and rides and want a hi-hat that matches that scale.

Jazz, acoustic, and low-volume indie work, where a 14-inch or smaller hi-hat's faster response and tighter articulation matter more than raw volume. Fast, technical foot patterns (metal blast-beat-adjacent double-foot work) where a lighter, smaller pair tracks more precisely.

If your reference point is hard-rock or metal hi-hat work at real stage volume, the 16-inch AAX X-Plosion pairing is a legitimate, purpose-built oversized hat, not a novelty. It's the same X-Plosion design Sabian sells at the standard 14-inch size, just scaled up for bands that need the hi-hat to hold its own against a wall of distorted guitar. Bill Ward's rotation through 15-16 inch AAX hats for Black Sabbath, per Modern Drummer's own 2020 rig breakdown, is the documented real-world case for exactly this size class.

Sabian

AAX X-Plosion Hats 16" (2160287XB)

Price tier: $$$

Why this one: Oversized 16-inch hi-hat built on Sabian's X-Plosion Crash design for maximum foot volume, the documented size class in Bill Ward's current Black Sabbath-era hi-hat rotation.

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