Good bass tone, good snare sound, pretty good separation between the two. Otherwise, pretty unresponsive. With the snare off, it sounds dull - not much woody ring to it at all. More like cardboard. The veneer isn't real ebony, it's a printed synthetic laminate. This should be stated in the product description! Aside from cheap looks, I'm sure it affects the sound. If it were real ebony, it would be more responsive (I'm a guitar maker, so I know a thing or two about this kind of thing). I plan to make a new face plate out of baltic birch. The spring in the snare adjustment makes extraneous noise when playing. The pedal doesn't work well enough to justify the design. Finally, the face plate was missing one screw; other screws are poorly installed. I expected better quality. I will be able to make good use of this cajon until I replace it with something better (which I will probably make myself), but, I would suggest that other buyers try a Schlagwerk.
Moderately satisfied at best 
