A big improvement tonally over felt mallets which are too audible IMO. My mallet has an invisible hard/sharp point on it, which sounds horrible if you make contact with it. I had to put a marker spot on the bad side so to avoid it during a session. Probably just a manufacturing flaw. but I don't know how common it might be, Also the handle could do with being a little longer. Its cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for.