Can you hear the difference between a maple drum and a birch drum? This video demonstrates the difference between birch, maple, mahogany, poplar, and walnut woods on the same-sized toms. The size, drumheads, and tuning is the same on each drum. I recommend you use headphones to hear the subtle differences of each shell type.
These shootout/comparison videos ae useful to demonstrate the subtle differences that changing little things on your drums can make.