Hey Pope,
I think you are on the right track then. Sounds like the Tama kit is holding up fine. Even their lower level kits are pretty friggin solid these days. I am not sure what your used market is there, or what things look like new, but some of this stuff you can find used for good deals.
As far as double pedals go, there are a lot of great ones out now. But again, even some lower level stuff is solid compared to years past. Hard to go wrong with DW 5000, or Tama Iron Cobra. I recently picked up some new DW 5002s (that's the double pedal version of the DW 5000 family) and I really like them. Great thing about DW 5000s are that it is easy to get replacement parts for just about everything. Bearings, hinges, screws, bolts, u-joints, cams, bla, bla, bla. So you could get a used one, and if it had a problem, you can simply replace the component.
Tama Iron Cobras are pretty bombproof too. In fact I have a 20 year old HPT45 Tama single pedal that still works fine. It could use a new spring, but HEY! Those are cheap, and.... TWENTY YEAR OLD DRUM STUFF STILL WORKS! Value!
Yamaha makes some great pedals and hardware too.
For sanres, many can sound great, but, how awesome did your first guitar sound before you knew how to tune it? Same goes with snares. Top and bottom heads get tuned. That doesn't mean crank it down as tight as humanly possible. Sometimes that just chokes the life and sound out of a drum that would sound better if you just eased off a bit. Good snare wires, even placement, and tension are also important. Tons of youtube videos can help here quite a bit till you get the gist of what is going on.
I have been digging metal snares as of late. There are a ton out there. Best thing to do is go somewhere where you can play as many as you can in your price range and see what you like. Both Ludwig and Tama make very reasonably priced snares that can sound awesome. But that's not to exclude other drum companies. I keep mentioning them because I am familiar with both brands. Neither one of which pay me.

But I also have a DW snare that sounds fantastic. It is some sort of 14x5" Nickle finish over brass snare. Their snare hardware, like Tama's is SOLID. Ludwig stuff works just fine, but it is old-school and not worried about making any fancy refinements to some known deficiencies. LOL. It works just fine for the most part.
Cymbal stands and such. I have been a fan of Tama hardware for a long time. I still use it today. I have some old as fuck Tama gear that works just fine. I got new RoadPro series stuff for my main kit that I dig a lot. Good value for the money. Remember, just because it looks beefy doesn't mean that it IS beefy. Double braced hardware has its place but there are some bad stands out there too. Most will work just fine. If buying new, I would consider Tama, or Yamaha. Yamaha makes FANTASTIC hardware that will out last just about everything out there. But... it is usually more expense. Even there single braced hardware is far stronger than most companies double braced hardware.
DW is too complicated and expensive for your average stand. The more moderately priced Pacific, or PDP brand, (same family of design as DW) is far less expensive and is pretty good from what I hear from other's on drum forums.
If you find a listing for something that you want to ask about, don't be shy. Pictures and details help a lot to figure out what we are looking at.
Talk to you soon.
-RB