What kind of mics are those in that picture, Nubus?
In my opinion, when you forget about mics and just think about how the drum sounds in person, the best possible kick sounds are from drums with a solid front head. The worst possible sounds are from a drum with no front head at all. However, since it's tricky to get a good kick sound from a drum with a full front head (you generally need at least two mics), cutting a hole in the front head so you can get the mic inside the drum is a pretty good compromise.
For the longest time I had no front hoop for my kick drum, so I had no choice but to try and record it with no front head. I could never ever get a sound that worked well in a mix, no matter how I placed the mic or what kind of EQ and compression I tried (I was using a Sennheiser e602 at this point). A friend gave me a hoop and I went out and picked up a front head, and I was astounded at how much the sound improved. I'd rather record a kick with a full front head that one with no front head at all. Now, some people do manage to get good sounds from kicks with no front head. My friend Mike Lust, who runs Phantom Manor studios, usually has drummers take off their front heads, and his records sound great. I'm pretty sure a lot of Melvins records were done with a single-headed kick drum too. You can kind of tell, but in that case it really works for their sound.
I still own my e602 but I have never really liked it very much, and I much prefer the Shure Beta 52. Depending on how consistent the drummer is, I'll apply some compression (i.e., if it's my crappy drumming, I'll have to compress the hell out of it). I usually try to leave the EQ alone, or at most, make a small cut to the mids to help it coexist with the bass guitar. I don't like the heavy metal mid-scooped kick drum sound, though, so I try not to do that.
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