how long does it take to get the sword "sound" when strike, is it something important??

I'm training kendo and we practice some iaido before every class, I've been training for a year now and there is this guy that has been practicing for like 4 months, yesterday our sensei lended us her iaito and it was the first time for some of us to have one in our hands, me and other students that have almost the same experience (10-18 months) had a hard time to even use the sword, is really different from a bokken, then this guy with 4 months on kendo and no martial training before can perform the cut and get that sound at first try, I've even seen some sempai fail to get that sound, not jealouse of the dude, in fact it cheers me up to keep training, but do the sound really means good iaido?