Just got back from a music store in Redlands that had the Eastman EEP426 non-compensating Euphonium in stock.
The horn had a very balanced and neutral type of sound. Nothing exciting, but nothing offensive either. In comparison to the Wessex, my son felt the instrument had some wind resistance (especially along the 1st & 4th valves), which required a bit of "strain" for him to play at those registers. As for intonation along the lower registers, the non-compensating Eastman expectedly did not perform as well as the Wessex. However, he thought the Eastman had better mids & highs which surprised me. I'm a bit skeptical on that as I think more time is needed on both instruments to truly determine this. Reflecting back, he said there were a few keys that were "pitchy" on the Wessex, but the biggest culprit on the Eastman was a mid-range 'D' (if using the 1st & 2nd valve) which he thought was considerably out of tune.
The valves were a bit noisy. Similar to how the Wessex was but not as severe. I now realize this is merely an issue of maintenance and not an aspect to unfairly judge the instrument itself. The silver finish looked fine. Not quite as glossy as the Jupiter, but almost. I'd give the instrument a 9/10 on appearance, an 8/10 on mid-upper intonation, and maybe a 6/10 on lower intonation. My son indicated the Eastman was more difficult to play compared to the ease of the Wessex. Furthermore, the Wessex seemed to handle a variety of ranges more smoothly all around. In comparing tone quality, I still prefer the Wessex over the neutral Eastman and brassy Jupiter but my son seemed to like the sound very much. Granted... if a professional was to play this Eastman with vibrato and feeling I'm sure my opinion of the Eastman could be very different.
As of now, the Eastman is out of the running. The 426 is out because it isn't compensating, and the 526 is out because of its $3,800 price tag. We were given an offer to purchase the like-new "C-Class" (an instrument used for touring trade shows) display model for $200 off the MSRP. But since it's the non-compensating model, the offer didn't really entice me much. I was not in love with its tone, and the instrument didn't seem to get off the ground like the Wessex model did at times. Even with the Wessex's perceived "pitchy" nature across a few notes, it was the best instrument we tested so far. At least to my ears. The store said they were going to look into obtaining a JP274. If they are able to do that, it would be wonderful. In the meantime, I'm hoping we can drive down to The Horn Guys next week for a demo on their JP374.