Best New Compensating Euphonium under $5K?

[EuphMan84]

I'm interested in the consensus of this forum.

If you had a $5K budget & could only buy a brand new compensating euphonium, so no great deals on used top of the line models, which would you pick & why?

[John Morgan]

Probably a Wessex Sinfonico. I bought a Wessex Dolce a few years ago and it was a great horn for just over $1,200 at the time. The Sinfonico is more hand made, has some nice features, and from playing a prototype, I suspect the final product would be very nice. It is around $3K. It is compensating. By picking this Wessex horn, you would have $2K left over for a ton of lessons, music, or root beer floats.

Or, spend just under $6K to get a Shires Q series euphonium. So, you take your $5K, along with the $1K you can make by standing on a corner playing your very best tunes for a handful of weekends. That is assuming you have some sort of horn already. If you have to sing to earn the $1K, add many more weekends.

The Q series Shires euphoniums (2 choices) are being snatched up rapidly, and by many former Willson players. Shires has a great reputation for building good horns. While the Chinese have a part in both the Wessex (like the whole part) and the Shires (I think the parts are made in U.S. and assembled in China, but could be wrong), both are done in close coordination with their respective companies.

[EuphMan84]

I hear you on the Sinfonica, but so far there's just been a lot of hype.
Great for marketing purposes, but I have to disagree that it is the best sub $5K Euphonium on the market today.
It's quite possible that you're correct, but I have to discount it on the basis that it's so new to the market that there could be flaws that just haven't shown themselves to date.
The Shires horns don't meet the premise of this post, once you get to $6K there are a few other good options in that same range. I'm sure they're awesome horns, but they would standout like a sore thumb in this crowd and are a better fit with the next tier of horns in that same range.
Does anyone else share John's opinion or have a different horn to offer up?

[ChristianeSparkle]

Sorry, drawing blanks for this.

The cheaper option that has gotten great reviews are the John Packer JP274 and JP Sterling 374T (w/ trigger). Had 2 famous euph players recommend the JP when I asked them. But pretty sure they are way below the $5k budget

[guidocorona]

Hello Euphman, others have already suggested a few euphoniums that should fit your pricing and compensation criteria. Namely:

Wessex Sinfonico (note it ends with "o", rather than "a")
Packer JP274
Packer JP374 Sterling -- Has trigger, priced just below your max ceiling.

To which I can add

* Various Eastman models that might Fit your pricing and compensation criteria.... I did try an Eastman at ITEC 2019 (do not remember the model), but it did nothing vfor me... I found its tone to be non-denominational and unexciting, but you might feel differently about it.

Do you you Euphman have any additional brands/models in mind?

Have you considered visiting the WWBW.COM site and searching for euphoniums while applying your filters? What showed up?

Consider that "best" is more of an personal preference than an absolute.... Thus, my own "best" may very well not be yours.

Regards, Guido

[EuphMan84]

One model at the top of this price range is the Jupiter XO 1270.
I've heard some not so great things about this horn, but that was when it's being compared to top of the line, well known brands.

So is this a situation where the horn is being unfairly compared to superior models or does it belong in that tier & it's priced lower than them to reflect that?
Essentially should the XO play in the same sandbox as the Wessex Sinfonica and the JP374 or is it a cut above?

[davewerden]

Here are my impressions from trying an XO in 2014:

http://www.dwerden.com/forum/entry.p...-XO-and-Wessex

(At this time, Wessex was just getting its feet on the ground, while XO was a little more established. I know Wessex has made a lot of changes since then; I don't have knowledge of XO changes lately.)

[guidocorona]

Hello Euphman, I have not play-tested the Jupiter XO 1270, but only heard several clips of it. For the little I can tell, I prefer my own sub-$2K Wessex EP104 Festivo over it... I never found the Jupiter to have an emotionally involving tone.

Furthermore, just based on recorded clips, I would much prefer the Packer JP374 Sterling over XO 1270... 374 is priced a smidgeon below $5K as well.

As for Wessex Sinfonico, it is comfortably priced at $3K, which is at least in principle pretty attractive for a silver-plated compensated euphonium handmade from sheet metal and featuring a hand-hammered bell, a number of them will be delivered to end-users / customers in just about two weeks.... So we might read about actual experiences rather than conjectures in the next few weeks.

G.

[TheJH]

I believe the new revamped Besson International range is a compensating model around the $4K mark, but there's no information on them on the official Besson website. But they are out there.

[EuphMan84]

I had not thought of the Besson International Series.
With no information on the company website, are these models now discontinued?

[JakeGuilbo]

You can find a demo Yamaha Neo with or without Trigger for under $5k - that horn is excellent and will last you forever.

[guidocorona]

Hmmm... If new, Yamaha YEP-642 may be outside Euphman's price target. At wwbw it is listed for $6369:

https://www.wwbw.com/Yamaha-Professi...uphoniums.wwbw

G.

[Sara Hood]

Sounds like a typo there. Perhaps it is supposed to be more like $6.569...? (European style for expressing large numbers) $6.5K sounds more like what I have heard of euphoniums going for. A horn that costs more than $63K should be able to play itself and cure tone deafness (laughing).
- Sara

[guidocorona]

Woopsie, Sara.... Good catch!

I guess I am chronically fumble-fingered.... I just corrected the value to $6369

Guido

[ChristianeSparkle]

Mr. Algridas Matonis is still using an XO, is that correct? Could refer to his recordings, maybe even a review of said horn? (Can't remember if there was a review of the XO on his Youtube)