Good evening, I am a college student going into my second year, and I've decided to buy a euphonium so that I can play in the campus band (they don't have any good instruments to lend out, I checked). I'm not going professional, it's just to play in the band and to make multitrack recordings. My budget is around $1000-$2000, and I've been eying up the non-compensating 4-valve Besson 700 series euphonium, which hovers around $1200 from what I could see. I really like the Besson sound, and I've heard good things about their older models. Alternatively, I've also seen a number of Chinese stencil horns at around the same price range. These are compensating and seem to be much newer, but I've heard mixed things about their quality. I am also looking at the Wessex Dolce model which I can only find brand new at $1700. My point is, which option should I go for? I have some anxiety for the quality of Chinese instruments over time with the materials they use, they may be great at first but what about 2, 5, or even 10 years down the line? I also would rather not get a brand new instrument, both out of fear of causing minor scratches and dents to the perfect finish as well as the idea of paying the same amount of money for an older horn that plays better but doesn't look as great. Again, I'm not going professional so I don't care very much about compensating valves or extremely accurate tuning.