Quote Originally Posted by miketeachesclass View Post
I own a Cardinal.

After 2 years and professional cleaning, the valves are still heavy. Not slow, but heavy. I put some Mead light springs in there and it was considerably improved. It’s a nice horn. Overall good build quality with some fit and finish issues. (You can see crimp marks around the bell bead, and my first valve slide is slightly differently angled than the rest).

The thing I find worst is the main toning slide adjustment. You have to unscrew the thumb screw and move the slide, then screw the thumb screw in again. Very cumbersome. I’m not sure why everyone doesn’t do a turnbuckle style adjustment. Otherwise, it’s the best functioning trigger I’ve used other than besson.
That is good to know. They didn't seem slow when playing, just considerably more effort than both the Sovereign I played then and the York I play now (which itself has valves about as heavy as I would like to deal with in day to day playing). Spring changes are fairly easy and hastle free so it sounds like it would be the sort of thing I would want to do should I end up buying a Cardinal. I suppose as long as the crimping and slightly wonky 1st valve slide don't affect the way the horn plays it's not the end of the world, but would make me want to ensure I could test a few examples if I did purchase one