I bought a Selman black curved soprano from ebay a few years ago. It plays in tune, and has that sweet centered sound that I like from a soprano. It seems as long as the basic construction of the horn is sound, and the intonation is true from bottom to top that is a good start. I added a Claude Lakey soprano mouthpiece, and some Vandoren reeds (2.5) and that baby sings.
It was really cheap, but plays like a champ.
A lot of what the horn actually sounds like is totally dependent on you though. I haven't seen a magic horn that plays by itself yet. Like an old friend told me once. It's not the arrow, but the indian.
There are a lot of great horns out there for sure.
a very good address for curved soprano saxophones is http://www.music-oldtimer.com/en/instruments/saxophones
did business with them before and they are recommended. on vintage saxophones they have a pretty nice collection of straight and curved ones.
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