A while back a posted a topic of the Sonare piccolo to the Yamaha piccolo.And here is my story of choosing my piccolo. It is sort of like in Harry Potter the wand chooses the wizard, I was trying out the Emerson P3 piccolo and it was very nice but I wanted something with a little bit better intonation. So I passed that one aside as one of my possible piccolos. Next I tried the Armstrong 308, VERY NICE, I found it had a very dark rich tone. I liked it a lot. I asked about the Pearl but the store does not carry it. So I went to the Sonare, WOW. I dont know why some peopole choose another student piccolo over it. Maybe I just got a good one. The intonationwas spot on perfect!! I also really liked the variety of tone I could get out of it, both dark and lyrical with bright and happy. (You know what Im saying right?) So I did the eyes closed test. I repeated an exersize I remembered from one of my studies. I really think I heard a big difference from the Sonare and Armstrong. I could tell from the lower register. The Armstrong was a nice amount of air while on the Sonare it was rather full. I ended up getting the Sonare. Its just my oppinion that I like it better then some brands but I think that some brands work better for different people and the Sonare works for me!! I am very happy with my new piccolo. You dont have to respond to this because I dont know what you would say, but I only did this so you could hear my story of buying a new Piccolo.