Hello forum!
Doing some research on intermediate flutes. What flute brands do you like? What brands don't you recommend? Thank you!

I tried a Muramatsu and a Miyazawa once: loved them both. Trevor James is also really good, and a little bit cheaper than most intermediate models.

Sankyo 201 with standard low-riser headjoint - very pure tone!

Muramatsu EX - very sweet tone!

I like Trevor James too!

Not half as much experience as some here. The Yamaha flutes I've tried (student) are nice, but very expensive. Seems that Trevor James do a nice rounded flute much cheaper without sounding cheaper.

Body - makes no difference at that level - they all play very well.

Headjoints - I like Sankyo, Powell, a couple specific non-standard Yamaha cuts, Full Circle(wood), Landell, and a few others.

well i currently have a Miyazawa with a burkart headjoint. but i've played many flutes in my flute playing life.

handmade/upper flutes:

Miyazawa body- very fast and smooth action. very comfortable keys. overall, excellent intonation.

muramatsu body- just as smooth adn fast, but i liked the feel of the Miyazawa better. Great intonation with the stock hj, but ran rather sharp in the top octave with my burkart head.

altus body- very nice scale, i found most flutes i played all had a nice, just different scale/feel. its jsut up to personal preference. not as comfortable as the miyazawa and muramatsu

sankyo body- same as the altus description.

yamaha body- i think it was a 674 i played. the body just didnt seem to be as responsive as the others above. also the intonation was worse than the above flutes. I felt little difference between this flute and my old 361 other than faster action(i played both with my burkart headjoint)

Headjoints

Burkart- my current headjoint(well, of 2, im playing and trying to decide between the burkart and the miyazawa) Very projecting, bright singing tone. Its a very fast/responsive headjoint. a little too bright at times for ensemble playing when not the principle position. wonderful for soloistic playing, although it is a little more difficult to control than the miyazawa.

miyazawa- The cut on this particular head is the MZ-9. It has a lovely, pretty, lyrical tone. Has more ...depth? to the tone. Plays wonderfully intune on the miyazawa body, and lovly dynamics from PPP-F. It is not as projecting and upper dynamics are not as easy.

muramatsu- rather dark tone to it. some love it. i found it on the dull side, hard to project, and stuffy articulation. It has slow response. But its all up to preference.

altus- i found this headjoint to be in the middle of the miyazawa and muramatsu, in terms of dark/bright, response and such.

sankyo-would have been my second choice in headjoints(technically third? im not sure about my current setup at hte moment) Lovely powerful projecting tone. I would have liked a little more resistance though. Not sure on the cut...

yamaha- EC cut. overall bland tone. it had nice response, articulation, and intonation, but the tone was almost brittle in comparison.


and ive played a lot of intermediate flutes, yamaha 361, a few sonares, an azumi, jupiter, demedici,
and my favorite of those would hands down be the demidici.

fluteypiccolosax, wow, you have amazed me, your description is very detailed and matched my feeling especially on headjoints, except Muramatsu is not only dark, but sweet. Many many professionals in Asia have this feeling. Maybe most Japanese/Asian like pure and sweet tones while Americans like projective tone?

Powell has been using a Chinese's design on all its headjoints (including Sonare I think). This chief headjoint designer was from Shanghai, he graduated from Shanghai Music Conservatory.