Right, now the poll is finished, I can tell you which is which
FANFARE!!!
The JinBao 700 is first and the Besson 981 is second.
I will leave you to reach your own conclusions from the poll, but will explain a bit more. They were recorded in quite a smallish room, but with the Zoom H2 digital recorder unmoved and me sitting in the same seat for both, so as far as possible identical circumstances.
It was not really a fair test as the Jinbao 700 had only arrived from the factory the day before and this recording was the very first time it had ever been played. To me behind the mouthpiece the main difference was between a well 'run-in' instrument and one that had that 'new feeling', much the same as back in the past I compared a new Besson 981 bought by the band I was playing at the time against my own well used one. How much the sound changes with use, I don't know, but new tubas certainly feel different.
In the last 10 days since I made the comparison, I have been playing the JinBao 700 every day and now feel it is starting to bed-in and I genuinely are really enjoying. I have now used for three rehearsals and two gigs with good feedback from the other players.
In one band I played the 700 sitting beside Besson 982 and actually think although the 700 looks more like the 981 with straight leadpipe, it actually sounds closer to the 982 which has narrower bore swan necked leadpipe.
Now it would be interesting to do similar blind poll for Miraphone 186 compared to JinBao 410 CC - but I doubt it will be by me. I don't know anyone with a 186 in the UK.