Rudolph Meinl vs Hirshbrunner vs Miraphone vs ???
Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2025 2:45 pm
What's your opinion of these brands or is there another brand that's your favorite? If so, why? 
This question is probably too broad for very clear answers, but here's my attempt to help a little:
Rudolf Meinl makes fantastic, expensive tubas by hand in Germany. I've only ever gotten my hands on one of them (5/4 CC piston), but it blew me away. Just loved it.
Hirsbrunner was another high-end, maker of tubas by hand in Switzerland. They've been out of business for a few years now, though. They're not all that easy to find used.
Miraphone is a larger manufacturer in Germany that makes many different horns at many (more moderate than the above) price points.
Other popular makers on the level of Miraphone are Meinl-Weston (not related to Rudolf Meinl), B&S and Alexander in Germany and Yamaha in Japan. Cerveny is based in Czechia and makes solid horns for a bit less money. Eastman and Wessex are probably the best coming out of China.
I hope that helps. If you're serious, though, you really need to get yourself to a conference or showroom to try several of them yourself. It's likely that one horn or one brand will speak to you. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.