TubeNet

As someone who has spent most of his tuba playing life playing one or the other I will say each has their own good and bad. First off lets examine the 321. The 321 is a decent size and will hold its own in most situations. The downside is most have severely suspect intonation and a pretty generic sound. A lot of folks don't care for the upright valves. The 5j has a pretty decent sound, fair intonation but when I played mine in a group of more than say 30 it just gets buried. It is definitely a 3/4 horn.
This is one man's opinion and ymmv.
Jeff Hicks

The choice for me would be quite simple. I've never met a top-action tuba I've liked.

In response to Dan,the only top action tuba I've ever liked was the HOJO Roger had at tubadome a while back.Really surprising...

Apples and oranges. The 321 is a much bigger horn witrh a bigger sound. I would not use the 5J for anything older than middle school.

Answer: none of the above. For the price of a 321, a used King 2341 or Miraphone 186.

I currently play a band-owned YBB321.
It's OK, but not more than that.

It's well put together (even after more than 25 years) has a fair intonation, valves are ok, and it can put some foundation under a band, but only if you're not the only tuba. (in my case there's a besson EEb next to me)

The sound is not beautiful, and not very big. The 4 top-action valves are not quite comfortable to hold (I like 3+1 or 4 front-action better). When marching this horn I use only the first 3 valves, reaching for the 4th valve with the little finger is a disaster.

Hope this is usefull

EEEEEE! Are these your only 2 choices? I'd hold out for a Mirafone, or a B&S, or the rotary Yamaha.

I played a YEP321 for about a fortnight many years ago, I could not manage the 4 in a row valves, my littie finger was not strong enough to operate the 4th valve. So I much prefer the 3+1 configuration EEb tuba.

I always wondered why they would solder the leadpipe to the bell (to a brace connecting it to the bell at least) if it was intended to be a convertable horn. Hmm good to know.
>>Sombody asks me this at least once a school year. At least now I can give them more than a B.S. answer.