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I was in China a couple of years ago and had the opportunity to play a couple of horns; weren't bad, but weren't great either. I hear they have gotten better, but unfortunately there is no where near me where I can test one out. Questions:

1. Are they worth it? Or is it better of spending the extra cash to get a better horn.

2. Any reviews?

The search feature is your friend. This question has so dominated tubenet recently that some excellent posters have gone underground in exasperation. You won't have any problem finding out far more than you wanted to know, if you just click "advanced search" in the upper right. Please, God, don't let us start it all over again from the beginning!

PM sent

Here are a few clips of the F, a BBb and the CC.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hthomasmcgrady" target="_blank

Curious as to what horns you tried in China while you were there?

Eric says it best in song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkGkv7NW ... ata_player" target="_blank

The constant attention on Chinese built products is obviously fueled by the extremely low prices.

http://www.scooterdepot.us/motorcycles-p-1-c-41.html

This company appears to mostly import chinese built scooters and motorcycles. Grab a random model number and do a google search and you will invariably find yourself in the midst of a forum discussion much like tubenet, just substitute scooter for tuba and motor for valve.

The running theme is they look shiny, but don't perform nearly as well(less hp etc) and are far more likely to break, but BOY they sure are cheap! People buy them and get good use out of them but it's cheaper for a reason.

In a moment of weakness I thought about buying a scooter for puttering around town and saving money on gas... decided I was better off dealing with my cheap korean made car.

Building a mechanically dependable tuba is probably a bit less technically demanding than building a high quality motorcycle so the gap will likely shrink but I predict the best horns will never come from China.

I'm a horn snob, my advice, play a ton of tubas, take lots of lessons, buy your dream tuba and keep it for life. Over a lifetime the price won't matter anyhow.

Moral of the story: It may be a perfectly good instrument but most of the time you still get what you pay for.