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anyone have any info on these tubas, are they good or are they bad for college and beyond?

My experience with M&M Tubas is limited but bears repeating. One of my current students owns one of these horns. I have no idea what the model is, only that is a 4/4-ish, 5 valve (4 piston/1 rotor) CC tuba. It is lacquer finish. My honest recommendation is to stay away from these horns. At the very least, be very sure you've played the horn you're buying and be very sure you really want it before you buy. My student's instrument has some major issues, especially with intonation. The 3rd valve slide is extremely too long. Every note played with that valve is between 25-30 cents flat and that is with the slide pushed all the way in. Further, I found the 1st and 4th valve slides were also too long and generally played quite flat though not to the degree that the 3rd did. I felt that the horn didn't project very well though the sound quality was generally okay, if you could get past the intonation issues. The horn is very heavy so my guess is that it might hold up well to some abuse. However, it also was a bit difficult to carry around and I found the horn awkward to position such that I never felt comfortable playing it. I found the low range a bit uncentered. The upper range was the nicest thing about the horn and it felt pretty good and sounded clear.

My student took these issues to the seller he purchased from and has had nothing but headaches trying to resolve the problems. The seller has stood him up a couple of times when meetings were scheduled and generally wasted his time while solving nothing. Currently, the seller has offered to send the horn back to the manufacturer with the promise that the horn will be fixed or my student will be given a new one. I have no idea how long this will take and the seller made no offer to my student to provide an instrument to use in the meantime.

Please keep in mind that this is only one situation with this brand so it may or may not be indicative of the experience you have with M&M. As the teacher my students count on for guidance in the realm of selecting the right instrument, my recommendation will be to stay away from M&M tubas.