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Anybody played a Jupiter 378? How is it? Opinions?

Briefly, I taught several students in clinics who had them. Those models are common in town as they are the cheapest horns that can be bought new at the store. (The retail is about $2800 around here) ( Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $500 for one of these)

I don't really like them. They are small and kinda stuffy, imho. They work ok for 12-13 year olds who don't need a large horn and they come with a case, but if I were buying something for myself I would look elsewhere.

I would consider this instead:
http://www.dillonmusic.com/p-19134-king-2340.aspx" target="_blank

I tried one out at a local music store. It was not a good tuba. Very stuffy, no low end, no high end and only three valves.

My son's middle school has two. My son plays them for practice in school, when we can't be bothered to drag his big tuba to school and back. The second-chair tuba player always plays the school-owned Yamaha 321, but has one of the Jupiter 378 at home (loaner from school).

Con: The lack of 4th valve does bad things to intonation, in particular to the C below the staff (which is, unfortunately, pretty common in band music). It doesn't make a big sound naturally. If you try to make it play "loud", it sounds awful, and screams. Low stuff (say below the staff) is really quiet, and very little sound comes out. As far as my son knows, it doesn't have pedal tones (which he can play pretty easily on his full-size horn).

Pro: For a small ensemble, in the upper register, it's actually not half bad. My son plays it in jazz band (for the trombone 4 part), and it works pretty well. With a small ensemble (maybe 20 students), it blends in well. It is quite portable, the kind of instrument that a school band could easily transport on a yellow school bus with its case, or that can be stored in a small closet (not all band programs have huge storage spaces). Speaking of case, it comes with a hard case. It is a good choice to send home with students to practice at home, because parents can get it home even if they have a small car, and it doesn't take up half the living room. Our repair technician likes it, because he can remove the whole valve pack and lead pipe with just three screws.

Oh, and by being very small, it lends itself to starting tuba players who have a hard time holding the big instruments, or require strange setups with stands to play otherwise. My son (who is physically large enough for a full-size tuba) actually had to play it at the last spring concert, because the day before the concert he broke his left arm (school soccer league semi-finals). But I'm not sure that's a real advantage: giving a student an instrument that is hard to play and will not sound good, just because it's small, doesn't really do the student a service.

As I'm not a tuba player myself, I won't pass final judgement, but our band director did: he is relegating the Jupiters to take-home and emergency backup instruments, and buying another Yamaha 321.