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I learnt a lot from the post 'Players known for their amazing tone.' But is there away of defining that? It is not just taste - because we 'know' when a real genius is blowing.

Of the current Americans - I would choose Gene Pokorny. There is a true refinement and singing quality in his constantly nuanced sound. He does not hit you with vibrato but his notes magically mould to the music. He really holds your attention.

The difference might be between a beautiful, utterly smooth string bass arco sound and the exciting, human-voice like, constantly, very slightly moving and changing in colour voice of a wind instrument. Modern US taste seems to favour the 'brass string bass' sound. I hear in Gene Pokorny an echo of the old, often mocked, British sound -the gold standard during my formative years. John Fletcher was of course fabulous and he built on the British Brass Band sound which was translated through Aubrey and Dennis Brain to the (very much less vibrato) orchestral sound. The greatest ever players in my experience for sound as well technique were Arthur Doyle, Lyndon Baglin and Trevor Groom who inherited 'that sound' from the early 20th century.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvcVbPJhRIw] John playing the Derek Bourgeois Concerto.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34u_KlAp8ro] Lyndon Baglin conducted by Derek Bourgeois himself. So this was the sound Derek Bourgeois had in mind for bass tuba also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwFuuaK8WqE" target="_blank - this Maurice Andre - yes, it is a trumpet - but listen past that to his subtle use of vibrato at 08.01. And this genius has no link to pre-Brexit British Brass bands.

If any tuba player wishes truly to improve his sound and musicianship then he should listen to all of Dennis Brain's recording and all of Lyndon Baglin. For the latter, he will have to get over his prejudice against 'too much' vibrato and the British Brass Band sound. He will also have to listen repeatedly to the sheer brilliance of how these giants manipulate the sound within each note often. Unfortunately there are no recording of my teacher, Arthur Doyle but he sounded a lot like Lyndon Baglin. He got into the RAF Band in 1940, after all the places had been filled! Fletch went to him for lessons on the VW.

I'll start with an observation: It is not hard to tell Roger Bobo, Gene Pokorny, Warren Deck, and John Fletcher apart by sound alone. None of them sound like any other of them. But there is no question that they each produce an amazing sound.

Another observation: One of the thing that makes each of their sounds easy to listen to and so pleasing is that it is consistent top to bottom. There's nothing jarring about one register vs. another. Each successive note sounds how you expect it to sound.

I don't think Roger Bobo gets enough credit for his sound. He's almost never the first one people list in these threads. I think that is because he didn't play a big horn, and his sound doesn't hit you in the face the way Warren Deck's does, nor does it have the same breadth as Gene Pokorny's or Floyd Cooley's that you get in those 80s and 90s recordings.

But if you listen to his solo recordings, where there is nothing to hear but his sound, what comes through is that he fills the horn with as much pure vibration as the horn can hold. When I hear his sound, it feels like the horn is going to rip apart at the seams if it is asked to hold any more sound. Even at pianissimo.

That's what I strive for when I play, and that's an "amazing sound" to me - No extra noise, no wasted air or effort. Just as much pure sound as can be produced.

Final observation: There's a reason there has only ever been one Roger Bobo.

It’s what we all strive to produce and most often do. Whether noticed or not, it’s obvious when we’ve laid it down properly

....

And then there was the young sprout playing Euph who posted some years ago he had, "World-Class Tone."