On: Vertical Flutes

[scottlamb]

No, there's a real difference between my $200 Armstrong beginner's flute and my $2,000 [1] Miyazawa intermediate flute in terms of result (sound), materials (nickel vs silver), and process (factory vs artisan). (To a point, of course: a good flutist will still sound better on the Armstrong than a bad flutist will on the Miyazawa.)

[1] price when I bought it. More now. Musical instruments appreciate, unlike electronics.

[dhosek → scottlamb]

Indeed, the tone quality from a solid silver Sankyo flute is absolutely distinguishable from the tone of a nickel Armstrong. I’m not sure that I buy the arguments for, say, gold lip plates, but there is an audible difference between silver and nickel.

[lisper → dhosek]

> the tone quality from a solid silver Sankyo flute is absolutely distinguishable from the tone of a nickel Armstrong

Different, sure. But better? Two orders of magnitude better? Seems improbable to me.

[_lqaf → lisper]

We're talking about aesthetics and art.

How do you quantify a unit of "better"? And perhaps more importantly, how many musicians agree with you?

If you want to fall back to economic evidence, centuries of musicians appear to have wallet-voted the other way.

[lisper → _lqaf]

Sure, but some people pay $30,000 for a bottle of Chateau Petrus too. Personally, I think they're crazy.

But it's not the existence of the high end that I'm remarking on, it's the apparent lack of low-end competition. Where is the two-buck chuck of vertical flute adapters?