SONARE 5000 VS YAMAHA ALLEGRO 371H

[s2jennie]

hello !
i am a 8th grade flute player who is 1st chair out of 25 players at school.
I am trying to get seriuos on flute and is trying to buy a open-hole flute.
And i've narrowed down to 2 choices.

SONARE 5000 ($949)
VS
YAMAHA ALLEGRO 371H($859)

1.Which one do you recommend more?
2. Which one is actually worth the value?
3. Other comments about those two please=)

Also if you don't recommend any of these models, which other ones
do you recommend??
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
hope you have a wonderful 2007~!

[flutepicc06]

I'm not the biggest fan of either of these models, though they certainly do the job. The Sonare bodies don't live up to what I expect from the Powell company. They are not actually produced by Powell, but are quality controlled in Boston and matched with the same Powell heads that the Signature series have. The heads vary, as you might expect, but generally are pretty nice. The body, however, tends to have a boxy mechanism, and can have some other issues. I have a friend who purchased a Sonare, and it turned out one of the toneholes hadn't been finished properly, and it was doing damage to the pads that would have required that pad to be replaced roughly every 2 weeks. I would encourage you to playtest the Sonare, but do a careful examination of the individual flute you actually plan to buy. As for the Yamaha 371, it has the same head joint as the 200 series flutes, except made in sterling. This means that the flute plays much the same as the cheaper 200 series flutes, and at least at the middle/high school level, you won't actually need the open holes. They only are useful for pitch shading, extended effects (like bends), and some notes into the fourth octave/alternate fingerings, which you likely won't need to perform for several years, if ever. French keys are more about prestige for most players than utility. For flutes around the same level, I would suggest trying the Azumi line, as well as Amadeus, Emerson, Pearl, Jupiter Dimedici, perhaps a aused Muramatsu EX, or Trevor James. Just make sure to playtest as many options as possible before you buy.

[Claiken]

i have a Sonare. My flute teacher actually took me to buy my flute and we tested a whole bunch... I had the best tone/potential with the Sonare (and at teh time I was partial to Yamaha, since all my student models were Yamaha)

[briolette]

Have you narrowed down to these two based on your playing them or due to specifications you read about?
Frankly, if I were to upgrade to a yamaha, I would go with a 481 or higher, but that's my preference. I worry since you are already playing so well that you might end up out growing these flutes pretty quickly.
Have you tried any Pearls or Emersons? When I was your age, I upgraded to an Emerson 88B and it carried me throughout highschool quite well and into college auditions. I'm not really a huge fan of Yamahas personally, but again, as other have mentioned it really depends on the person.