Intermediate flute

[johnnypooncy]

Hi there,
I’m a sophomore in high school in the Boston area, and I need help picking out an intermediate flute. I’ve been playing for about 6 years now and currently own a Yamaha 221 with a separate silver hj that I tried to modify with a scraper, a repadded Armstrong 80 that still comes out of adjustment, and a cheap $100 silver plated flute that I bought on eBay whcich the g# key fell off due to poor soldering. As you can see, I probably should have upgraded to an intermediate a long time ago but that’s how it turned out. My budget for a new or used flute is $500 to $1500. I am so lucky to be living in the Boston area because I visited Mr. Levit, who makes professional flutes. He advised me to look into Japanese brand flutes for their good mechanism that aren’t going to break like mine from eBay. Some options I picked out were the Azumi 2, Yamaha 362, Di Zhao 400/500 etc. I need a flute that will last me a long time with a sturdy and fluid mechanism. If anyone can guide me it would be awesome.