Yamaha YFL674H vs YFL674HHV vs Pearl PF765RBE Quantz CODA

[FluteNut]

Hi! I'm a bit of a newbie here. This looks like a great bulletin board here! I'm hoping the experienced players will be willing to share their knowledge with me.

I'm looking for a good intermediate flute. Lucky me, I live near Fluteworld and I went there Friday and played a lot of flutes and narrowed my choice down to those three listed in the subject line.

To my admittedly unprofessional (for the time being - LOL!) ears and fingers, these three are nearly equally nice to play, therefore I would like to add into the equation other factors, such manufacturer's reputation and any knowledge that you would care to share with me, either goood or bad, regarding these three specific models as well as the two manufacturers. Do Yamaha flutes have a tuning issue? I've heard that they are not tuned to the same frequency of A as American made flutes. Is this true, and if so, is it a problem? I'm curious too about what you feel regarding Pearl's "Pinless" mechanism - what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Any and all comments would be VERY much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

BTW, sorry for such a long post>

[kkSlider]

Hi.
I haven't tried those models out, but the models one step below those - the Yamaha YFL-461H and the Pearl Quantz 665 RBE. I immediately noticed a much better tone quality out of the Yamaha. The Yamaha flute is all silver, and was made in Japan. The Pearl on the other hand, had a silver head, E-mech, and French arms but was considerably cheaper. That was made in Taiwan. I'm pretty sure you won't regret going with either one, but make sure to check out where they were made and the warranty. I don't know about the Pearl's, but Yamaha has a nice 5-year limited warranty.

Hope this helps!