Thanks Count, Bari and NRS, today I got my gold lacquered System 76 Alto, and let me say it was wonderful. I went to band rehearsal waiting for UPS to deliver the horn and when I came back I found the horn in front of my door. So opened the case, and this beautiful horn was simply beautiful (physically speaking). From the flowerly engraving to the phony advertising (P. Mauriat: Paris New York London), the horn was beautiful. Picked up the horn and the first thing I noticed was the very soft (how to describe it,) round tone the System 76 that my YAS-23 didn't. The tone was simply ROUNDER. Next thing I noticed was the intonation was good (Hitting the marks)! Which is really really weird considering it was right out of the box (so to speak). A few other small pros was the mouthpiece and ligature that the PM came with were so much better than the crappy Yamaha ones, but that's a small thing. One thing that I really really was annoyed by was the P. Mauriat's ergonomics. Maybe I was too used to the YAS-23, but the C# keys had very very little space to press down, and the thumb hook was a tad too low. Besides that the horn was great. System 76, P Mauriat, you've made me a fan.

if you just are looking for an intermediate horn, make sure you take your 23 with you to try new horns. play it side by side with the others. also, make sure your 23 is in good adjustment. you may find that it is not worth the money to upgrade for the subtle differences that you'll see