There are a lot of low quality Chinese saxophones being sold under various American and European sounding names. Would you buy a sax with a name like Hung Koi? Probably not! So they use names that sound a little more appealing. They also make claims like "German Engineered" or that they are a copy of a Selmer or a Yanagisawa. The basic design might be similar, but the alloys used, the pads, and overall quality is no where near that of the Selmer or Yani. It upsets me that many of these saxophones are being marketed on Ebay with some outrageous claims! Many claim they are professional quality instruments! The truth is, you're lucky if they last longer than a year without a key breaking or needing to have the pleather pads replaced. Yes pleather! That's not a typo! Plastic leather! Me and others have posted several comments about these cheap horns, speaking from experience. I admit, a couple years ago I wanted a soprano and didn't have much money to spend. I was tempted to buy one of the Schill sopranos until I talked to the tech who was working on my old Conn 10M at the time. He showed me a couple cheap Chinese horns that were taken in for repair and the repairs cost more than the horns were worth. Since I started collecting vintage horns, I have learned how to do some repairs, and I help out at the shop from time to time. I have seen many of these horns come in with various names, and unless it's just a very simple repair, like a spring that needs to be put back on, or a cork or something like that, we don't repair them. I have tried to warn people about these horns and the claims being made by those people selling them. The truth is, you just can't buy a good NEW saxophone for much less than $1000. Some of the Taiwanese horns like the Jupiter, and Antigua Winds and the Winston are decent student horns, but for a good intermediate saxophone, you're going to spend about $1500. If you shop around, you can often find a used student-intermediate model horn by Yamaha or Selmer in good condition for under $800. There are some really nice vintage instruments on the market too. If you buy one of these vintage instruments from Ebay, plan on putting a couple hundred dollars into repair; pads, adjustments, cork, etc. Some of the better buys when it comes to vintage are the Conn 14M and 16M Directors models made between 1955-1969, King Cleveland or 613, The Buescher 400's, Selmer Bundy's, Bundy II's (I hate them with a passion, but they are decent beginner horns!) older Vitos (made by Yanagisawa) Borgani saxophones (Made in Italy. Good quality horns) Vintage saxophones to avoid: Anything made before about 1930 if you plan on playing it regularly. They're going to need a little extra care and can be tempermental. If you have any questions, feel free to email me anytime. Let me know what you're looking to spend, and what you're looking for, and I'll see what I can find! Jim