Thats like say ing that a $3/lb steak will taste a lot like a $30/lb steak cuz they're both made of beef. The difference usually most prevalent in the keywork; cheapy horns have lousy action, poorly placed tone hole (some notes play way out of tune) and fall apart within a month of purchase. Also, there are differences in the quality of the metal in the body, neck and most often the springs. Many times cheapy horns dont have a proper bore diameter/taper relationship throughout the horn, from the neck tenon to the bell, and thus are very hard to make sound good and play evenly throughout the range of the horn. You get what you pay for is a pretty accurate way to put it.