i like the yani 901...its basically all preference and what kind of tone ur looking for, or looking to develop...also, if he knows hes goin to play it through college, just put out the extra few bux and go a step above, so u dont have to worry about gettn another sax later... i tried 4 saxes in my sax "venture" and this is what i found of each one... 1st: Keilwerth Ex-90: good tone, very consistant, dark tone, a little bit harder to play due to the larger bow section, u need a hell of a lot of air to play that horn, but if you have the air for it, by all means get that sax, its amazing. 2nd: Yamaha yas-62: good all around sax, but not my favorite. i tried it in a matte finish and though the tone was better than the keilwerth, the sax itsself wasnt that appealing to me. the tone was good, the action was ok, but thats it, it was just mediocre tone and action that didnt do anything for me and i knew i could get better for the same price range. 3rd: Keilwerth sx-90: same thing as the ex just with the option to move angle of your palm keys, a lil bit better tone and action. 4th: Yanagisawa A-901: as you can tell, this was my favorite, though the sax tends to be a lil bit "sharp" and bright for many, you can certainly work your way around that and it will do everything for you but hurt you as a player. the tone is very centered, the intonation is right on key, and hte action is amazing. just make sure u take care of it and itll last you til your dead and gone..or untill you get tired of it

Thanks for the in-dept analysis on the four sax- I did look into all four of these. And you are right! I did end up with theYana 901; so far the sax has not let my son down. He biggest complained from his old vito was the action speed was lacking expecially now he is taking intermediate scales which demands some quick and smooth action and the tone was sharper. This Yana has met and exceed his expecation. My son's instructor has asked that he use a different mouth piece and change the reed to #2 - I think this cured the sharpness tone especially on high pitch. This forum did help out a lot in helping made the big decision on purchasing the Yana 901. It rejuvinated my son to practice more as he can hit those notes and tempo right on. And of course my son's instructor also has a Yana 901 !