Ok as some of you know...i own a Yamaha 381. Sterling head nickel body.

Whenever i play on a sterling body, i feel and hear that...it loses its low end fatness. Very thin metallic sound...

I even tried exchanging headjoints and bodies ( sankyo, miya altus ) and yet... i find that my 381 gives more bite and came to the conclusion that a nickel silver body is not really inferior.

So far the best combination ive tried is a Sankyo headoint of my 381. Nice feel overall.

What are your comments on Nickel Silver?Interesting experiences and such?

***i was contemplating on a future purchase. Muramatsu EX...Yamaha 584...suggestions plz ***

Unless you have some sort of mechanical trouble with your 381, or MUST have the pretty pointed keys, I don't really see any reason to replace the Yam 381 with a Yam 584. My experience with the EC headjoint that comes with the 584 is that it was very similar to the Prima Sankyo NRS-1.

I would take opportunities to try some of these more expensive flutes, but it sounds like you found a good combination for you, so why change just to change?

Yea you guyz have a point.

Check out this article i googled yesterday. Its abt acoustic science of flute material

http://www.ciarm.ing.unibo.it/researches/ica2-98.pdf

To the change to change part...nah im not gonna change anytime soon. Perhaps when my 381 HORRIBLY gives way beyond repair or something.haha.

Wow ok that was refreshing ^^^

yes frummer, it's all about the design, micron is absolutely right ..... he's a genius :-)

If you read carefully, Micron did not say it was all about the design. He was pointing out that the study compared two very differently designed flutes, so the material was not the only difference between them. The goal is to have only one factor (i.e., material) be different, whereas in this case there were other differences (i.e., design) between the flutes. Of course they would sound different!

I highly value Micron's posts to this forum and feel he has a great deal of experience and knowledge about flutes. I don't know him well enough (nor do I suspect anyone on here does) to call him a genius, but that very well may be so!