The Murmatsu flutes are excellent, but really you need to try everything you can get your hands on. I LOVE my Powell and my Muramatsu comes in a close second. Another flute I really liked a lot was a Williams. It was a dream to play. While Powell may still be my favorite, I like them much better with a different brand of headjoint. Powell makes great headjoints, but then the whole flute tends to be on the brighter side. Don't rule out a particular flute unless you try other headjoints on it first. The stock head is not always for everyone and that is what make the biggest difference on the flute. Good luck with it!

Thanks once more for the info. As far as I can see, the makers I am interested are offering exactly the same flutes with the only difference of drawn vs soldered. Altus 1307 (drawn) & 1507 (soldered). Miyazawa Type I & Type II (europe models). Muramatsu DS & SR. They are exactly the same apart of the holes but they have a price difference of almost 2K.
I will talk with some local technicians to have their opinion on that too.

Is there any specific reason that you are only limiting your choices on those few flute models mentioned?

Personal experience, friends, beliefs and marketing.

i prefer the japanese flutes over the american flutes. i will admit, however, that ive have played my fair share of american flutes that i would have gladly bought if i had the money.

Dioisp, do yourself a big favor, try the flutes you mentioned and try many others if you can. If you don't, you might always wonder if there was something better or more suited for you. I am just speaking from experience. There are so MANY wonderful flute makers and options when speaking of the hand made flutes. It is really incredible how far we have come with flutes. I have one brand that always speaks to me no matter how many others I have ever tried. I am hope you find your match too

So do you get to try out these flutes? I will be very interested in knowing what you think of them.

I'll do that Kara. I have planned a trip next month to a shop that is stocking almost everything from Japan & US (Powell, Haynes, Brannen, Nagahara, Altus, Miyazawa, Muramatsu, etc.). The plan is to stay there from morning till evening and try as much as I can. However, I am not that fond of the American sound in flutes. My personal style goes more to the Japanese side. I'll post my impressions as soon as I do that trip.

Micron,

It's funny that you said that. I tried two Muramatsu flutes without looking at the prices. I sounded much better on the 5k flute than the 8k. It was probably the headjoint cut.

I absolutely fell in love with the one Altus flute that was in the store. I am hoping to try more flutes at the Atlanta flute fair this weekend.

The Altus is at the top of my list right now. Followed by Powell and Muramatsu.

I have yet to try a real Haynes, Sankyo, or Miyazawa.

Wonderful advice indeed!
Regarding Altus I have the opportunity to play a lot on a gold altus of a friend. I think the ergonomics of the mechanism is absolute perfect for my hands. This specific flute has a headjoint with a very rectangular cut and a lot of undercut and although it is "safe" and "easy" to play, the sound is very dark. It lacks openess and aggression. Nice, sweet, "female", sound. Not my taste.

Just to let you know that I decided on Muramatsu SR. I did my best and played as many flutes as I could (Brannen, Mateki, Altus, Nagahara, Muramatsu, Sankyo, Haynes, Yamaha, Miyazawa).

Although the Mura was a "love at the first note", I rated very highly Brannen too. Maybe Brannen is a better overall flute, however the Mura is made for me. I felt like I found my natural extension.

Now I have to wait for 6 endless months till I have it.
Thank you all for the valuable information and opinions.

Congrats on the new flute. I know that you will be happy with it. It's too bad you have to wait so long, but If I was buying a new flute, I would have it custom ordered too.

I ended up buying a used EX a couple of weeks ago and I am very pleased with it.

It is a funny feeling. I was nervous before my trip because I was thinking that it would be too difficult to choose between so many good flutes. After trying twelve flutes with a short pre-scheduled assessment program (2-3 minutes on each flute), I ended up thinking about 2 + 1/2 flutes for my choice. Brannen, Muramatsu and Mateki (the last half).

Mateki was a very welcomed outsider. A very good flute overall (I had also a mateki at home for a week), with a unique approach to HJ design. However, it was not up to the standards of the other two (at least for what I am looking for).

Brannen was too good. It was also too "independent". I could not mix my playing style with it. So technically speaking I think it was the best but I could not fell in love with it. The result was far from the vision I have for my sound.

As said, with the Mura I had this awesome feeling that whatever I "gave" to the flute it was returned (either good or bad). The mechanism seemed "invisible" under my hands and I felt free to play from the first second. Finally, the Mura had impressive dynamics. I was the only responsible for the result and not the flute.

If I have to say a negative from my experience is that the tone was not "absolute" at the extreme dynamics that the flute was capable to play. On the other hand Brannen had an impressive/ absolute tone no matter how sadisticly you try to expose it.

Not EX. DS only if this is of any value to you, but I could not have a direct comparison because DS was a B-foot and SR was a C-foot.