I want to buy a flute, and I know that I should try it first, but do anyone have any brands/models you are really pleased with? I have played for almost 7 years now, and want a semi-professional/professional flute. It would really help me to figure out wich ones to try.

Greetings:

I would recommend you go to www.fluteworld.com. They will send out instruments for you to try with a credit card number for deposit. You get 7 days to return a instrument if you dont like it. Just make sure you are careful with the packaging and accessories to fulfill your part of the trial agreement.

The best instruments to try IMHO would be:

1. Yamaha 361/381 or 461/481
2. Azumi 2000/3000
3. Jupiter 611/711
4. Pearl 665/695

Good luck!

PS

I play a Jupiter 611 with a professional Altus Z-cut .958 sterling silver head.

If you are pleased with the flute you have today. I suggest that you try out a new headjoint instead.
My old Yamaha 371 with a Sankyo headjoint, sounds better than may Miayzawa, but the Miayzawa was much more expensive.

FluteWorld is good.

If you're searching for semiprofessional/professional then look into getting low-end model flutes made by high-end brands. Some good ones are the Muramatsu EX and Miyazawa 201, just to name a few. Yamaha is great too (I play on one myself), but I only recommend the Yamaha 500 series or better, because the 300 and 400 series play exactly same as the 200 series -- everything is the same except the silver content which won't do much.

Lots of flute makers have been putting handcrafted headjoints on budget bodies; generally these are good too. I really like Azumi flutes because of the Altus Z-Cut headjoint, but some other great brands are Sonare, Amadeus, and Avanti-Brennan.