I have to agree with someone who posted earlier. If you have not played these horns or have not played/demo'd a Jupiter product in the past two years, you should be careful to pass judgement.
I got a chance to play the Quantum brass on a couple occasions. And I have to say I was shocked that they were decent horns. I would definitely pick them over Dynasty. The baritone has good tone and response and opened up nicely and still retained a good tone. Hell, I even thought it played better than the Kanstul Marching Baritones I have at my school right now.
I, too, was skeptical. But I remember about 13 years ago I was working for a music store and I blind tested some Jupiter trumpets. The Jupiter sales rep came in and was so confident about his product he wanted me to blind test some horns. I went into a practice room, with about 6 horns. Amongst them were many "name band" student and intermediate horns and a Jupiter pro horn. Needless to say, the jupiter pro horn was last on my list, below a Conn student model.
Now...times have changed. Sorry to say, but although I feel Yamaha has maintained consistent quality (and even improved quality), other companies have not.
When I buy intermediate/Pro horns for my school...they are all Conn/King or Yamaha. But if I were to recommend a student model horn. Yamaha would be first on my list and Jupiter second. (And as I side note, I stay the heck away from Bach brass....any and all of it...definitely not impressed).
So back to Quantum. I spoke to a Jupiter Rep and the NAMM show regarding the Quantum stuff and he shared with me that PR and Academy are playing Jupiter horns out of the box. No mods. (To which I replied "bull----"). But they road tested the horns with Academy for a year and did several changes during that year, and those are now reflected in the Quantum brass line.
So...there ya go...my opinions
