Conn Double French Horn, Nickel (8DCGC)

This is a great horn for those who like the warm dark sounds of large orchestras, but if you want good intonation and security, get a different horn.

It served me very well through high school. I purchased mine through music&arts brand new and I loved it from the moment I got it ($3,900.00 at the time). It was the best thing to happen to me right up until I got into college with a bunch of other people who were more experienced than myself. I began working with a former principal horn of a state Symphony of national acclaim who had a job there for about 20 years. Within a year of his instruction, I knew I would need a new horn, but it took that long to notice it. Any horn that could make me believe in myself like this one did deserves high acclaim. It does deliver very dark tone, a reasonable intonation basis, and it gives the player the ability to play much louder without getting quite as crass as smaller horns. I have received several compliments on my tone while playing this horn. The maintenance is average. There may be options for water keys, and I highly recommend you seek them out. Mine had no such water keys and every time I want to empty spit, I have to turn my horn several times to get it out of all the places it could be. This horn definitely deserves consideration.

The problem (and one of the only ones) I found with the Conn 8D (for me) is that the high register, while being somewhat coherent, had poor intonation centers. The G just above the staff would always come out flat and the partial the C above the staff was supposed to be at was at least a half step off (I determined this after several months of careful examination and sharing the results with my professor), causing me to work impossibly hard to get out anything above an A just above the staff. Not every horn player will notice this or care for this technical issue, but with the technique I am using, it is crucial to have perfect intonation centers on the horn. This allows for a better connection between player and instrument and allows the player to develop a trust that would otherwise not exist. I am currently playing on my Conn 8D, and to compensate for this, I must make my horn incredibly sharp and use my hand to bend it down in the lower register, and I STILL have to use my hand so much that it might as well not be in the bell at all in the upper register, around the C, to get it to properly speak. Even with these compensations, it makes hitting the notes on staccato or very soft entrances extremely difficult. This proves to be a huge inconvenience, and with any luck, I will be switching to a new horn soon.

My recommendation from what I know on the subject and what has been recommended to me is the Yamaha 567 for the cheapest, most accurate option. For a long-lasting, professional horn, I suggest custom horns made by Jacob Medlin, which is where I hope to purchase one of my next horns. These intonation centers are spot on and the custom horn is assured to deliver the ability to play with many colors while still maintaining integrity of the classical horn sound. There are other benefits to getting a custom horn of that quality, but for someone making it through college, the factory-made YHR-567 will do the trick. Having such intonation centers allows for very soft and very loud playing, even in the highest and lowest parts of the register. There is likely to be debate on the importance of this aspect and the importance of other aspects that make these horns very different, and while I am open to them, these are the ones that grabbed my attention and make the difference for me. There is quite a lot of physics, research, and experience that goes into this review, and I hope some will find it helpful.

I owned and played on one of these throughout high school and college (music ed major). The lower range is superb, can hit the lowest of notes with ease and it has a dark, rich, full tone. The upper register is just as agile and is very responsive with a brighter sound. The tone of these horns is their best feature. They have a deep, rich tone without the overt brassiness that you sometimes get with other metals. Even in the higher registers, the tone still retains its fullness without having too much of a brassy edge. The valve action is quick and efficient and very responsive. The grip is rather large and may be too large for players with smaller hands. I loved this horn for everything that I ever played on it – all the major solo works as well as the orchestral works sound as if they were made just for this horn.