Aulos 205A Descant Recorder, Brown

This is the brown and cream version of the Aulos 511B E Symphony Recorder, and I think it does look nicer than the black and white version that I borrowed to try before buying. I bought this at a sale price which was a lucky bargain, as I'd already decided on this model.This is as good as plastic/resin tenor recorders ever get. It even out performs many wooden tenor recorders, and you would have to pay many times the price to get a wooden one that matched its performance. It has a very balanced, solid and quality feel to it and produces a beautiful tone right through the range. The recorder is a 3 piece model and comes in a nice leatherette case with a cleaning rod, joint grease, clip on thumb rest and fingering chart/care instruction sheet. The centre section also has end caps for storage. The foot section has easy reachable levers for the low C and C#, which still produce a strong sound unlike many tenor recorders, and the tone is pleasant and easy to play right through into the high range. The precision build quality is apparent as soon as you start to assemble the recorder, with the joints fitting together perfectly. Only need very lightly greasing. If only all recorders were built to such exact tolerances!The finger spacing is typical of most modern tenors and as this is not my first tenor recorder, I found the spacing very comfortable. The tuning is spot on right through the range too, unlike my old tenor which was a cheaper brand and had serious uncorrectable tuning flaws. That has now gone to the charity shop!Aulos are not the cheapest of the plastic/resin recorders but this model is the best I've played. I'm usually a Yamaha fan, but after borrowing a Yamaha tenor and one of this model, I think the Aulos just has the edge on performance and sound. This makes it worth the extra few pounds to get the best. I can't find a single negative to say against it. 5***** for Aulos!

I thought I'd never be able to play tenor recorder due to my small hands (my stretched hand span is just over 7 inches). But I read the reviews on this and thought I'd give it a try and I'm so happy I did! I would recommend to anyone else with small hands - provided you can stretch enough to play an alto recorder you'll likely be fine with this too. There isn't much in the way of complex tone colour but I would say the sound is warm and clear. Well until it clogs up, but that just seems to be part of the parcel with plastic recorders and not a particular defect of this model imo.

This is a very good recorder. I particularly like it because it is keyless and I prefer not to have the faff of keys, leaking pads, etc etc - in fact, if you want a decent, keyless, plastic tenor, this is it, there are no others. I have not given it 5 stars because I don't think it's as good as Aulos's top of range models. I have a Haka alto and it is excellent. Their top range 511 tenor is also a very good instrument, though with keys. If Aulos made a Haka-style keyless tenor, I would buy it. As it is, you'd have to pay about 7 times the cost of this instrument for something like a Küng Studio tenor, which would probably be the next step up (still avoiding keys).

I'd never tried a tenor recorder before, though I've played descant (soprano) and treble (alto) recorders for very many years, and and I bought this for fun, to see what it was like. It's good. A nice warm tone and is fairly easy to play, though the fingers do have to be well splayed apart to cover the holes, and those with small hands would find great difficulty. This model is actually slightly smaller than others, and I picked it after doing a good bit of googling and research on Amazon itself. My problems stem from having somewhat arthritic fingers and wrists which tire much more quickly than on a smaller recorder, but I reckon the exercise is probably doing some good, so I'm persevering.It's excellent quality, comes in a nice case, and overall I am very happy to recommend this instrument.

I left my old Aulos tenor behind, and needed one urgently before I could get the other one back so I didn't want to spend too much. This one has lower C sharp as two holes, rather than levers, but other reviews said they had no problem reaching them so I took the plunge and ordered it. It came in the time promised, in time for when I needed it. My hands are medium size for a woman, but I have arthritic knuckles. Even so, I find I can reach these bottom holes well enough. Tone is pretty good for the price, no problems with the lower notes, they "speak" easily. Good in group or session, maybe not as solo instrument. Altogether well worth the money.

I am not a pro and wouldn't consider myself experienced, but I found this tenor recorder really nice. This recorder will take a little getting used to with the spacing and size for me (I was playing the soprano/descant recorder before) but I can reach all the notes, which I was happy about (it is a still a stretch and uncomfortable for my right hand, but a lot better than a normal tenor with keys for me - for reference I am female and I would say I have average hands). The tone is nice, and the notes all sound in pitch. I haven't had any difficulty playing any notes that have partially open holes or the low D and C. The only issue was that condensation seemed to be happening more quickly than what I was used to with the recorder...but that isn't a big issue, as I have found warming the head joint under the arm before playing for a little longer helps with that. I am really happy with my purchase and have been enjoying playing this recorder. Also the delivery on this was very quick, it arrived earlier than expected and was packaged well.