The tonal quality is unrivalled and is a league above all the competition which is what a Selmer is all about, yes the competitions intonation and ergonomics are more or less on a par but they just don't have the edge with regards to its warmth and versatility of tone.
I do have one criticism and that the pads are sticky which is annoying causing the usual troublesome valves to lift a millisecond or so late, this may have been my luck however was easily rectified by replacing them with Roo pads, I do remember my Series II sticking when I bought that back in 1988 but this cleaned and settled after a couple of months but not so with my Reference, hope this helps ya-ll...
Darren Green