This may seem anticlimatic after the discussion on Copley flutes, but it's a nice day for me - just got my used M&E flute. This is my first "Irish" style flute. I purchased it from David Migoya, and after dealing with him I know I'm gonna buy another flute from him someday.
All I have to compare this flute with is my Boehm-style Armstrong 104 student flute (which I've been playing for less than 3 months) and my Howard low whistle, for those who like comparing apples and oranges. My strategy was to prepare myself for an Irish flute in the future by working on tone production on the Boehm flute and on tunes/simple system fingering on the whistles. After my first M&E practice section at lunch today, I feel the strategy worked fairly well.
I was immediately able to pop a low D out of the M&E (I've worked extra hard on that on the Boehm flute), in fact, it's easier on the M&E. All of the first octave is easy. Getting a good 2nd octave is different than on my Boehm, and I was not 100% consistent on that yet, but I did get a few good tones, so I know I'll be able to firm that up.
The response is tons faster than my Howard low D, and all of a sudden my rolls sound crisp as a cracker. (Well, all except the roll on A.)
I'm not able to judge the intonation yet (I had to develop that on my Boehm flute and assume that I'll have to on this flute as well), but I did notice that the 2-finger C natural wasn't sharp (like it is on every other wind instrument I own).
So, that's my big news for the day!
Joe (who thinks his flute of plastic is fantastic)