I just bought a saxophone for the first time, an alto Orpheo, and bought 2 different mouthpieces for it, a Yamaha 3C and 4C as well as a BARI Esprit. Waiting for the BARI Esprit to arrive and with soft 1 1/2 RICO reeds my original MP that came with the Sax is much easier to play in the lower notes. The Yamaha MPs and harder 2 reed seem clearer, but a bit more difficult to produce nice low tone (to me) than the no-name plastic OEM that came with the Orpheo. A friend of mine, Scott Kurtzweil, who worked for Conn-Selmer and now does custom mouthpiece modifications as well as other woodwind stuff, played the Orpheo and thought it was a very nice Sax.
My question would be what is really the difference between the Esprit and Esprit II mouthpieces? They are listed for about the same money, but I would not know if I would gain anything from the Esprit II over the other. I live in SW Michigan not far from South Bend, IN.