Overall. the Symphony 48 looks like the smaller brother of the Symphony Grand, the four octave model. The shape of the covers and mouthpiece are identical.
The covers and the body are made of aluminum. It wasn’t clear at the time of my writing if Seydel will eventually come out with an additional “Acryl” version.
One of the new interesting features is the newly redesigned slider mechanism. Instead of using an internal spring to push and release the slider, the new Symphony uses two same poled magnets. That is a clever idea since a spring tends to wear out after a while. The slider itself feels smooth and the button can be pushed in with little effort. Just in case, Seydel still leaves the option to remove the magnets and use a spring instead.
Similar to the Symphony Grand (and before that, the Renaissance), the mouthpiece has no visible screw holes. The mouthpiece screws are attached from the bottom of the comb.
It also comes with steel reeds. For additional durability, as it was explained to me, the reeds have been polished. When it comes to durability, I actually never had a problem with steel reeds. Maybe the extra polishing makes them indestructible. 🙂
For extra airtightness, similar to the Symphony Grand, the reed plates are placed into the body. There are screws on both sides of the reed plates for easy removal.
The covers have wide openings to disperse the sound as much as possible.
Additional info: the box looks similar to the heatable case. It will be smaller without the heating option. One instrument can be placed into it.
Chromatic Harmonica History 
Being two magnets replacing a spring will be a new innovation, I wonder if this will a Seydel patent. If not, will the other brands follow this new approach as well in upcoming models?
LikeLike
Hi Stan, as I got to know from Seydel the magnetic slide patent is pending.
LikeLike