i started out on a metal link 8* (recommended to me by Mrs. Levin), which was a steep learning curve, but served me well. great tone. after a little oral surgery, i switched to the C* that came with the horn. very easy intonation, but very Duck! then i went through a number of pieces, recording frequent comparisons. i finally settled on a reworked, large chamber Buescher (thanks, Joe). and then decided to submit to a lesson with a young teacher to revisit the fundamentals. (back a**wards as they'd say.)
my 2 cents: focus hard on technique and see what that gets you first. then play around with a couple of pieces if you still need to zero in on what you want.