thanks, Dr. Sax&Sounds,
I appreciate your concise explanation, and take your bio as significant qualification in several facets, also noting that you own several 62's. At present, with kitchen needing repairs, kid in grad school, etc, my purchasing another sax would affix a lifelong refrain to my detriment to the marital dialogue...nothwithstanding the case that any personal bank balance I may have will be a conflagration in my pocket, so to speak, until I gain sympathy for the argument that a reasonable interlude has passed and that my playing merits exchanging a student alto for a pro model (as well as empathy for the rationale that I deserve to have a decent horn in more than one register). Therefore it is premature for me to explore, say, with my local store's manager, the relative costs of ordering an unstocked 62II and buying, perhaps, the 82Z which has been burdening the inventory of a store which probably does not often sell a pro sax. Needless to say, the ease of a click on the internet to acquire a shiny new 62II, unplayed and unheard, (as well as a large VISA bill and that eternal drag on the future of my marriage) is an infernal temptation.
Your explanation makes sense, in view of Yamaha's dual offering for high priced pro saxes, but I have not seen this reason for the difference, with the 875 modelled on the Selmer, presented elsewhere - I suppose Yamaha would not want to come out and say that. In any case this seems to confirm the sense I have acquired that a Yamaha should be my choice, over Selmer, on grounds other than (and as well as) price - and a complete choice in that direction would lead me towards the 82Z or 62II as opposed to the 875EX.
