My wife is a nursing student and has been through 3 different stethescopes during her program. The first one was issued to her by her school but the sound quality sucked. The next one she bought and was an improvement but it eventually walked off on it's own. She used a Littmann from one of the other girls in her class and was startled at the sound quality. I ordered this one for valentine's day and she fell in love with it. She said many of the doctors they see have the same stethescope so it must be worth it.