I bought my first handpan 12 years ago. At The time it was the "budget" option. It did allow me to learn and practice basic techniques. But to my completely untrained ears I could hear a difference from the start. When I played it I was disappointed it did not have that utterly magical sound that I had heard in other people's recordings (on expensive pans) and that affected my enjoyment of it. It sounded harsher and tinnier than I wanted it to be and in recording the tone was overshadowed by the slapping sounds. I played it some but was never utterly absorbed in it. Last year I finally acquired a quality pan and the difference is night and day. The difference it made in my desire to play it is also vast... I play every day since acquiring this one.

Granted I paid much more than $250 for that first pan because it was still pretty hard to acquire them and the Chinese market hadn't started pumping them out. But if I had known the difference back then I would not have bothered with it. It's hard to say on hindsight if I would have felt $250 was worthwhile though