For beginners and amateurs like myself, I strongly recommend the Yamaha recorders, especially the woodgrain soprano and alto recorders, for the following reasons:

1. Incredible buy for the money.
2. Much more durable. You don't have to worry about dings or dents.
3. Good outdoor recorder. No intonation changes from changes in the weather.
4. Very nice baroque recorder sound and great intonation, even on alternate fingerings.
5. Good backup recorder for when you purchase a wooden one.
6. The rosewood woodgrain recorders look great and I recommend spending the couple additional dollars to buy these over the simpler black finish recorders.