Adding just one remark related to the title of the thread and as I said I will by principle not comment on makers of today.

My favourite *maker* among the oldies was George Jones - not firstly based on the rather few instruments of his I have had but for the ambitions of the firm while in his hands - as it has been told by Frank Butler ( and some others too). Now, Frank B. may have been slightly biased by family kinship - I can't know - but the instruments I have had after all do support some of the saying, having a mellow and more delicate tone rather than been produced with obvious stress on 'power first and tone second', which is characteristic for many Anglos for instance which today are regarded as "top class" musically while they initially firstly were meant for outdoor screaming only, to be heard among other Morris noises.

Frank Butler said that George Jones was particularly interested in development of the tone. The firm made harmoniums firstly and one ambition was to simulate "organ sound" with the concertinas too.One feature being the use of an extra voluminous compartment underneath the endplate ( between endplate and action board) , another a special type of reeds, and also making special models like the "clarionet" to imitate clarinet tone but I have never come across any Jones "clarionet" - only some made by Wheatstones.They DO not sound like ordinary concertinas at all! - in my view a certain advantage...