I must say, I love my Hohner harps. I started out on a Hohner "Pocket Pal" harp, and while it wasn't much, it got me started. Not long after I started buying Blues Harps and Marine Bands and fell in love with these harps.
When I started performing on a regular basis at clubs and festivals, I was buying custom-made Hohner Marine Band harps from Joe Filisko and Richard Sleigh...including lots of low-tuned harps that you couldn't really get anywhere else. Nowadays, I play lots of the Hohner Crossover Marine Band harps, as well as the Marine Band Deluxe model, the standard 1896 Marine Band, and the Thunderbird models, which are the low-tuned Crossover line of harps. To me, nothing beats the feel and the sound of these harps for Blues or Rock & Roll. It's not JUST the sound, it's also about how it responds and how it feels when the notes, octaves, intervals and chords are being played.
I also play quite a bit of chromatic harp, and I prefer the 270 or 270 Deluxe models, but for the big 16-hold chromatics, I love the Super 64X model. The bottom two octaves on that harp incorporates a double-thick reedplate and those low notes really resonate! Can't say enough about that harp.
Over the years I have tried ALL of the other brands and models...some have been given to me to "get feedback", others were gifts (or curiosity got the best of me), but in every single case I still preferred a Hohner Marine Band style harp. While some newer models played very well out of the box, they lacked in tone and feel...nothing has ever compared to my Hohners, and hundreds of Blues Musicians and Legends have felt the same way over the years!
You can check out more of my gear preferences such as Mics, Cables, Amps, and more on my GEAR PAGE, and I plan on updating this info on a regular basis as needed.