Buying a singing bowl online feels like buying a violin by photograph - until you know what the photograph tells you. Three things predict the voice.
Size sets pitch. Small bowls (10-15cm) sing high and bright, good for desks and focus. Medium (15-22cm) sit in the warm middle - the right first bowl. Large bowls (23cm+) go deep and long, the sound-bath register you feel in your chest.
Wall thickness sets sustain. Thicker rims ring longer and forgive a clumsy strike; thin walls respond faster to rimming but decay sooner.
Hammer marks tell the truth. Dense, irregular faceting means hand-forging - a complex tone with overtones. Smooth, perfect surfaces usually mean machine-spun: cleaner, simpler, less alive.
Strike with a felt mallet for the fundamental; circle the rim slowly with a wooden one and let pressure, not speed, build the sing. One bowl, used daily, beats a shelf of them.
Our hand-hammered bowls - desk-size to sound-bath - and the cushions that complete the corner are in The Ritual.