I was interested to read 'reedman’s quote that “Peter Hunter has to be, the finest Uilleann Pipe maker this Century by far”. It begs the question who is the second finest and so on, in your humble opinion? But I wondered, if the chanter is the ‘engine’ as was also quoted - what are the various features of a chanter’s tone and playability so players can categorise them before attempting to evaluate the various makers?
It is Reedman’s opinion that Peter Hunter’s pipes are the finest. Hunter’s work is, without a doubt, brilliant. But others will have someone else in mind… like Wooff, K&Q, Gallagher, C. O’Briain etc.. etc…
You have to decide for yourself what maker’s work appeals to you most in tone, workmanship and appearance. What sounds great to others may not sound as great to you.
I am in agreement with Joseph (the Florida one) on this one.
I also own a Hunter chanter that I bought from Peter about 14/15 years ago? Might even be 16 years now. Without doubt Peter was/is a very fine maker and a good generous friendly chap too. His workmanship and attention to detail is top notch.
However, tone et cetera is subjective. Personally I like the tone of his pipes although my chanter takes a bit of left arm power to drive it to bring out the best in it. Others may disagree and find the tone somewhat harsh and loud (especially those who own softer voiced chanters 
). That issue of course is down to personal preference. My Preshaw on the other hand gives a similar tone at a slightly less volume but with much less effort.
Without doubt Hunter has produced some fine looking and sounding pipes but to say he his the best would be a futile exercise.
In the final analysis everyone has opinions and in any case, how does one describe tone? It is as subjective has trying to explain colour to a blind person. Hunter chanter’s have good tone but so do chanter’s made by many other makers.
Joseph (the UK one) 
I’ve taken a liking to the greenwood chanters… I need to get Davey to make me a C chanter??? 
First and foremost is the reed.
After that, I’d say it’s the bore & holes.
Then the type of wood (for ressonance).
Anyone care to add to or comment on this?
IMHO,
Different chanters make different pitched sounds, different reeds make different pitched sounds, therefore if you combine the two you have an individual sound and pitch even close but slightly different pitch vary from chanter to chanter and climate to climate, as Joseph noted earlier.
So in effect, each person’s chanter could effectively sound great to each of their climatic area. For example, my chanter Robbie Hughes ABW sounds great to me from May to August maybe even September, but come winter time, I constantly have to re-adjust the reed to compensate for humidity losses and chanter shrinkage (interal bore), and not so great in winter times.