There are only two important questions to ask yourself about stethoscopes:
1. Do you have diminished hearing-if yes, consider an amplified electronic stethoscope
2. Do you hear the things you need to hear with the stethoscope you've got (in your case, had).
There seem to be a handful of stethoscope "snobs" on SDN (no offense to them, who are probably otherwise nice and reasonable people) who will forever pooh pooh the LCIII as inferior to other models. But if you heard well with it, who cares. I've had my LCIII since MSI and now into 1st year peds cardiology fellowship. I use the pediatric diaphragm on it. It's done me just fine. If you want to shop around for a new steth, go to a store with different models and see if you can take a friend's kid with you (especially if they have some benign childhood murmur that the pediatrician/FP heard) or just listen to a friend or yourself. My only stethoscope snobbery extends to single vs. dual lumen. I truly believe that dual lumens offer better acoustics. Unfortunately, most pedi stethoscopes are single lumen. I've long been curious about the Magna Fortis pediatric stethoscopes (stethoscopes.com has the best prices)(stethoscopes.com has the best prices) that have a bell side and diaphragm (on a smaller head, obviously) and are dual lumen. But noone that I've known has owned one.
