Hi there!
Funny you should mention the Trinity Zouk and Turkish music. I have a Trinity O.M. and I pic out some turkish stuff on it, works real well exept not having the half notes and all like a baglma(got one of those too). I like my Octave alot and have had it as long as my standard mando. I lucked up and found mine at a local music store that has some serious acoustic instrument techs working there and had mine set up as good or better than any Trinity College that I have seen. I have seen some off the line that are just terrible. Have you ever looked into a Baglma? They are pretty fun to play around on, I have alot of dancer and drummer friends who welocme the chance to get a melody instrument in the mix. If you ever get a chance to play one you should check it out, its not a very hard instrument to learn, unless you try to play the real tradtional stuff.
I like the sound of my octave though, great for mellow stuff and celtic string instrumentals, I wound't say the sound is murky at all.