The perceived quality of clarinet reeds can be very different from one reed to another, even if they have the same brand, shape and strength. For this reason, there is a strong need for manufacturers to better understand the quality of their production. Many researchers tried to explain these large quality disparities thanks to physical indicators (e.g. mechanical rigidity, modes, reed displacement in dynamic condition) but without totally explaining the perceived quality. Studies on the internal structure have revealed that the wood fibers are not uniformly distributed. Therefore, some authors argue that perceived quality could be related to the stiffness symmetry or the torsional mode symmetry. Based on this observation, the purpose of this work is to evaluate whether the perceived reed quality is related to the symmetry of the reed tip stiffness. This paper presents a preliminary study in which a subjective test and a mechanical measuring bench are designed and discussed.