[pnavas]

Hello Everybody!

I am about to buy a brand new silent piano. Never studied music, I have learnt on my own, though I must have reached some kind of level and played pieces of certain difficulty like fantasia impromptu, 3rd movement od rachmaninov 2& piano concert, etc..

I have no friends or relatives that know about music in depht, so I am alone in this story of buying a piano. I have learnt and played always on a yamaha clavinova clp 350. Four years ago I quit playing since I hated to play in the clavinova and did not want to buy an acoustic, since I live in an appartment and don't want to disturb the neighbours too much. Now I have known about the silent pianos, I want to buy a brand new one.

I have seen the following silent pianos under the following prices:

yamaha u3 €9990
yamaha u1 €8200
kawai K50 €7200
Schimmel T 130 €14300
Schimmel 122 I €12200

I have a living room of only 24 sq meters to place the piano in. It will be located in the living room at a wall that is between my kitchen and living room.

Between the 2 yamahas, the sound I like most was the one of the u3, the same between the 2 schimmels, T 130 was more impressive than 122. I am going to test the kawai soon since the one in the shop was not in tune, but the silent mode did not impress me too much besides the electronic control panel is located on the board itself, which I don't like.

Perhaps the yamaha furniture is the one I like most, since it is elegant and modern at a time. Yamaha and Kawai have this easy closing board cover device. Schimmels do not have this feature.

For me it is important the silent device, since I am going to play a lot with it. Also a good acoustic sound quality is very important for when I play during the day.

Questions:

-is a 133 piano going to be too loud for my tiny appartment and going to be even disturbing for me and neighbours? should I go for the 121 versions and sacrifice sound quality ? my first opinion is that if I am going to spend a lot of money I should go for the biggers

-I like the sound of the yamahas, but I find it a bit 'metallic'. Does this metallic impression grow with the time, or rather the opposite ?

-The sound of the Schimmel is perhaps the one I like most and find closer to the classical grand pianos but does it worth the extra pay ?

-In terms of residual value, which would be the best option ?

As you can see I am in a mess and don't try to follow very much the advices of the dealers, since they have their own interests. One of them has suggested me to buy the smallest piano because of my small appartment and then move into a grand when I buy a bigger house, in that case they will re buy me the upright I am buying now.

Please, some caritative soul give me some expert advice.

Thanks in advance. This seems to be a very useful site.

Pedro

[Barrie Heaton]

Well if you are going for a silent piano I would not bother too much about next door
Can’t comment on the Kawai K50 The Yamaha and the Schimmel both use the same silent system, if you like the Schimmel take a look at the Kemble K131
http://www.uk-piano.org/kemble/K131.html

it is a very nice piano and Kemble also uses the same silent system as Yamaha and Schimmel they will fit a SS on request

Barrie,
_________________
Barrie Heaton
Web Master UK Piano Page

[pnavas]

Thanks Barrie for the advice, I did not know about the Kemble.

What about the size of the room (24 sq mtr). Do you think it is no problem for the loudness of a 131 piano ?

Thanks a lot

Pedro

[Barrie Heaton]

As a rule of thumb the bigger the room the better However, a lot depends on the height of the ceiling I have a client who has a 7' Schimmel in 14 X 10 room but the ceiling is very high you can place foam rubber in the back of the piano that kills the volume with out killing the tone



Barrie,
_________________
Barrie Heaton
Web Master UK Piano Page