After reading a thread in which KAWAI James mentioned the Avant Grand, I found a press release online and contacted the Canadian rep. with 2 questions:

Where in Toronto will it be available?
What is the anticipated retail price?

He wrote back as follows:

Hello Brian,

Thank you for your email.

At this point we are still undecided who will carry the AvantGrand line of pianos.

We are looking around June/July for the launch of the N3 (Grand piano) and around July/August for the N2 (Upright version). There is no official information on the N2 as of yet but this will be posted on the AvantGrand website http://avant-grand.com/ around the middle of April.

No firm pricing is yet confirmed. The N3 will be around $20-22K and the upright will be around $10-13K.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Mike

Mike Voelkel
Piano Division Marketing Manager
Yamaha Canada Music Ltd.
135 Milner Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, M1S-3R1
647-426-4259
www.yamaha.ca

For that kind of money, it's hard to see why you wouldn't just buy a nice acoustic piano. You'd have a good selection of choices, even some used Steinways. Heck, you could buy a good acoustic and still get a decent DP to practice on with the leftover change.

I'll bet it does sound nice though.

Of course, the prices shown above are in Canadian $, but I still did kind of gulp when I saw the figures. Just a tad over my budget, especially since I got my Heintzman grand at the top end of the range for the Yamaha N2 upright.

Edit: One thing that occurs to me is, since they are both digitals, whether the touch and the sound on the N2 and on the N3 will be identical or different.

I encourage you to withhold judgement on this revolutionary product until you get a chance to play and hear it. The thing blew me away at the NAMM trade show. Yes, they are expensive but offer advantages over an acoustic i.e. space vs tone, no tuning, recording capabilities, voices, and more. This is not your father's digital.

I checked their website, however I see several flaws with the description . Take for example the technology description; here are some excerpts;"The nuanced touch and response of the grand piano are an essential standard yardstick for piano quality. (WHAT IS THIS? NOTHING TANGIBLE?) The AvantGrand offers the player a specially-developed grand piano action that features the same configuration as the action of a real grand. The hammers strike the "strings" from underneath, allowing minute adjustments (HOW ARE THE MINUTE ADJUSTMENTS BEING MADE?)to the weight distribution of the hammers, and to the movement of the hammers themselves, for a smoother feel when playing. In addition to a hammer sensor ( (WHAT HAMMER SENSOR, TELL ME WHAT KIND?),the AvantGrand employs a non-contact key sensor ( ARE THESE GUYS OUT OF THEIR MIND AGAIN? IS THIS A MAGNETIC SENSOR, PIEZO, PHOTOELECTRIC? )that has no effect on the movement of the keys, affording excellent recognition of the player's pressure on the keyboard, timing, and the other delicate nuances (THEY LIKE THE WORD NUANCE, I ALMOST THINK THEY USE THE SAME GOOGLE TRANSLATOR THAT I USE TO TRANSLATE THE YAMAHA JAPANESE WEBSITE) that affect musical expression. This combination provides an impressive sensitivity for the entire range from pianissimo through to fortissimo, and the ability to translate even the swiftest trills of the pianist with transparency. The wood construction of the keyboard mirrors that of the grand piano, and features New Ivory II on the white keys. This is a unique new material developed by Yamaha ( DO THEY HAVE MSDS FOR THIS? ( MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS?), with a texture superbly close to that of natural ivory, allowing you to play swift passages with ease while also offering a sure response for slower pieces. IN A NUTSHELL, I AM SURE IT'S A GREAT PRODUCT, JUST POOR MARKETING PROFESSIONALS! I THINK THEY FORGET THAT THE PROSPECTIVE BUYERS ARE TECH SAVVY AND WANT TO KNOW THE DETAILS, AS THOUGH YOU WERE BUYING A SPORTS CAR AND NOT A SEDAN.

Well, that's marketing for you.

But it makes sense from one point of view. The job of marketing is to get you into the store. They cannot sell until you get there. So they don't stuff you full of information. They bait you with attractive sounding bullcrap.

aspiretobe,

With all do respect to you and other "teckys" who pour over analysis spreadsheets, understand that this type of consumer or potential buyer is a very small minority of the actual purchasers of digital piano products. How many levels of sampling, partial pedaling, on and off sampling, etc. are lost on 99% of digital piano buyers.

The single store I work in sold nearly 200 new Yamaha Clavinova digital pianos in 2008. I either made personally or witnessed nearly all of these and heard the consumer interchanges of these presentations. Out of that many sales, and several more unsold, there were only a handful of folks who were hip to and interested in the technical specifications of the products. Nearly all were much more interested in how the pianos felt and sounded and what they could do for their families music enjoyment.

This product is so new that the guys in marketing likely have very little intel on what is inside. This product is so revolutionary that much of the stuff is propriatary and they are reluctant to disclose it to the competition.

This seems like a bad time to introduce a $10-$20,000 digital piano. For that matter there's probably not a good time. I wonder how many 'new B3' organs Hammond-Suzuki has sold.

aspiretobe, I understand your frustration - I too would love to know more about this seemingly revolutionary product. However, as Marty Flinn correctly notes, the majority of consumers will be perfectly happy with vague marketing lingo - most people are interested in how a piano feels, looks, and sounds (which the website explains reasonably well). Such consumer do not wish to be bogged down by technical specifications, complicated tables.

Kind regards,
James
x

Daviel,
I would agree about the timing on the high in new product. Understand that R&D began on this project months/years before the spiral down we are seeing in recent months. Each time Yamaha debuts a new high in digital CVP409GP, CGP1000, Modus line, etc. I shake my head. Then we proceed to sell them over and over again. Glad they are not taking advice from me.

when will there be good video demos of the piano? the NAMM videos were lousy.. too much crowd noise..

Daviel,
I would agree about the timing on the high in new product. Understand that R&D began on this project months/years before the spiral down we are seeing in recent months. Each time Yamaha debuts a new high in digital CVP409GP, CGP1000, Modus line, etc. I shake my head. Then we proceed to sell them over and over again. Glad they are not taking advice from me.

Considering what it does and how it looks, I actually find it relatively inexpensive. It's the first of its kind, and we expect a lot of people will be wanting one.

Although I own a 6'1" grand of reputable manufacture, I am really excited about the possibility of owning the AvantGrand. Just go to the Piano Forum and check out the number of postings "grand piano too loud", and one can see the opportunities for AvantGrand. Imagine having a keyboard with the dynamic range of an acoustic grand and being able to set the volume level for one's own acoustic space. Moreover, if one has sensitive ears, all of the "sizzles" of an acoustic grand are there to irritate. I can hardly wait to hear the pure sounds of the sampled 9-footer. Now if I could only trade even, I'd really be happy.