Interesting article about this electric piano. I recently played one, and it is quite impressive.

http://www.slate.com/id/2233839

Hi swampwiz,

Nice to hear from you again.

Would be nice to read your impressions of your test drive in somewhat more detail here.

If this would correspond with the claims yamaha make and the testimonials of the two pianists on the mini site of the Avant-Grand, this would be quite something!

Avant-Grand

schwammerl.

Katasaris's performance og the Chopin Waltz in C# minor must be one of the most over the top ever.

Until I played a good Steinway, I considered the AvantGrand an acceptable and perhaps preferred alternative to a real piano.

There's a contradiction in the first para, which I think speaks to an as yet unavoidable aspect of playing digitals. On one hand, "More important, it actually sounds like an acoustic grand piano." On the other, "When you play [a] note on the AvantGrand, you're basically triggering an extremely high-quality recording [italics added] of a concert piano...."

I read that article, and marveled at how they took specific pains to address some of what I regard as unavoidable weaknesses of a digital piano. In particular, their attempt to simulate physical and harmonic resonance in strings that don't exist. Pretty cool.

Then I read the price tag. $20k? That's a lot of money to pay for something whose inherent strength of a comparable grand is that it never goes out of tune.

Except it sounds way, way better than a $20K acoustic piano.

The ultimate question could be does it sound and feel as good as a Yamaha C2/C3 in the k$ 30 - 40 (SMP) or if you want k$ 35 - 48 (MRSP) price range.

If so then it would be a real bargain with nu tuning, regulation, voicing costs in the long run.

schwammerl.

It really feels like you're playing a real piano, too.

Well 20k is a lot of money! i mean you can get a very good 20k used piano!
And it doesnt cost that much to tune a piano, if you tune it for 150$ and you tune it twice a year, for 10 years= 3000$
That isn't much... But then you have all the digital piano features- midi i and out which is awesome.

And external speakers, it is also great for recording just for fun.

that's a bold statement; you make it sound more of an objective assessment than i think is ever really true. spending $20k on a used acoustic piano could probably get one a piano about which it's hard to say confidently that anything sounds "way, way better" since beyond a certain point personal preference is so wrapped up in how we judge them. i mean, these kinda things

http://www.pianorestorationservices.co.uk/products/7.html
http://www.pianorestorationservices.co.uk/products/13.html
http://www.pianorestorationservices.co.uk/virtuemart/44.html

are all around $20k and probably don't sound too bad

the difference in sound between a $200 piano and a $2000 piano is probably far greater than between a $20k restored bechstein B and a $200k bosie. if the avant grand really comes close to sounding like a "real" CFIII, great, but is a CFIII "way, way better" than an S6? a C7? a C3? it's always seemed like diminishing returns to me... so to remain descriptive you'd have to insert that word a lot of times to compare an F308 with a P114!

however, if it really does sound and feel just about as good as a nine foot piano, well done to yamaha - now they just need to invent some virtual reality goggles to give you the VIEW you get looking down the strings of a big instrument

Well, I mean, of course it's my personal opinion. I mean, they intricately sampled a 9' grand, and the action is as good as any other available Yamaha, so to me it's a far better sound and at least as good an action as one would get with a typical acoustic $20K piano. Plus, you get all the benefits of an electronic unit -- perfect tuning, 1/4" outs, MIDI in/out, headphones, streaming audio if you just want to listen to the unit play by itself, etc. To me, it's pretty much a no-brainer at $20K, based on what I heard when trying out new pianos at that price. I admit I have NOT tried out available used pianos in that price range.

Since I am looking at higher end pianos, however, I am not currently planning to pick one up. But it is on my list as a possible eventual second piano, to use in my small home music recording studio.

I would be very curious to hear if anybody has actually gone and bought one of these. I'm quite tempted because of downstairs neighbor problems. I have a beautiful Schimmel concert series silent upright, but because of continual complaints I use the acoustic part of the piano perhaps 10 % of the time. My reasoning is that if I'm going to give up and go digital, I'm going to go for the brass ring. At least then when I dial down the volume, I'll be able to console myself with grand piano action.

Silent headphone play.
Selection of other voices.
Recording capability.
Computer interface.
Way cool styling.
Real Yamaha acoustic grand action.
Sound of a really good 7' grand.
Organic feel missing in other digitals.
Space-saving cabinet with big piano performance.
The most interest in the AvantGrand comes from folks shopping C2 type instruments. They think it's a bargain.