Hi!
my name is yijia
I come from China!

Will，Irmler VS Essex
Who is more worth buying?

Essex in the Pearl River OEM?
With the Pearl River there a difference?

Larger manufacturers produce pianos at different quality levels. It should not be as simple as picking a brand. Pearl River makes pianos at different quality levels, but the Chinese domestic market is a mystery to me. Here, companies trade on names, but my sense is that in China, this is done even more so.

The 2 criteria for selecting a piano are this:
1) Are you comfortable with it?
2) Do you like it?

Researching the brands and models here will help you with step 1. After that, you can ask more specific questions of the members here to try and help you. For step 2, trust your own eyes, ears and fingers.

If you're more specific in your questions, maybe you'll get more help.

Are you looking for Essex Upright or Grand?

Oh I better read about Irmler too.
(I have never heard of that before.)

But I have some info on Essex, when my cousin is actually the one looking for a new piano. Upright or Grand, undecided yet?

Essex is a family of the Steinway pianos. So it should be very reliable.

And mm, may I ask, what is OEM? Sorry I sound clueless.

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer

Here it means that Steinway designed the Essex and contracts the manufacturing to Pearl River. Pearl River builds Essex to Steinway's specs.

It's like Foxconn builds the electronics to Apple's specs.

Yijiya,

Irmler is OEM as well. Irmlers have been built by many manufacturers in many places. Last I heard, the contract was with Samick (SMC) with some manufacture carried out in China. My guess is that an Irmler sold in China was manufactured in China just as an Essex sold in China was manufactured in China.

Which is more worth buying?

If I were in China, I would buy a piano that didn't charge more than its competition simply because it had a foreign business connection and fancy name on the fallboard.

If it were me, I would make the decision based on which one sounds and performs to my liking.

Thank you for the OEM explaination.

And I quickly found out Irmler is an extended family of Bluthner. Interesting!