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To the original poster, try to keep enjoying your new piano even those others will continue to loudly proclaim why you shouldn't enjoy it.

Thank you, Dave. I intend to do just that! I'm looking forward to an afternoon of practice.

I don't think dewster wishes that anyone should dislike the AG. He's simply reiterating that, for the money, he expects more.

In the end, he seems to think that the AG is just yet another Clavinova clone, but this time with a real piano action. IMPO, such a piano ought not cost as much as a baby grand acoustic piano. But it does! That's the disappointment.

"It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be." Anatole France

That's a witty observation, but I think you're pretty close to the truth there!

+1

K.

I've thought the OP I've replied asked Kawai to make such hybrid a reality. When I see CA95 it looks like Kawai is going to "soundboard inside" the most expensive DPs for a good reason (at least based on the claims here on this forum), so for *good* hybrid you certainly need some kind of soundboard, otherwise its functionality will be limited in comparison with at least CA95. I agree with your argument that the rim and whole construction doesn't need to be so heavy as there are no strings, but still it needs soundboard...
Also if you consider AG overpriced (it is indeed), then what you would claim about CA95? Is it overpriced too or not? Certainly here it is on the price of quite good uprights...

Honestly speaking I really do not understand all those complains about Yamaha being not good and using $5 CPU and $1 RAM for their flagship DP like AG is. Guys, come on, what's the problem? If you would have Yamaha shares you will be the first who would complain about too good DP torpeding their AP lines and sales! Ditto applies to Kawai and do not forget whole this hybrid market is *small* (just IMHO!). Your R&D needs to be covered by future sales and in addition you need to make board of the company happy. No, it's not the problem to make an ultimate DP/hybrid. The problem is only a lack of money and time for such development. If you are not happy with current AG's sounds why you don't connect some preferred VST to it for a fraction of its price and be happy indefinitely? Why are you complaining? When I've been in a search for a good DP I've also considered AG N1 but seeing this price I've decided to contact Petrof for their MIDI keyboard with real grand action price. They told me a price of N1 +25% up. Add to this VST, amplifier(s), computer, OS license (if needed), repros etc. and where you end? IMHO on the price of small Chinese based grand. Now, what would market prefer more? Such "unlimited" DP or small real grand? Risky decision to go into such business...(unlimited in quotes as I still think such DP will sound like a recorded piano which is completely incomparable with real AP grand even small IMHO).

Whaaaaa? I contacted Petrof as well and they never got back to me. I figured the product was vaporware.

Some of us need recording quality turnkey solutions and can't deal with all the PCs, software, wires, boot time, etc. One would think the "Digital Piano" industry would offer such a product, even if greatly overpriced. Hence the crabbing, particularly in light of superior VSTs for the past decade or so now.

Here's a couple things I've noticed about the N2. First, unlike any other gadget in my house, including vacuums and kitchen appliances, the N2 causes a non-digital baby monitor to go berserk -- RF interference/poor shielding. Second, the AG seems, itself, sensitive to AC line noise -- emitting a hiss sometimes. I haven't sorted out the second gremlin yet; I may need to clean up the AC current with one of those audiophile gizmos that I had heretofore thought was hokum. As for the first, I upgraded to digital baby monitors. But still, the RF interference struck me as a throwback to electronics of earlier times -- consistent, mind you, with slow boot ups, slow saves of MIDI recordings, and a requirement that all small hands be kept OFF the keyboard during startup.

I should be clear about the RF interference issue: it's minor. After about ten minutes of being turned on, my N2 would cause an Angelcare baby monitor receiving unit to crackle. I've replaced that with a monitor made by Motorola. The AG otherwise does not interfere with anything else in the house that I've noticed. It struck me as odd that the AG had to be on for a while (regardless of it being played) for any interference to occur. About 10 minutes, as I recall.

Looks like Yamaha is not able to provide one for whatever reason. Kawai stays a little lower and not providing real grand action. Do you think there is a market for such turn a key solution? Just one additional box with two cables connected to Yamaha or even built inside while avoiding the Yamaha's original warranty? How many boxes of such functionality one would be able to sell for let say $2k? Don't know the DP market just know few complaining pianists here hence I'm asking...

You don't understand why we complain?

Are you a shareholder of yamaha or are you a buyer?

If you are in the first group, I understand your post, but if you, as I am, are in the second group then I seriously can't understand what you don't understand. You are shooting yourself in the pocket, I mean in the foot with that kind of reasoning.

And in the end, I think that companies that try to milk customers to the last drop like Yamaha (and others) is doing are throwing their brand in the trashcan.

Just my opinion

Carlos

Is Yamaha's brand "in the trashcan"? I don't think so.

Carlos,

everything in this world does have its own price. Yamaha decided in certain hardware class and you as a buyer may either buy or ask for lower more acceptable price or turn to Yamaha's competition or give up DPs completely and go AP route. So you are perfectly free and nobody forces you into buying Yamaha. Yet, if you buy it you still do have a lot of options how to increase its sound quality with the fraction of its original price. So where is the issue? You mean that Yamaha will learn something from your complains on this forum like probably do smaller competitors? Yamaha is too big and too arrogant for doing something like that. So good, your complains are well saved inside the forum, everybody is able to google for them and made his/her own decision about AG series. If nobody buys this piano, then Yamaha will probably need to do something with the situation. And that's probably the only possibility of feedback we can provide to Yamaha. Certainly, I've decided to not buy AG at least not yet as my chosen combination is an old AP and hopefully complemented by ES7 or MP10 successor in the future for just those occasions I need to play silently or somewhere else than in my home...
No, I'm not Yamaha share holder. And I agree with you that Yamaha is milking their customers on AG line (but so is Roland right with their V-Piano line), but on the other hand doing the DP business is not charity and you need first to make your shareholders happy unfortunately.

Happy holidays time!
Karel

Maybe I'm naive but I think there are a lot of dedicated, enthusiastic and talented people at work within Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Kawai and the others. It is part of human nature - even when there are shareholders to please - to want to improve and innovate. And whilst I agree there is some substance to many of the criticisms aired here I think they are made without real knowledge of the realities of the design and manufacture of these products. And yes, these companies have to be profitable. But I don't see how or where Yamaha (or Roland) are milking their customers to the last drop.

I'd be very interested (if we could read minds) to see if we could find a single person within Yamaha or any other manufacturer who doesn't want their customers to be happy and for them to feel that they have bought a good product. That is what I would want if I was in this business and that is what all of you would want. So why do we find it so easy to assume that the personnel within Yamaha are a breed apart and apparently share none of these values? Not only is that unfair it is downright illogical to my mind.

Anyway, you can all shoot me down now....

No, it's certainly not vaporware, but it's probably made on request by a customer like their master series of concert grands. My advantage over you asking them was probably usage of Czech.

If you disregard its key action, the AG's sound and response is really no different to any other CLP costing a fraction of the AG's price. As purely a practice instrument, it works if you don't mind an action that's heavier than most real acoustic grands (and you also have a real piano to practise on to refine your touch and tone color and dynamics), but as a substitute for a real piano, it just doesn't cut the mustard.

IMO, the NU1 is far better value for money, with a nicer sound and slightly broader range of color (from the CFX), and its action is lighter and more like a real piano's (upright or grand), and frankly, more pleasant to play on for long periods. As for its upright action, as I've mentioned before when reviewing it and comparing it with the AG, it doesn't feel inferior. Grand piano action is supposed to allow more rapid repeated notes (assuming you have the chops for it), but the action in the AG is more sluggish and heavy (too much so, IMO) than that of the NU1 and really difficult to repeat notes fast.

Simply not true. Subjectively it is a world apart from Clavinovas and Dewster's testing shows that technically it is different, significantly out-performing all other Yamaha DPs. It is a long way from perfect (I enjoy my modest upright piano more) but to say it is the same as a Clavinova is just not true. In fact it's a lie pedalled by someone with the strongest bias on this forum, ie, someone who doesn't own one, has no desire or intention to own one, and indeed has no intrinsic interest in or ownership experience of DPs in general, but who feels the need to slag the instrument off on every thread possible. We all know why of course. Transparently pathetic.

Not yet?

I can only speak for myself, but their image has deteriorated to my eyes since I bought a CVP-305 some years ago. I've looked at the following CVP iterations and sincerely can say there have been much of an improvement if at all. On the contrary, the equivalent model cvp505 seems to lack string resonance.