Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Pearlriver and Hailun,which one is better??

We are a piano shop in China and we want to get some usful, unbiased information from this forum..

we dont have any potential customers on this forum so we have no intention to promote any brand we sell here..


Pearlriver and Hailun,which one is better? and ur reason?
thx.

WOW - This is interesting! Also, quite unusual.

Hailun is better, based on my personal experience testing new pianos while shopping. The sound from Hailun has usually been a bit brighter and sweeter. The Hailuns also have a better and more consistent resonance - this is probably because the stores that sell Hailun in my area tend to tune pianos more often than the stores that sell Pearl River. The only online demonstration of Hailun that I have found is at http://pianocenter.com/hailun.asp and they sell the brand and try to explain why they believe that Hailun makes better instruments - so their opinion isn't unbiased, but it is informed.
Pearl River is said to have a Ritmuller line that is better quality than the standard Pearl River brand, but I have not personally tried these pianos so I cannot rate them.

What is the "prestige" factor in your market? Many pianos with established American and European names are made in China, and they could be a useful premium item in your inventory without costing you significantly more.

I wish you great luck with your business, China's consumer market is a great opportunity for the industry.

But brightness and sweetness usually don't go together IMO. I have no idea what you mean by "consistent resonance" but if whatever you're describing is due to tuning as you think then this has nothing to do with quality of the piano.

Pearl River is two levels(or one, depending on how you count them) below Hailun in the Piano Buyer ratings.

I like the Hiluns I see here in the USA better. I find they have a better overall sound and playability. As a technician, I find Hiluns tune, regulate, and voice more predictably and consistently to a very enjoyable and comfortable musical standard.

Again, this is what I've been seeing here in the Philadelphia area over the last few years. The world of piano manufacturing is changing so fast you might want to consult a crystal ball before making business decisions.

Interesting. thx for ur information. In North America,Hailun got more reputaion than pearlriver.
In China,Pearlriver has way more sales and better reputation than Hailun. It is like 4 pearlriver and 1 Hailun. Why it is so different.....maybe Hailun has better Marketing?.. or The sound of Hailun is more acceptable than pearlriver in NorthAmerica.. Ritmuller and Pearlriver are basically the same thing here...different name.. but the brand Kayserburg from pealriver is better than both.

In our market...We may sell more pianos in quantity, but low profit. Most of the market are shared by Pearlriver,Yamaha,Kawai,Hailun... Suppliers are too strong.they take the most profit while we make much less.. Large market but too muany people in each industry,as a result, price competition is intense and most of customers cant afford or will not pay triple for a piano from Europe.. Used piano from Japan are also popular, but hard to find Europe used piano..

We want to be different and we start to sell Europe pianos such as Bechstein and Schimmel.. But many people are not familiar with these famous brand. ...

Yes....I have read that piano book...

You asked which is better - not which sells more.

i c.... thanks.. We are thinking about to be a distributor of Hailun piano .it has better profit than pearlriver here . undicided yet. because we sell pearlriver..

yes..Maybe they are not equal..

they could be a useful premium item in your inventory without costing you significantly more.

If you are looking what sounds better to average people looking for a piano, the only indicator is market share. Everybody has their own preferences. The market share does not predict how the customers walking into your store will react to the brand.

I personally purchased the Ritmuller over the Hailun. I think I preferred the Ritmuller sound, but I heard them in different stores. The store acoustics may have made all the difference. Unless these pianos are going to be right next to each other, I do not think the difference is significant enough for anybody other than highly skilled pianists to decide on a clear winner.

Beyond that, I suspect I made my purchase decision more based on my comfort level with the dealer, rather than the piano. If that's true, your success will depend more on how our customers perceive you, rather than the specific brand you carry.

Just an honest confession :-)

If you look at the design and components of the pianos, you will see they are entirely different from each other.

If you play them, you wouldn't even have to "look".

Should you however include Pearl River's high end line Ritmueller Premium and/or Kayserbug, things will change once again.

Norbert

First of all, I thinks this is an interesting thread. Glad to see a piano dealer who is interested in a musician's opinion of the available pianos.

Yes, I would choose a Hailun over Pearl River (and did in the form of a Wendl and Lung when I was consulted regarding a purchase). In North America, I agree Hailun has a better reputation. One of my students came from China and here in the United States they purchased a Pearl River piano, and were quite proud of the brand, however.



Yes, and the quality is rated higher.



People here on in Pianoworld are certainly familiar with these brands, but I'm not sure about the general public or even the average piano buyer in North America. I've even found many pianists who aren't familiar with brands such as August Foerster or Bluthner.

I think I might give you some insight here. We had a chance to provide a Mason & Hamlin to Lang Lang. He was a young student at Curtis at the time and it was for a charity event in Philadelphia. He was not yet "Lang Lang" and I had never heard him play before.

Anyway, we sat with him afterwards. He was a very likable young man. He shared that he enjoyed the piano and had never played one before. It turns out he grew up playing a Pearl River. He only really knew that brand and Yamaha in China, although he played one or two Steinways there as well.

I would speculate from this that Pearl River has been around long enough to have a brand recognition that Hailun does not enjoy, totally aside from quality. After all Pearl River has been in the market since the 1980's at least. Hailun has not.

My 2 cents,

No problem: label them as Made In Germany

People forget that the market is right now in great flux: what was 'right' yesterday no longer is today and certainly not tomorrow. Many of the Chinese makes are undergoing constant changes often involving some specific models. Years ago I pointed to the Hailun H5 as a singularly fine piano - last year this particular make and model received the MMR "Piano Line Of the Year Award"

Perhaps not much in the view of some, but not exactly nothing either.

Several of Pearl River's pianos have also been recently upgraded as have new the EU line of uprights and the remarkable UP 130, making them a definite notch above the others. Anybody seen or played them? I have: VERY impressed!
http://www.pearlriverusa.com/uprights.html

While model variation is true for most makes, it has been particularly true for such makes like Hailun,Brodmann and Pearl River. In my opinion and from my own "personally-know-the-models" experience, the greatest gains among them are easily pianos which have proprietary designs by the maker having heavily invested in them and is not willing to share them with others.

Luckily there are further options, i.e. "lines" by same makers on the market which make the pendulum swing even easier in one direction or the other....

I shall say not more as the typical barking by the uninformed [and "unwilling-to-learn-from-anything-crowd"..] will start up shortly.

Insider tip:

like to know about a good restaurant: "eat there"
like to know about pianos: "play them"

THEN, and only THEN - tell your experience others.

Eagerly listening in to those who have.....

Norbert

The Octolieber name isn't taken yet. That is a pretty good German name.

I'd be hard pressed to spend thousands of dollars on a piano with the name of a river on its fall board - no matter how good it was.

Just to clarify - I realize that piano brand names are a mixed bag - but I'd rather own a piano named after a person - as opposed to a river (i.e., Swanee River, Mississippi River or Hudson River).

Then, of course, we have Estonia, Essex, Boston, Bohemia, Aeolian, Vienna, etc.