Hi All. I’ve been a lurker on the site for a while, but am new to posting. There is such a wealth of great info here-very impressive resource! I’m hoping to get some advice on our piano purchase. We’re looking to upgrade our piano from an entry level 48” “Made in China” to one that can grow with my son as his playing progresses-ideally for at least 5 years, hopefully more like 10. Our piano has served us well over the past few years, but we think it might be time to kick it up a notch. We would like to stick with an upright and our budget is around $7k to $10k max, plus our trade (which is only worth around $1k or so). We would like an American or European (probably Eastern European on our budget) piano. We’ve looked at the Vogel 125, W. Hoffmann T128, Charles Walter 1500 and the Schulze Pollmann Studio Upgrade 122. We really liked the Vogel and the SP. There’s a big price difference between the two- Vogel about $11k out of pocket and SP $7k. Is that price difference justified? I know the Vogel has a Renner action, so I’m guessing that that accounts for some of the differential. We plan on taking another look at the CW, as that would also be on the lower end of the budget. If anyone has feedback on the pianos we’ve already seen or suggestions on others to look at, it would be much appreciated.

Vogel 125 is an amazing piano, its on top of my list. They require some prep work make sure the dealer is willing to do it.
Also I feel the difference between v125 v121 v115 is not that significant - of course try get the v125 if you can but just saying v115 is also a very good choice.
The actions are very good and light. The local dealer had vogel, SChimmel C and Konzert series upright placed side by side - all unprepped out of crate. Konzert series has a much better "out of crate" stage than C and Vogel. So make sure your dealer spent some time to prepp them.

My son really liked the Vogel too. Our local dealer also had all of the models side by side, however he did say he prepped his pianos. My son played the Vogel and Schimmel Classic. We knew the Konzert was way out of our range, so we didn't even want to be tempted by it. The salesman played the 132 for us though and it sounded amazing. I wish I could find a store with the SP and the Vogel for a side by side comparison. It's so hard to remember from one week to the next. We'll have to try out the other Vogel models when we go back to the store. Good to know that the difference isn't that significant. Sounds like they are worth considering, especially if we can save some $$$.