Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum New Owners of Wayne Stahnke's LX System--STEINWAY!

Steinway has purchased the rights to Wayne Stahnke's Live-Performance LX playback system and will be installing them at their factory! This is quite an historic moment for several reasons....Steinway is back in the player piano business after a 70 year hiatus (Duo-Art), and Wayne Stahnke will leave a remarkable and indelible legacy as the pioneer for the modern solenoid player piano!

I had been hearing rumors over the last few months that this was in the works. Back in May, 2007, when I received the very first LX on the market, I posted here that I thought the LX system was the best 'retro-fitable' playback system out there. Now it has evolved even beyond that. I don't think I will be selling my M&H RBB!

I really look forward to listening on my piano, to the artists that Steinway will acquire for their new LX recordings! Along with the basic LX, Steinway will also have Wayne's new LX recording system that will probably have close to, if not, a complete 100% accuracy recording capability, and a soft-pedal shift mechanism, just like a live pianist.

Congratulations Wayne Stahnke and Steinway! Wow!

Very exciting news!

John Paulson said he bought Steinway & Sons because he wanted a Steinway with a factory fitted player to add to his collection of four Steinways.

He has increased his potential market greatly at a stroke. There are many more people who can afford a Steinway who can't plan than who can.

I wonder if he realised that all along.

I assume that the LX System will still be available as a retrofit option for any other pianos. Any word on this?

I wouldn't assume continued availability as a retrofit-Steinway may find exclusivity an advantage. Yamaha does with discklavier.

The system will only be available for retrofit for a short time until the existing stock runs out.

Wow, Very good news to hear Steinway will be upgrading their previous systems to the LX. I hope Wayne has benefitted from this news as his system has the best reproduced performance I've ever heard and can only enhance the quality of tones and tonal nuances that the Steinway piano is known for. The trap work for me was a bit of an exploration on each installation so I'm sure Steinway will engineer the pedal systems with factory precision.

Good news indeed!

Interestingly, I read somewhere that Steinway rolled off the first Steinway-Aeolian Duo-Arts in March a century ago. That's quite something to note, but I don't like this acquisition. I don't want Steinway mass-installing these player systems into their pianos, or else they will become Yamaha, although Bosendorfer has had CEUS for a long time. Either way, I really hope that not only does Steinway "keep a certain distance" from the LX, but also that they allow these systems to be purchased regardless of the piano's make. In other words, I want them to let the LX stand something like the QRS systems, not the exclusive Disklavier to Yamaha.

What's wrong with that?

I think this is a smart move for Steinway, for obvious reasons. However, I hope that it remains available as a retrofit to other pianos. There is nothing else like it. Perhaps some of our members who are currently LX installers will comment.

Nope. It will be a Steinway exclusive. Once the retro-fit kits in stock are sold out, that will be it for non-Steinway factory installs.
Buy now or hold your peace forever...

That... sucks. Lol.

Isn't it also a dumb business mistake? They're just giving away the retrofit market to competitors.

As a matter of interest, what is the source of this news?

Oh by the way, will the LX work with upright pianos? I really hope there's a variant for uprights.

I can confirm the news, having talked with Wayne last week. I called to order a couple kits, and think that I bought the last one. He said that they will only be factory installed on Steinways now. I inquired about the shift pedal solenoid, and he said that they were no longer available. So, apparently that was part of the Steinway deal.

The LX could be installed on uprights. But, it's a mute point if they are no longer available. I think that it's a great move for Steinway, and I hope that Wayne made out well on the deal. Personally, I don't like it because I will now longer have LX's to sell. But I doubt they were flying off the shelves as retrofit kits. I found them tough to sell due to price. It's a great system, but I wasn't able to sell many.

Not at all. This is SOP (standard operating procedure)for Steinway for many decades. They will have a few design features changed, come up with a beautifully marketable name, disconnect Wayne with the product in their marketing, bump up the price by many thousands, and sell to Steinway buyers in the same chic that Essex and Boston pianos are sold.

This is par for the course. It actually would not surprise me if Wayne could sell his own systems in the future under another name and company. We'll see.

Good move Steinway.

Rich Galassini's post makes perfect sense to me. Let's hope that he is right and that some form of Wayne's LX system will eventually be available again as a retrofit.

I keep thinking of the example of the Lyngdorf stereo systems. A little word manipulation and anything is possible. After all, the LXii System may appear shortly.

It will be interesting to see if it will be available on Boston, Essex, and Lang Lang, too.