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The Fall 2014 issue of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer is now online at www.pianobuyer.com . The print version will be available in mid-October, and can be ordered now at Piano Buyer -- Buy Books . In this issue, in addition to the reference material and our usual articles of general interest, we offer several feature articles, all technology-related, for your reading pleasure. Two of them, under the general title of “The Technology-Equipped Piano Goes to School,” explore how today’s MIDI-connected pianos are being used in education. In “Not Your Grandmother’s Piano: The Yamaha Disklavier, Long-Distance Learning, and More,” George Litterst, of the Disklavier Education Network, looks at how the Disklavier, using both MIDI and video-sync technology, has broken the barrier of physical distance that frequently separates students from auditions and teachers. While Yamaha tends to emphasize the Disklavier’s potentials for institutions of higher learning, a perhaps more modest ambition is exhibited by the piano-teaching software Piano Marvel, in conjunction with the QRS PNOscanII MIDI recording strip. They are reviewed here by Jennifer, Rebecca, and Theresa Wilkinson, three sisters—all piano teachers—in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Piano Marvel takes advantage of the penchant of today’s kids for video games and puts it to use in the process of learning to play piano. The cloud-based software also allows the kids’ teachers to spy on their progress (and whether or not they’ve been practicing!). In this issue, we also review two sophisticated new entrants in the field of digital pianos: e-Klavier, by Blüthner, the renowned German maker of acoustic pianos; and Physis, by the Italian firm Viscount. The e-Klavier line, reviewed by Derek Kealii Polischuk, features the legendary sound of the Blüthner piano, with its unique aliquot (fourth) string; the company prides itself on the realism of the e-Klaviers’ sound. The Physis piano, reviewed by Sam Ecoff, is one of only a handful of digital pianos whose sound is created by physical modeling; i.e., using complicated mathematical algorithms to simulate the hundreds of factors that, together, make up the sound of an acoustic piano. The Physis piano also sports a neat, glass, touch-panel interface, through which the physically modeled specs can be manipulated by the user to create new sounds. Finally—for those of you who follow such things—we have made a change to the rating system for Performance-Grade pianos. An explanation of the change and the reasoning behind it can be found at Piano Buyer -- Rating Change Explanation . Larry Fine
Author, The Piano Book
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The Fall 2014 issue of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer is now online...for those of you who follow such things—we have made a change to the rating system for Performance-Grade pianos….
Larry Fine Nah, nobody pays attention to that.
phacke
Steinway YM (1933)
...Working on:
J. S. Bach, Toccata (G minor) BWV 915
(and trying not to forget the other stuff I know)
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Lol.. I am actually gonna check it out. You comment has landed an air of mystery on it 
Last edited by wimpiano; 09/15/14 04:25 PM.
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NY Steinway gets its own category.
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NY Steinway gets its own category. I can see the ads now: Steinway - In a class of its own.
Marty in Minnesota
It's much easier to bash a Steinway than it is to play one.
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All other comments notwithstanding, this is an extremely valuable resource to have at one's fingertips. Thank you, Larry, for putting Acoustical and Digital Piano Buyer on line.
Regards,
BruceD
- - - - -
Estonia 190
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NY Steinway gets its own category. Yes it does.
Last edited by carey; 09/15/14 05:10 PM.
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Wow. A new category 1.5 just for a single producer. What if I'd like to buy in category 1.41421 or 2.71828 etc.?
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Wow. A new category 1.5 just for a single producer. What if I'd like to buy in category 1.41421 or 2.71828 etc.? Mr. Fine explained his rationale. Whether you agree or disagree, what's the big deal?? 
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Wow. A new category 1.5 just for a single producer. What if I'd like to buy in category 1.41421 or 2.71828 etc.? Your request is quite irrational. Instruments in these categories will not be using any natural logs.
Last edited by rlinkt; 09/15/14 07:14 PM.
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I think every piano should have a different ranking even if it requires using two decimal places to distinguish them.
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NY Steinway gets its own category. I can see the ads now: Steinway - In a class of its own. OK Marty, exactly HOW MUCH did you pay Mr. Fine under the table to get S&S it's own category? If it was under $1 Million I want the Yamaha CX series to be moved to the next level up, with a caveat (* - same as the other ones minus .01 level rating)  In all seriousness to Mr. Fine; GREAT product you produce, I already have my hard copy on order.
Yamaha C2X | Yamaha M500-F
Groucho Marx: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
Curriculum: Faber Developing Artist (Book 3)
Current: German Dance in D Major (Haydn) (OF); Melody (Schumann) (OF)
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The Fall 2014 issue of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer is now online at www.pianobuyer.com . The print version will be available in mid-October, and can be ordered now at Piano Buyer -- Buy Books . In this issue, in addition to the reference material and our usual articles of general interest, we offer several feature articles, all technology-related, for your reading pleasure. Two of them, under the general title of “The Technology-Equipped Piano Goes to School,” explore how today’s MIDI-connected pianos are being used in education. In “Not Your Grandmother’s Piano: The Yamaha Disklavier, Long-Distance Learning, and More,” George Litterst, of the Disklavier Education Network, looks at how the Disklavier, using both MIDI and video-sync technology, has broken the barrier of physical distance that frequently separates students from auditions and teachers. While Yamaha tends to emphasize the Disklavier’s potentials for institutions of higher learning, a perhaps more modest ambition is exhibited by the piano-teaching software Piano Marvel, in conjunction with the QRS PNOscanII MIDI recording strip. They are reviewed here by Jennifer, Rebecca, and Theresa Wilkinson, three sisters—all piano teachers—in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Piano Marvel takes advantage of the penchant of today’s kids for video games and puts it to use in the process of learning to play piano. The cloud-based software also allows the kids’ teachers to spy on their progress (and whether or not they’ve been practicing!). In this issue, we also review two sophisticated new entrants in the field of digital pianos: e-Klavier, by Blüthner, the renowned German maker of acoustic pianos; and Physis, by the Italian firm Viscount. The e-Klavier line, reviewed by Derek Kealii Polischuk, features the legendary sound of the Blüthner piano, with its unique aliquot (fourth) string; the company prides itself on the realism of the e-Klaviers’ sound. The Physis piano, reviewed by Sam Ecoff, is one of only a handful of digital pianos whose sound is created by physical modeling; i.e., using complicated mathematical algorithms to simulate the hundreds of factors that, together, make up the sound of an acoustic piano. The Physis piano also sports a neat, glass, touch-panel interface, through which the physically modeled specs can be manipulated by the user to create new sounds. Finally—for those of you who follow such things—we have made a change to the rating system for Performance-Grade pianos. An explanation of the change and the reasoning behind it can be found at Piano Buyer -- Rating Change Explanation . Larry Fine Thanks Mr. Fine for your contribution. I have a comment on the rating. Pianos like Bluthner, Grotrian and Sauter may very well be of the highest quality. But they lack brand recognition. Prestige is always associated with brand recognition. I would rather call the first category only the "Highest Quality". In my humble opinion prestige is only associated with Steinway, Bosendorfer and Fazioli.
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In my humble opinion prestige is only associated with Steinway, Bosendorfer and Fazioli. Except your average man on the street has never heard of Fazioli, much less Bosendorfer.
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In my humble opinion prestige is only associated with Steinway, Bosendorfer and Fazioli. Except your average man on the street has never heard of Fazioli, much less Bosendorfer. And the same holds true for Bluthner, Grotrian and Sauter. Keep in mind that "A&D Piano Buyer" is targeted to North America, and even more directly at the USA. Historically, what comes to mind are the names Steinway, Baldwin, and Mason & Hamlin as prestige instruments for the general audience which most relies on PB. Some names will be recognized, such as Story & Clark, Chickering, and possibly Knabe, but they are certainly not considered prestige, but many still assume they are. "Once upon a time" can get muddled in a vague referenced memory. In the USA and Canada, the name Bluthner will often evoke a response as is familiar from "Young Frankenstein." Instead of being held in respect, the reaction is a sound effect. The thing that bothers me is that the separate category has a connotation of "It was once great, but ...." Playing the recent pianos from NY indicates that is not the case. It's like saying; 'If you buy this piano, you are only buying a name.'
Marty in Minnesota
It's much easier to bash a Steinway than it is to play one.
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The thing that bothers me is that the separate category has a connotation of "It was once great, but ...." Playing the recent pianos from NY indicates that is not the case. It's like saying; 'If you buy this piano, you are only buying a name.'
Greetings, Marty - I don't see it negatively at all. Its about the best thing on the chart for S&S NY that I could imagine. It means that the S&S NY piano has everything the very high quality pianos have, plus the element of prestige. Alternatively, Mr Fine and Company could have counterbalanced the prestige factor with any negatives one could imagine and left it in category 2. But, they didn't. No longer can all the category 2 pianos claim to be in the same camp as S&S as a marketing angle, so its a negative for the competition in category 2. Further, S&S NY is not in category 1, meaning all the institutional buyers are not paying ~$20K for sub-micron fine visual finish which is out the window the first time the piano on the dolly hits the door frame. Best regards -
phacke
Steinway YM (1933)
...Working on:
J. S. Bach, Toccata (G minor) BWV 915
(and trying not to forget the other stuff I know)
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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The thing that bothers me is that the separate category has a connotation of "It was once great, but ...." Playing the recent pianos from NY indicates that is not the case. It's like saying; 'If you buy this piano, you are only buying a name.' Or it could mean that the improvement in quality and in factory prep in recent years together with the prestigious name means NY Steinway deserves to be rated slightly higher than the pianos in Tier 2. That's how I understood it anyway.
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I think every piano should have a different ranking even if it requires using two decimal places to distinguish them. To me, any rating system Mr. Fine uses, and he does dabble quite a bit in tweaking them, should only be considered in the way that he presents it: a general map of the market. No piano that is moved up, down, or sideways in his scheme is going to perform any better or worse because of the change. Mr. Fine states his responsibility to prospective buyers to provide them with a general picture of the market. He also has a responsibility to the industry to not make pronouncements that are overly subjective, if for no other reason than it would affect his advertising base. I'm not implying that sensitivity to advertising rules his ratings, but realistically, being conservative, keeping his ducks in a row and not venturing far from the status quo has advantages. If Mr. Fine went straight down the line from top to bottom in order of overall quality and nothing else, the order would be subjective. Furthermore, it would be way out of line with the pricing advantages that some makers have earned through accumulated prestige and market acceptance. If he went down the line from top to bottom based on price alone, which might seem pretty straightforward, he would need to somehow deal with the fact that some top end brands actually fetch much less on the open market than even their SMP suggests, while others, like Steinway, actually sell within a fairly tight range of prices. Ir he went down the line from top to bottom based on prestige, there would be no known instrument to measure prestige quantitatively other than the price that people are willing to pay to acquire it, and that brings us back to the idea of price paid. Any purely subjective evaluation of prestige without considering price paid would leave the entire Chinese piano industry at the bottom looking up. When all of these factors are blended according to some formula into the positioning of a piano in his scheme, which is what Mr. Fine undertakes every six months, it's left to the savvy consumer to figure out what he's being asked to pay based on product quality and what he's being asked to pay based on general reputation and accumulated prestige. The best way for a consumer to decipher that is to sit down at a bunch of pianos and make his own judgments. I'm certain Mr Fine would endorse that strategy because he has done so again and again over the course of his writing.
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Phacke and PLU,
Those are interesting viewpoints and are certainly valid perspectives. Thank you for tempering my opinion.
Marty in Minnesota
It's much easier to bash a Steinway than it is to play one.
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