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Hello,

Does a silent system on an acoustic piano influences the acoustic playing? Is it always better to avoid silent systems or do they no influence at all when not activated?

They do influence the touch, for some systems more significant then others. The Yamaha systems (built in from factory) are the best. Retrofit is, generally speaking, worse.

The mechanism that prevents the hammers from striking the strings in silent mode alters the action feel, but in a good set up the difference in fell is small.

Bigger considerations are selection and price. The price difference between a standard Yamaha model and the same model equipped with silent system is enough to buy a very good digital with many more functions than the silent system. Going that route open up the selection of an acoustic piano to every model of every brand. Selection is a big issue in the US where most dealers do not stock silents regularly and a purchase requires a special order. That's less of an issue in Europe where silents are more popular and more dealers stock them.

Another consideration is that digital technology changes quickly whereas acoustic piano construction doesn't change much at all. The technology that adds significantly to the cost of a silent acoustic when new will be out of date in ten years, at which point it will detract from the piano's market value.

Still, if space is severely limited and only the most basic digital functions are of interest, a silent acoustic can be attractive.

I have the original Yamaha U1 silent piano, purchased in 1996. The technology is out of date, in the sense that newer silent pianos have more voices to choose from, and have (I believe) USB outputs in addition to standard midi outputs.

However, the piano still functions perfectly in silent mode—if you want to listen through headphones while playing the piano, it does that as well as a new silent piano. I am quite sure the silent capabilities of the piano would add too, rather than detract from, the retail value (compared to a regular U1 of the same age and condition) if I were to choose to sell it.

Silent system is the biggest mistake I made on my grand piano Grotrian Steinweg Cabinet 192 cm (6f3).

I bought my Grotrian new in 1991 at 153000 Francs, plus 11000 Francs to install a silent system from Grotrian factory, this number 11000 Francs is to show how expensive it is, need to know that in 1991, Grotrian seemed to be the only brand which installed silent system on grand piano. And I think that they no longer do it.

But I NEVER use this silent system, even in France in my appartment, because it's annoying, and gives a very bad touch, the felt of silent sometimes stuck and I need to use a thin stick to push the stuck felt to its normal position.

In USA, I have 2 pianos, one upright of my wife, and I built a silent system for her by building a wooden frame, nailed with sound isolation board bought from Home Depot, and put this frame behind the upright in the order (wall, triangle object, frame, piano; the triangle [between wall and piano back]is used to push tightly the frame to the piano). The result is excellent: quieter, natural touch (this upright also has a silent system, but does affect the touch).

PS: You can put blanket, pillow etc... into the back of the upright (between the DIY frame and the soundboard). I did this and it's very silent.

Hoola, can you post a picture of the solution on you're wife's upright?

I'm out of town now. I will do for you this week-end.

I have a Yamaha C2 SG, bought two and a half years ago.
The difference in action is practically nonexistant. It feels good in silent and in non-silent mode.
Recently I tried to mix several voices of the silent system; and the silent system and the acoustic system. Not bad for playing Jean Michel Jarre. But having the synth sounds come out of the speakers of the stereo when playing acoustically made me sort of wish for a TransAcoustic.

One downside of the silent system I noticed when playing acoustically: The natural frequency of the silent box seems to be Eb4 (E flat). Which means, when I hit this key hard, there is a metallic sound coming with it.
But to be honest, I rarely played an acoustic piano which did not have at least one key causing vibrations other than from the string.

Thanks Hoola.


I have an upright Yamaha with the Silent system, but it seems mine is older than some.

I'd love to be able to play more freely with my piano in the acoustic mode, but the neighbours downstairs become very unhappy with this.

Indeed, i do have a digital (Yamaha YDP), so maybe save the extra costs and go for a sole acoustic instrument.

Pity to your downstair neighbor, I understand totally their unhappiness, please be nice to them, they are victims of our hobby. My neighbor now just play loud their stereo then I [censored]-off, angry; and we do same torture to our neighbor with our piano!

I understand your downstair neighbor because I lived on 4th floor of a 12 floor building in France, one day I met a breath stopping young lady in the elevator and chitchat with her, she also played piano so when I told her that I played too then she told me "I hear you from my 11th floor apartement". In fact the concret transmit the vibration well and far, 11-4 = 7 floors is nothing to the vibration.

I felt so sorry about the nuisance caused by me, and shared my concerns with a pianist friend, he advised me to isolate my upright (the one before my grand) from floor by multiple thick rugs with the purpose to break the transmission of vibration.

So even armed with my frame, you need to do an extra step: put your piano on very, very thick and soft material to isolate the vibration.

If you're happy with your YDP, but want to enjoy the experience of playing an acoustic piano independent of that experience, then what you're suggesting in this post sounds very sensible to me. Your available choices of an acoustic will be much wider.

Your original question included the word always -- is one way always better than another. As you can see from the diversity of replies, it's not an always situation. It depends on the playing pattern of the user.

To me, digital pianos and silent systems are not about noise suppression. Their function is completely different from stuffing piloows in the back of an acoustic upright.