wow this is very very expensive...maybe close to 100,000 USD.....great......

Alvin asked me to make it clear that the cost of the UNICO bench was factored into the price of the Omega. Sauter offers the benches for purchase as separate items, and does not include any in the price of the piano.

Too beautiful!!! Congratulations on your new piano.

Actually not. The cost is substantially under USD100k. That's what Norbert was alluding to in one of his earlier posts in this thread, that Sauter could charge a LOT more for their pianos, but chooses not to.

Hi Gene,

The edging goes right around under the keybed, and where the legs join the piano. You can see this in the delivery pictures. This extra veneer work was done unilaterally by the factory because they felt that it was needed to visually balance out the bubinga in the underlid. And of course they were right!

Action regulation out of the box was great. As you know Sauter preps their pianos thoroughly in the factory, and the quality levels are incredibly high.

The tuning was OK right after unwrapping, but drifted quickly. It has stabilised, but is obviously out of tune. I will have to play through gritted teeth until Alvin returns in about 11 days for the first tuning.

Alvin wanted to minimise exposure of the insides of the Omega to the tropical air, so did not unseal the factory packing. (He also wanted me to unwrap the present myself!) Actually taking the lid off would have made the move a walk in the park for the movers.

Absolutely stunning! Congrats! I fell in love with a Sauter Omega during my piano quest and ultimately purchased an Estonia 190. I love my Estonia but I still dream about the Sauter Omega. Hope there'll be some Sauter recordings on the horizon.

The Sauter uprights are voiced somewhat brighter, and may be more controversial than the voicing of the grands. And the same sized pianos in different models can and do sound different even though the genetic similarity is there.

I too hope to hear a recording of Digitus' Sauter Omega.

I'm wondering how different it will be from my Delta, whose recordings I have put up on this site as well.

Wzkit, I was actually wondering the same thing. I've listened to some of your recordings and that warm sound remains in my memory after months, not to mention the playing that results in that great tone. I searched for a Delta in my area but only Omegas were to be found.

Thanks for the kind words.

If the Delta's tone is warm, I can only imagine the Omega's tone to be even rounder.

I should think that Benjamin's larger acoustic space should yield even better results than my acoustically constrained bedroom

No problem.

Imagine if were somebody else's wife.....

Norbert

Digitus,
Very wonderful piano. Trully amazing.
And thank for the many pictures of the delivery. What an adventure. It was very nice of you to share it. I enyoyed very much seeing the pictures.

This is a cross-posting but I thought I'd share my first impressions of the Omega here as well.

Despite the Omega being in its initial acclimatization period and therefore out of tune, one thing is very clear - the factory has prepped the piano to the nines. This is how it should be, but something that only the low-volume high-end manufacturers do. Other manufacturers leave it to their dealers to do a good prep before or immediately after delivery. By prepping pianos thoroughly in the factory Sauter ensures that the piano is performing at its best, and that the company's reputation for quality is not dependent on somebody else over whom they have little or no control.

The Action[/b]

Action regulation feels great. Fine control of the Omega’s enormous dynamic range is easy. The importance of this cannot be overstated. That’s why so many pianists, even beginners who think that they can’t benefit from an expensive grand piano, suddenly find that the piano seems to be playing them and not the other way around.

The dynamic touch weight initially felt heavy because some things that I could do on the Kawai K-8 and the Roland A-80 keyboards I could not do on the Omega. But after experimenting for a while on Saturday I have changed my mind. I can now do some things on the Omega that I struggled with before. Here are two examples from Beethoven’s Op. 26, first movement:

• In Var II, bar 18-19, the rinforzando at the end of bar 18 should be played mf with pedal, after which the touch returns to staccato in the left-hand and dynamic level at p.
• In Var. IV. bar 26 the descending scale in the left hand has to be played with a portato touch, going from f to pp, and a little ritardando.

These were difficult to do before, but not on the Omega.

As for the heavier dynamic touch weight, well the extra hand and forearm strength will be acquired soon enough. I have already adapted enough to fix what I couldn’t play on the Omega before.

I also have to remember to not be afraid to play deep into the keys. Previously, control of pp was difficult so I tended to back off just before the end of the keystroke on soft notes. It’s like pulling a punch. Don’t need to do this on the Omega. In fact, you cannot pull your fingerstrokes on the Omega if you want a good tone.

Damper Effectiveness[/b]

On many pianos, when you play a note and release the key, there is a lot of overhang because the dampers don’t quench the vibrations in the string quickly enough, there is sympathetic resonance in other strings (even though they may be damped), and the plate rings more than it should. In the Omega, the dampers quench vibrations quickly, and what little audible overhang there is comes from the soundboard. This means that poor finger legato is very quickly revealed, as is inadequate pedal technique.

The Voice[/b]

The Omega’s voice is, in one word, glorious. It is full, rich, complex, articulate, clear, and yet creamy and rounded. The tonal palette at different loudness levels in the dynamic range from ppp to fff is beautiful. It is tonally even across the keyboard, with the tenor and treble breaks being very hard to spot.

It’s Not Loud[/b]

So many people told me that I was crazy to put a 220cm grand piano in my living room. Too loud, they said. Wrong! The Omega, with its enormous and controllable dynamic range and a keyboard that does not require you to pull your fingerstrokes to play softly, is no louder than my Kawai K-8!

I love the Omega. I liked it better than the concert grand Sauter ...
Congrats!

Digitus,

Let me first congratulate you with you wonderfull Sauter Omega.
Have only played a few Sauter uprights in the past and was demonstrated an Alpha and a Delta once: truly very nice instruments.

I only feel a bit uncomfortable with your last 'cross-posting'.

I do believe you like the preparation of the Omega how it was delivered to you very much but raised my eyebrows a bit when reading your conclusion:

I once heard from a testimonial who visited the Sauter factory they indeed spend a lot of time prepping the pianos but then jumping to the conclusion a dealer has no work to do when it arrives at his premisses?!

You were certainly treated as a special customer as you visited them at Spaichingen to select your piano.
Many times threads were opened on this forum with the question 'which brand comes out of the box best prepped' and always the overall conclusion was there is no brand that leaves the dealer with no work to be done, especiallly when an instrument is shipped accross the ocean (accepted there is a whole spread from a lot of work to rather little).

Some reputable dealers on this forum (one of them a Sauter dealer) more than once claimed there pianos get between 6 and 12 hrs of prep work when they arrive IRRESPECTIVE of the make.

In your logic for Sauter that would mean there 6 to 12 hours is either useless (as they check many things and nothing is to be found) or even counterproductive as when they regulate or voice they can only make it worse.

This would also make Sauter the ideal piano for buying one online. I could play one here at a local dealership, like the tone and touch and then order it from a German online cyberstore with an attractive discount. I would never take that risk.

schwammerl.

wow, ball bearing caster wheels !!
Congrats on your new "Porsche 911 turbo"

Hi schwammerl,

Thanks for your kind wishes.

Ah, I have been misunderstood. Even pianos as well prepped as Sauter WILL require pre/post-delivery prep. My previous posts in other threads either say this or infer it. What I am implying is that thorough factory prep means that the dealer or his tech will most likely not have major remedial work to do on the piano. That's of course assuming that the piano has been well-treated in shipping. I should have been clearer. Thanks for picking that up.

Buying pianos sight unseen is not for the faint-of-heart. I did so only because there aren't any Omegas in the local dealership, and I had full confidence in Sauter to deliver a piano in good shape and with its generic Sauter voice intact. From there I will work with the dealer to tweak my piano to suit my tastes. I don't expect to have to modify anything beyond recognition. It's pretty darned close already to what I like.

Are there any such German cyberstores? In any case Sauter would never allow their pianos to be sold in that manner!

In case of true high end products and also in conjunction with experienced and "hands-on" type dealers, buying "sight unseen" is not that uncommon nor is it particularly *risky*.

We have done it on a number of occasions involving customers in other provinces [states..]

For one,these pianos come not only in high quality wooden crates which are virtually "inpenetrable", but are so expertly prepared in factory that any further work later could simply be deemed "icing on the cake"

I can assure everybody here that anybody who visits Sauter or similiar top companies, getting a personal tour on site and ordering a piano at that time, doesn't have to give these kind of worries a second thought.

Personal tastes of touch and tone are usually amply discussed at those occasions - with those companies being very particular about 100% customer satisfaction and then often actually specializing in delivering a highly personalized instrument in the end.

We've done it several times ourselves - with very happy customers - 'Christine" in Edmonton,are you reading....

Norbert

That is after all why those pianos cost so much! Alvin will still check my Omega's regulation, but I don't expect that much, if anything, will be done (aside from tuning). He expects to spend the WHOLE DAY at my home doing this.

Digitus,

? German cyberstores selling Sauter?

Don't knwo if you want to call them cyberstores but these are big musical instrument on-line sellers in Germany:

http://www.musik-dressler.de/websale7/?C...0a7c24%2fmd5%7d

http://www.musikhaus-pfefferkorn.de/onli...e_gebraucht.php

http://www.musik-ebert.de/start.htm?klaviere_sauter.htm

schwammerl.

Congratulation, a truly beautiful piano. If it was me, I would take a vacation and lock myself in my apartment for a week with the piano

schwammerl: Wow! That's amazing! Do you know if they provide proper service? They certainly don't look like PSS-like operations.

Honestly, I think piano buyers in Europe are just spoiled for choice, and for access to high-quality techs. Many of us in the Far East are very envious.

Thanks bkkmd! Well you know I haven't taken any leave yet this year. But the lock-myself-in-the-apartment thing will work only AFTER the piano has been tuned. I am desperately resisting the temptation to do it myself before Alvin does it on Friday next week.

That would be the time for a 2nd one week vacation

Stop it!

Well done. I remember the start of your journey and am glad that you are pleased with your new toy.

Digitus, does the casters have any braking device?
If not you can roll it tho and fro just to kill the bordom.

Now where are the pictures of your 2 cutie feline ??

Yes there are locks for the two front casters.

The two girls are a little camera shy!

What an exquisite piece! The bench is stunning on its own. Congratulations for making a wise choice!