Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Accoustic Piano in silent mode vs Digital/Hybrid Piano

One reason might be that the n2 and n3 have a grand piano action. The silent pianos you mention appear to be uprights whose actions (it could be argued) are inferior to even the better DPs, let alone a real hybrid like the yamaha avant grands, n1, n2 & n3.

That's primarily because the NU1 has superior amps & speakers, but I judge that part of the piano separately from the internal sound engine. But you are right the NU1 is also an alternative to consider.

You could add a powered sub woofer to the N1 and that would provide a lot more base. You could also place it under the keyboard to the left or right.

Originally I was going to buy an N1 and place it in our family room because I have a sound system down there, the speaker being a Mackie 450, something which would provide plenty of bass. My wife decided she wanted the piano in the living room so that was the deciding reason for buying the N2.

I imagine you could stuff a woofer down the cabinet of an N1 so as to make it unobtrusive, whilst mounting the (separated out) controls just below the keyboard. I`ve thought of doing this using the little bass amp I have for my Roland.

temari, Blüthner has the e-Klavier :-)

And its supposedly possible to get Grotian-Steinweg outfitted with the Yamaha Silent System...

But no luck with Seiler or August-Förster etc. You'd have to put an after-market system in there. Pianodisc or Korg etc.



An acoustic with silent system has a tad longer travel of the hammers, this is required to fit the bar that blocks the hammers. This reduces control sightly. And for an professional, this might be a big deal.

There still exist silent systems with physical (as in not optical) sensors. The modern systems all use optical sensors, though.

After-market systems such as Pianodisc are not as advanced as the new Yamaha silent system or the Kawai ATX2, especially in the area of resonances.

Outfitting a acoustic with an after-market system should only be trouble if the tech doing it does not do it often enough.

If you want the best of both worlds, you buy an acoustic and a DP. In both cases you can buy any brand you like and you can get a very good price because the used market is also open to you. Getting e.g. a used P121 or K-300 with silent system is very hard.

I would not have the room, though. But if you have the room, do that.

What strikes me odd is that none of the people I know manages to keep their acoustic in tune. The pianos get a tuning once a year if they are lucky. So I now wonder if I would also not be able to do that. Or what my threshold for out-of-tune might be.

I do not play an acoustic on a regular basis. Only once a month when we visit someone or I visit a dealer etc. With that little exposure to acoustics, I do not even much develop a feeling for what I miss (if anything). Only thing I can hear is that the acoustics are most always out of tune :-)

A piano that is played often and in good condition actually keeps its tune rather well. So tuning once a year is common, especially if the environment is pretty steady with humidity and temperature. Every 6 months if there is some fluctuation.

You get used to your own piano and learn to live with the imperfections. Also lower chances of getting bored by the same sound every day.

This doesn't work, if you switch pianos all the time.

So do I understand it right that this does also negatively affect playing the piano when it is played in acoustic mode or only when it is played silent (or both)?



Actually DPs are the clear winner here, change to baroque tuning with one click of button and have a fresh sound that is not out of tune.

The keys on an acoustic even in silent mood, will still be far noisier than those of most digitals. A major consideration if those walls are thin . . .

You would think that DP manufacturers in their zeal to perfectly simulate AP actions would be clamoring to also build in the key clacks/clicks!

I owned for years an acoustic upright piano.
Fine, but I could not play during the night and in the afternoon if someone was sleeping in the house... and I could not practise endless times the same piece without harassing the people living with me. Also every year it needed tuning...
I now own a digital hybrid piano and it is so much more practical.
I can play whenever I want with headphones or simply lowering the volume I can play without disturbing people on the next room without headphones.
I can change the piano sound and matching it with the piece I am playing (Classical music -> Mellow Grand, Rock -> Rock piano, Jazz -> Jazz piano, etc..) and every piece sound so much better!! Today I can play a concert grand, tomorrow an studio grand, etc..
Also I can adjust reverb, tone brightness, pedals responsiveness, action firmness, down to the single note adjustiment. I can make the digital piano sound and feel how I wish/like.
The result is that I enjoy so much more playing this kind of instruments that I play much much much more.
Honestly digital hybrid pianos are simply perfect for home use and practise. Acoustic are another thing but are not practical.

Hello all. Great discussion. I'm in a similar position: I've been playing the piano again more and looking to replace my acoustic with a silent piano or supplement it with a digital piano.

What I've learned: to get the best silent system, in Germany at least, you have to be prepared to pay at least €9000 for the SH silent system that comes with Yamaha's P121 or, even better, the U1. Yamaha's SG system (in the B range) is cheap and (to my ears) nasty, particularly after a few minutes on headphones. The Kawai and Bechstein systems are good but not as good as Yamaha. As for second hand: in Germany at least, I've not seen a Yamaha with the SH system come on the second-hand market. A lot of satisfied buyers out there! As for the Korg/PianoDisc systems: acoustically at the SG system level, if that.

Then I faced the question raised here: can I justify the premium for a decent acoustic with a silent system when I actually need a (halfway pleasurable-to-play) headphone solution. So I started exploring digital pianos and was pleasantly surprised at the options. My personal favourites so far: the Casio Grand Hybrid range and a lot of Rolands: from the LX7 to even the FP 50 stage piano. I was bowled over by the FP50. Such fun and completely unexpected.

Curiously, none of Yamaha/Kawai digital range even vaguely interested me, neither in touch nor in tone, which surprised me given their popularity. Kawai digital pianos just weren't working for me - tinned sounds - while the Yamaha Clavinovas... considering what Yamaha has shown it can do aurally with the SH system, I found the Clavinova and N pianos massively disappointing.

So that's where I am now: waiting for a Roland Kiyola Kf-10 on order to play before I make up my mind.

It's been a long year and, like the first poster, the longer I looked the more delighted yet confused I became. And the more I played, the more expensive my tastes became. :-) But at some point I realised that anything beneath an SH silent piano was, to my ears, a compromise. But I've yet to find a Yamaha upright with an acoustic sound I liked. Very modern and clean but I'm more of a softer, warmer piano sound lover. I know you can get a tuner to take the edge off a Yamaha, but that's like buying a Volvo and asking a mechanic to turn it into a Porsche. And did I really need to pay for the full acoustic piano when, what I need, is something to play away in the evenings (I'm a music night owl, living in an apartment block: bad combination).

I may yet do something unexpected but I think it's a digital piano for me. And I don't feel like I am compromising. I feel I am buying what I need, not more than I need. What I've learned in addition: stick to your budget and don't pay for something you won't get real use/pleasure from. Don't make an aspirational purchase, thinking a huge expense on something far too luxurious for your needs will guilt-trip you into practising more. Finally: your ears and your fingers won't lie, they don't let you down. Trust them, not the sales talk.

Roland did with the PHAIII, but so many people moaned and complained about it: Why so noisy! I wouldn't tolerate it! Really, you can't win, can you, if you're a dp maker?

Perhaps DPs should imitate the idiosyncrasies of acoustics? But look at the number of times Kawai DPs are sent back to the shop because one or two keys clack slightly more than others. Or clack in slightly different way. But if it were an acoustic, no one would complain because no one would notice.

We are a fretful and fractious bunch.

@Dscally: If you already played the LX-7, then you know how the Kiyola plays, don't forget to also check the DP603.

That's a terrifically attractive visual design. I'm not sold on the sound in the "concept" demo video, but I'll have to add it to my list just in case it's better in person.

I'm a sucker for good design. If it sounds anything like the LX-7, I'm going to be delighted. I'm not buying it blind simply because, given the different case, the speakers may deliver a different experience.

I showed the Kiyola to a designer/architect friend and his first, instinctive reaction was: "Oh, that's beautiful."

I really liked the LX-7 too, though the case design had something 1980s about it, that I can't put my finger on.

The Kiyola will be the same through headphones, but have the HP603 speakers, so much less than LX-7 obviously since it wouldn't fit in such a small cabinet.

Absolutely agree with your comments re SG and SH serie. I also decided that SH system would be something I could imagine , but... in combination with less expensive model which is unfortunately does not exist. In this terms Kawai 200 ATX is for me an option. ATX even on entry level models are the same. And Kawai has a softer, more european sound ... As for Bechstein, It seems that people are underestimate it, at the beginning i also excluded it from my list. Maybe they improved something since then. During my last visit of Bechstein center with my own headphones i got more positive impression: i also spent some time playing with different settings, you can tune the sound dynamic from pp to ff using a chart on the display. It sounds really interesting but ... the price is an issue. installed on a youngest Hoffman will bring us to 8k EUR. Having said that, they don't have any interesting financial program...
So, I am going to visit a lokal "Session" tomorrow to try N1 vs Kawai ATX vs CS11. Maybe this brings me somewhere...

There was a Yamaha P121 on ebay Kleinanzeigen in Hamburg a short while ago. Around 5kEUR. But I agree, they are few.

The Yamahas come with crappy headphones, I am sorry to say. As in: they do not do their silent/digital systems justice. I would highly recommend to bring really good headphones for testing DPs. A lot of "medium" headphones bring out too much trebble and so a Yamaha, which is brilliant by nature comes across as shrill very easily.

I was missing out on a whole dimension of sound of my CN35 with just 40EUR Sennheiser headphones :-)

I agree with the statement that the Kiyola will not compare against the LX7, except optically, because the speakers are inferior. However, this does not matter much if you play with headphones 80% or more.

HA, I think I just bought a pair o` those . . sounded good in Currys against my own. They were amongst the few i was able to try . . HD 205s;.which ones did you replace yours with?