I just learned that my dad will buy be a digital (read apartment-compatible!)piano. (yay!) I want one that will have a realistic piano sound and a touch/feel as close as possible to a real piano (I'm used to pianos with a rather hard touch). I really don't care about the other gadgets or options. I have a budget of 2000-3000$, so what are your suggestions?
I heard about "silent pianos", they seem to be real accoustic pianos that also have de digital (soundless!) option. any idea how much I should expect for these?

One model to check out is the Yamaha P250, which usually weighs in around $1900. The general opinion is that it has a firmer touch than Roland models. The samples are from a Yamaha CFIII grand piano, one of their finest.

The only "silent piano" I have heard of is the Schimmel, which is indeed a real acoustic piano that turns into a Yamaha digital when you operate the middle pedal. However, Schimmel uprights start around $8000 and I think the silent piano option will run another $4000-5000.

A lot of brands have "silent" pianos, Yamaha has such models too and you can have it installed on (almost?) every acoustic piano.
However, the guy at one of the stores I went to told me that in order to install the device, they had to adjust the mechanism which had a negative effect on the action. I launched the question on this forum once, but never received an answer so I'm not yet sure whether this is correct.
With your budget I think you could consider a Yamaha CLP 170 or a top Roland, though I believe Yamaha actions are the heaviest.
Also if you can, test a Kawai CA 1000 or CA 1200, very nice and quite heavy touch (wooden keys). These are certainly within your budget and really worth their money.

Rgds,
Michiel

When you say 2-3K budget is that US, or Canadian. Could make a difference in recommendations.

If you're talking about US dollars, then you have a wide range of pianos to choose from depending on how good you want it to look and portability.

If you want portability with low weight (around 40 lbs), then the P120 is a great system at about $1200 with stand.

Portability with weight not a concern (around 70 lbs), then the P250 is the best bet because it has a much wider polyphony and more voices.

If you want the best digital piano with a $3,000 ceiling. IMHO the CLP-170 is the beast that is best. With dickering, you should easily get the dealer to sell it to you for $3k (or less) out the door.

You can compare the features at Yamaha's website.

Like many others I am searching for the "realistic" feel and touch of an acoustic. Since you are searching for an "apartment compatable" unit my thoughts may be helpful (or not). One of the things I have become aware of in my search, touch/feel aside, is that the "sound" of the various models often is quite different when using headphones. For instance, in my opinion, the Yamaha CLP-170 w/o headphones has an awesome sound (presumably because of its iAFC technology). But, with headphones, I was disappointed, it was pretty ordinary, and I preferred the sound of others with headphones that I did not like as much w/o headphones and vice-versa. Confusing huh! I'm sure there are many reasons for this such as speaker placement and amps, room size and acoustics etc. However, as one of the main reasons stated by many who purchase a digital piano is the need for "quiet" time this may be a relevant observation--though subjective and personal. How important it is in the overall scheme of things depends on you. Deciding on whether you will "perform" with your digital, in which case the sound without headphones would be quite important, as oppossed to using it primarily to practice (with headphones) might be worth some thought. In any event, others have given you good advice on possible options. Whichever you choose, I would give it a good workout with and, if possible, without headphones. Also, if you don't have a good set of headphones there have been threads discussing this which you can access through the search option. Good luck and, "What a dad!!!!!!!!!!"

sp.k.

However, the guy at one of the stores I went to told me that in order to install the device, they had to adjust the mechanism which had a negative effect on the action. [/b]

I can confirm this from one other source. I recently bought an acoustic piano and looked into having a silencing rail installed. The dealer (in whom I have a lot of confidence and who sells player systems with silencing rails) said almost exactly this - the action has to be adjusted to work with the mechanism, and that adjustment affects the action even when the silencing rail is not engaged. I decided not to do it.