The Yamaha Stringless Piano

 

    David Pogue, a well known New York Times Newspaper writer who especially writes about new electronics, wrote about a new series of stringless, electric Yamaha pianos, called the N1, N2, N3, and NU1 (AvantGrand Series). Sensors replace the strings, with sounds recorded from the world’s best piano. When the hammer hits down upon the sensors, the recorded sound is played through a set of high-end speakers, which produces such a realistic sound, it can fool many hard-core pianists.

    I particularly appreciate the detail that these hybrid pianos never need tuning. Tuning is very expensive (around $100), and takes a lot of time. Also, the soundtracks are reproduced from the world’s best piano, so one can get almost as high quality a sound as the best piano, and, in the meantime, save thousands of dollars. I also like the fact that if I live in an apartment or condo, I can turn down the volume or listen to my playing through headphones to prevent my neighbors from screaming and yelling at me when I am practicing at one in the morning. It is also great for people who don’t have very big houses, because the pianos in the Avantgrand series are really compact, yet imitate the sounds of nine-foot grand pianos.