Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Is Yamaha going to discontinue the Disklavier M4?

Looking at the updated Yamaha web site, the Disklavier E3 is available on every grand including the S series and the DCFIII. Only the Mark 4 pro is available on the S series and DCFIII (It is also available on the C3-7) ; the standard Mark 4 is available only on the GC and C series. It is my understanding that the E3 is a cut down and less expensive version of the Mark 4 and neither the E3 or the standard Mark 4 have the High Definition (recording and playback) capabilities of the Mark 4 Pro.

This leads me to 2 questions: First is Yamaha going to discontinue the standard Mark 4 (maybe keep the Mark 4 Pro for the more expensive pianos); Second, with the big push for the E3 is there a future for Yamaha to compete in the High Definition Market (where the LX is).

The new E3 is remarkable. It is only available up through the DC2E3 size. The Mark IV ranges from the DGC1MkIV through the DCFIII.

The E3 is more like a revitalized Mark III than a scaled down Mark IV. The E3 is software based while the Mark IV is PC based and upgradable.

We do not believe the Mark IV will be replaced or phased out as they continue to upgrade with software patches to add reliability and new features and capabilities.

Thanks Marty for the info, the Yamaha web site is confusing since it shows that the E3 is going to be available on all of its grand Pianos.

However, with the big push toward the E3 which, like the standard Mark 4, is not High Definition capable (I believe that only the Mark 4 pro has this capability and it is not available on anything below a C3) it looks like Yamaha is not going to enter the High Definition market to compete with the LX system and Bosendorfer CEUS (far more expensive than the LX).