Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Very disappointed with all the disappointing threads ...

...expressing disappointment.

Interesting to see how much disappointment there is on the digital forum with digital and software pianos and how little disappointment there is on the (acoustic) piano forum and the pianist's corner and the teacher's forum with acoustic pianos. Hmmm. Wonder why that is?

Just played a 1980's upright piano with plastic keys, made me want my DP back! I've been SOOOO disappointed with acoustic pianos, there's just nothing like that 96khz sample playback that never goes out of tune.

I'm disappointed that you're disappointed. No wait. I'm actually not disappointed that you're disappointed. I suspect that you're not being forced to read the threads expressing disappointment. Stop reading the threads expressing disappointment, and perhaps you will no longer feel disappointment, and that you need to post about feeling disappointment, thus contributing to yet more expression of disappointment.

Disappointing.

Perhaps it's the insane levels of hype surrounding DPs generating unreasonable expectation? Go on-line or read the literature and the next thing you know you'll find yourself wandering the isles of Guitar Center, banging on plastic boxes with $10 of electronics inside, searching for souls. They promise you a lover but you end up with a blow up doll.

SWPs & DPs promise to recreate the AP experience, but usually fall flat in one or more critical ways. With DPs we've have had literally decades of criminally tiny samples. With SWPs we get uneven sample sets and semi-broken playback engines. I'm kind of surprised every morning when I wake up to find that no one has torched EastWest, and that there aren't angry mobs with pitchforks surrounding Yamaha HQ.

At least with an AP what you see is what you get: a box, some strings, a pile of wood, and some felt. The keys and pedals generally work they way you expect, and it resonates. You can play all 88 notes without having any of them stolen, and you don't jump out of your skin when you play a key 0.1 g harder and hit a harsh velocity step.

There's also the "getting taken" factor, particularly with cabinetry DPs. Every incremental improvement to a feature makes the entire thing cost double. Want 8" speakers instead of 6.5"? That will be an extra $1k. Things like that can take all the fun out of what should be a pleasant acquisition experience.

The title of this thread reminds me of all those Considered Harmful CS papers from decades ago.

We just need to wait 5 more years, and I'm sure we'll see decent digital pianos with SSD storage inside and gigabytes of samples, mixed with some sophisticated algorithms, like Roland SN.

Play the AvantGrand N3 and many of the above expressed opinions will be changed. When Yamaha gets updated with their version of SuperNatural technology it will be pretty amazing. Once you've played an acoustic action combined with optical sensors, well there really is no turning back. Of course, for most of us, this cutting edge technology is too expensive at the moment.

Exactly.

Those of us fortunate enough to spend some time on the Avant Grand N3, have realized all other digital pianos are basically the same; with varying degrees of authenticity of sound and action being the only difference.

Surely, this technology will drift down to the lower priced models eventually, and many more will have the opportunity to have the pleasure of using it.

I also believe that acoustic piano buyers get every bit as disappointed as digital purchasers...witness how many grands or uprights must be tried out before the right piano is found...therefore the ones rejected, would be disappointments.

Most acoustic buyers spend a lot of time finding the "right" instrument, and then spend a fair amount of money maintaining that degree of "rightness" over the time the piano is owned.

This forum of digital piano buyers/users is made up of a niche group of players/users, and we tend to be fussier than the general public, who mostly buy a digital piano the way they would buy a home theatre system, or even a refrigerator.

The fussiness can be seen in endless prattle about squiggly lines in relatively (but not totally) meaningless tests, and overindulgence in discussions on how one big three manufacturer (Roland Korg Yamaha) is "better" than another...let's face it, they are all very good...what varies is individual taste, musicianship level, monetary means, and availability of the product.

So, I tend to disagree that digital players/owners are more "disappointed" than acoustic players/users...the difference lies in the kind of disappointments, not their frequency.

Snazzy

You are asking for trouble if you buy a cheap Chinese acoustic, unseen, untested based upon reviews by those with vested interests and expecting it to sound like a Steinway. How often does that happen? "Sounds and feels JUST like a perfectly tuned and maintained Steinway concert grand. Bring out the latent concert pianist in you". Am I missing the point? Seriously disappointed.

I thought based on what I read on this forum, people who made a careful purchase decision of their DP are generally happy with their choices. If they buy a new one to replace the old one, it's because they want a newer/better DP, not necessarily because they're disappointed with their old ones. Many threads about disappointment with DPs I see generally are by posters who are checking out new DPs and don't find them to meet their high expectation, either price-wise or feature-wise or sound-wise or feel-wise. But it doesn't necessarily mean those posters have bought those DPs and are disappointed with their purchase afterward.

I agree. Also, I think you need 10 years for this fledgling technology to catch up with its marketing. Just imagine some of the marketing if it was bound to absolute painful truth. Take a 15+ year-old DP and write some marketing spiel for it based on current DP experience. Now dig out the original poetic description and compare.

or trying to find that "rightness" again when the piano is delivered and it doesn't sound the way it used to at the dealer (due to different tuning from the new tech, or temperature shocks in transit, or acoustics, etc. etc.).

This has been my working theory too. We should all just keep our pants on until NAMM 2020, at which point the DP industry will be up to circa 2000, and we'll finally be able to get what we want.

It's all about how much money you spend for either. Given unlimited funds I'd want a grand piano and a Roland V.

Otherwise I just don't think you can compare the two.

The privacy, portability and quiet of a digital (along with maintenance and tuning free) vs. the touch, warmth, responsiveness and general soul of an acoustic....

I have been really disappointed in acoustic pianos and digitals and thrilled with both

I wouldn't want either a grand or a V-Piano. However, I would want an AvantGrand N3.

I think when people are happy with something, they may not feel moved to write about it unless they are extremely happy. But if they are disappointed, feel ripped off, etc. and are aggrieved, they want to vent, and they're more likely to post. So if you read forums, letters to the editors, or whatever, the material you see may be skewed toward complaints.

Just a hypothesis.

Elene

Given unlimited funds? A detached house in the country. A few sound proofed rooms. A couple of concert grands all set up with CEUS technology. Tunings every other week... Had I won the recent £84 million lottery.

I refuse to let myself try that instrument.