I played a new Schimmel K189 today at Keyboard Concepts in Van Nuys. The Schimmels I've been played in past years, I've been fairly underwhelmed, not my tonal cup of tea. But this was different....simply WOW !
Clarity in all registers, super responsive action/touch to sound, very reminiscent of a Fazioli. Sounded much bigger then a 6'3" piano. I played a Bosendorfer 225 right down the aisle and while the larger scale of the 225 was obvious, the basic clairty and singing tone of the Schimmel, to my ears, was on par with the 225.
KC is one of the biggest Yamaha dealers in the country, and I'm a huge Yamaha fan having owned a C7e & S6 before my D. I played every Yamaha CX model they had from the C3 up to the C7, and as nice as they were, the Schimmel had, for me, a superior, more complex tone and added sustain. And I had never felt that way in the past when playing older Schimmels next to a C7 or C5/6/3.
Basically there was nothing I didn't like about the K189...and this was with minimum prep too. Simply a smokin' piano !
edit with added thought:
Most of the Schimmels I have played/serviced were well made. The tone color does not change much with dynamics-which I find boring.
The statement fails to differentiate between the several different lines of "Schimmel".
For example, the Classic and Konzert series are so different, they may as well be made by different makers.
While the statement may be perhaps partially true for the one series, it definitely does not for the other.
They had the Classic 189 right next to the Konzert and there was no comparison. Playing just one Fm7b5 sus chord voiced with a minor 10th in the LH in the middle register on both pianos immediately told the story...
It was indeed like playing two different brands of piano as opposed to models.
