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It has now been 6 months since owning a brand new Estonia L210. How time flies. The piano tone has significantly bloomed during this time and I felt compelled to share some of my thoughts.



Pros:
-Extremely rich and distinct treble and high treble. Excellent clarity and a very distinct European character
-Felty rich bass. With time as the hammer felts compacted it is now capable of more percussive tones, but still never too harsh. Slowly with time the bass tones became clearer and more focused on the fundamental.
-Gorgeous Una Corda tones (see my Bach BWV846 recording below)
-Very light and smooth Renner action. My particular L210 is fitted with Abel hammers, instead of Renner Blue. The dynamic range was limited when new but grew larger over time.
-Excellent sustain throughout.

Cons:
-Now that I've been spoiled by the Renner action I can't stand going back to my digital Kawai CS7 anymore. How did I put up with a digital action for so many years?? The keys feel awkward and the VST sounds soulless compared to an acoustic.
-Very responsive and sensitive action, especially after regulation, so now it highlights all of my technical insufficiencies! I can't hide behind the forgiving touch curve of my VST anymore!

The subtropical climate of Brisbane creates a significant amount of humidity during the hotter months and throws the piano out of tune pretty quickly. I plan to instal a Dampp Chaser system soon for extra stability. During the 6 months it has been tuned three times already, and fully regulated since February. I only had minimal voicing done at this stage, and plan to do a full voicing after the tuning has fully stabilised. My technician has never serviced an Estonia before and was rather impressed with all the attention to detail, finish, materials, and overall craftsmanship.

It's quite amazing how much the piano changes after time, regulation, and breaking-in. I look forward to seeing how it will continue to change in future. People often say that you should buy the piano that you fall in love with. Sadly, many piano shops do not bother doing full regulation/voicing on new pianos and obviously have not sat through enough time to be broken-in, so these pianos are no where close to their full potential! When I first played my Estonia L210, I didn't fall in love with it. However, I saw great potential! This makes me extremely glad that I trusted the numerous online reviews and courageously went for the purchase having faith that the piano will bloom beautifully over time, which it did! Perhaps when we're choosing a dream piano, we should focus more on technician/owner reviews and listen to the future potential of the piano? What do you think?

If anyone is around the Brisbane area and wants to test play the Estonia without flying all the way to Melbourne, feel free to PM me and drop by my place. I'm free most weekends.

Zoom H5 Mic placement


Very distinct treble clarity

Gorgeous Una Corda!

Yes good piano, very fine instrument as you say of European character, but...

But your playing outshines the piano by a long way. I prefer a different interpretation of the d minor prelude but there's no denying the charm and individuality of your performance. Simply great. The C major is a dead ringer for the style I use however you do it better. This is very enjoyable playing. Frankly, more compelling than many professional recordings.

I listen to pianists not pianos. Hope you get some listeners for this post.

Yes good piano, very fine instrument as you say of European character, but...

But your playing outshines the piano by a long way. I prefer a different interpretation of the d minor prelude but there's no denying the charm and individuality of your performance. Simply great. The C major is a dead ringer for the style I use however you do it better. This is very enjoyable playing. Frankly, more compelling than many professional recordings.

I listen to pianists not pianos. Hope you get some listeners for this post.

I have an adoration for estonia pianos and I think your playing highlights much of the beauty of the instrument. I also agree on the una corda; I found Estonia pianos typical have the una corda voiced very soft in comparison to the non una corda part of the hammer. These pianos also have an almost reverb-like quality to their sustain... I wonder though, do you add any post processing to your recordings?

Your d minor was refreshingly different, PikaPianist. Thank you for posting.

I would love to hear something that explored the colors in the piano a little more and used more dynamics as well. Maybe a little Debussy or Chopin? I hope you take requests.

Bravo!

Loved the playing and the piano!

+1

Thank you for sharing.

Both the sound of the piano and your playing are very good!

I agree with this. I don't think the treble sounds nice - very thin, almost synthetic sounding. I have concluded that I don't really like the Estonia sound after trying hard to like it for many years. There is something missing in the tone - especially the treble. It sounds like it's always stuck on the una corda pedal.

Still, very nice to hear the performances!

Well I really enjoyed that Bach d min prelude.A really nice legato sound in the R.H.
I thought both the treble and bass of this piano marvelous.The tone both mellow and warm.
Of course you broke the rules and used the sustaining pedal in the C major prelude.You were obviously demonstrating the tonal variety available in this piano by playing this piece so Romantic.You are not alone so many do this ever since it was used as an accompaniment for Ave Maria.
Thank you for sharing your piano with us.

I agree on the unique reverb-like quality of the Estonia piano's sustain. My living room sounds pretty dry so I do indeed add a little reverb to my recording.

Interesting how you would describe the tone as 'synthetic' sounding. I guess different people perceive piano tone differently. If we're talking about sounding truly 'synthetic', the Stuart and Sons pianos comes to mind. The tone is so unbelievably pure and perfect it becomes somewhat unsettling for me after a while. Whereas the Estonia tone has some 'texture' to it, giving it more richness and colour.

Although I can see your point about feeling like the piano is stuck on the Una Corda pedal, because it never becomes too harsh. I happen to enjoy the Una Corda pedal on most piano brands more than their normal tone. It's probably why I like the Estonia so much One of the downsides of my Estonia piano when brand new was that the bass was quite weak and 'polite', but after 6 months it bloomed very well and is capable of more percussiveness.

What do you mean by reverb ?

I also have no idea how anyone can describe any accoustic piano sound as synthetic? The tone of a piano is what it is .,But it is a real natural sound.Some people do not like a pure sound from a piano and label it" cold",but synthetic never!
One needs to ask how much the modern piano's tone has been affected by powerful brands such as Steinways and Yamaha.?Are we moving further away from a tone that is authentic to play Beethoven, Chopin ,Schumann .?Also does that really matter ?After all we play Bach on the piano?

What kind of indoor air conditioning do you use in Brisbane?

Very nice enjoyed the performance. Little tip, use a plastic office liner where your feet rest. That way you don't get the carpet all dirty in the same spot,

Synthetic is a term frequently used on the digital forum to describe the generation of "modelled" pianos which don't use recorded samples of real pianos, but rather a computed emulation of a piano. There are a handful of manufacturers and software companies making modelled pianos now - including Roland. Most people find that the modelled pianos don't quite sound like a real piano. There is a synthetic quality - something to do with being very pure sounding (a la what PikaPianist described with the Stuart and Sons pianos). Of course it's not actually synthetic, it is a real piano after all, but the tonal characteristics are different from what we experience in a Steinway or Yamaha for example. It's to do with the harmonic spectrum being different to many other pianos. The Estonia has a sound somewhat in the direction of the Roland modelled piano. That's why I referred to it as synthetic. It's just a personal opinion. It's not to say that this kind of tone is unmusical. It can still be very enjoyable to play and hear. Everybody has their own idea of ideal tone. I do like the una corda pedal sound, but not all the time. I feel like it is always there on the Estonias I've heard and played. But hey, there's enough room for all of our tastes in this big world!

The sound on this 210 with Abel hammers is very different from mine with the standard Renners. I can't say better or worse. When considering different needling along with now different hammers- it's amazing how one piano's sound can be so different. Fazioli's two interchangeable action pianos, an intriguing idea, why settle for just one sound profile? I'd probably never stop messing around.

Reverb is the sonic signature of the space you are playing in. So the same piano, the same pianist, the same piece but a different space gives another sound. When you add reverb, you normally simulate the echo of a bigger space.

Ducted air conditioning. Pretty useful for cooling down the whole living room for piano practicing.