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If you are thinking about buying from Peregrine’s- i would recommend you ask to see the pianos in the practice rooms.

They have A forester (don’t remember which model) and a Schimmel Konzert in the other. Both rooms are comparable to a typical living room in size.

The difference is that the practice rooms will give you a better feel for what the piano will sound like when at your house than the show room.

Unless one has consciously played a recent Bechstein and taken a look under the hood, very few people are aware of Bechstein's complete redesign of their concert and academy series with a capo bar and a duplex scale. There is kind of an assumption that the traditional Bechstein sound with its clarity still lacks richness in colours and harmonics in the treble section.

If I had to replace my 1887 Steinway B with a modern instrument, it would either be an A228 or C234. Both pianos have an action that simply blew me away and I found something similarly responsive and precise only in a Yamaha CFX. The Bechsteins, together with the Fazioli 228 are a lot closer to a real, full-size concert grand than a Steinway C or a Yamaha C7 in my opinion.

It looks and plays really well , but I got really vague responses regarding the Bechstein Academy. The action is apparently not a proper Renner , the rim is thinner than the Concert series . There must be some difference when the A228 is around 50% of the C234's price. The Konzert series apparently also has a very wide tail it seems , which I was told has better projection capabilities.

For those of you who are not that familiar with the Bechstein hammer philosophy, you might want to read this article published as a PDF on the Bechstein home page:
OPTIMIZING THE SOUND

Hi Awesome10,

It doesn't matter if the piano uses Abel hammers or has a "dodecahedrex" duplex scale. All that matters is if you like the tonal quality and sustain through the various dynamics. Everything else is marketing.

Schimmel uses Renner hammers.
The August Förster 215 can be ordered with Renner or Abel hammers. Default is Renner I believe.

Please don't spread misinformation.

If it says Bechstein on the fallboard of a modern instrument it was designed and manufactured in Germany. If it has W. Hoffmann on the fallboard, it was built in the Czech Republic, designed in Germany.

...

talking of czech pianos there's also Petrof.

I'd pass on Petrof - they're not in the same class as others mentioned - better than they used to be, but still not there.

As far as I know, VAT in England is 20%.
So if you pay 120£ for a commodity, it would be 120/1.20 =100£ without VAT.

If the original sales price was 150£, but discounted with 30£ to 120£, the price you would pay without VAT would be (150-30)/1.20 = 100£.

By the way, I saw that Hurstwood Farm had a summer sale with 25% off on some models...

It was announced on their Facebook page yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/732819870158079/posts/2150542825052436?s=100012999733024&sfns=mo

If you mail them I am sure they will provide you with a list. You could also state your budget and ask if they have anything including floor models that would fit the bill.