Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Yamaha U3 (secondhand) or N1X for diploma work? LLCM etc.

Very well I agree perhaps I am being subjective about this
N2 or the N1X that J&J mentioned .Perhaps these will be fine .
Perhaps I am old fashioned .,I do not know.
So J&J you could be correct.If it was me however I would choose
an accoustic if I intended working for another diploma in music
but that is just me and I have never tried an N2.piano.
I realise I tend to be over idealistic when comes to piano tone.

Hi LadyBird - I do agree with you. If it were me, I too would buy an acoustic upright over a digital any day. Even over the hybrids I tried 7 years ago, although the hybrids were much better than your average digital with weighted actions. Digitals and hybrids improve much more rapidly than acoustic technology, so I would probably be very surprised and hopefully delighted with an N1X. As I mentioned to the OP, it would be ideal to find a Yamaha or Kawai dealer and compare the hybrids and acoustic uprights to an acoustic grand which Spno would likely encounter for recitals or exams. Sadly the OP can’t do that. If it were me I’d go the U3 route. An acoustic does give me better command of my repertoire and more confidence. But it’s not you or me. I wish the OP the best fortune on his musical adventure. Whichever piano Spno chooses, it has to be something that will support hours and hours of concentrated practice. And IMHO, practice effort and practice time count more than which piano the OP chooses

It would be nice to hear how the OP is getting on trying all
of these instruments accoustic ,hybrids whatever.

The U3 can be a lovely sounding piano ! I know I once nearly bought one
before we decided on getting a European piano !

Plan is to check out the N1X and see how I feel about it first, I'll kinda know if it will work for me or not if I get an hour or so on one...I have tried literally every "normal" top-end digital out there at the moment, (CLPs/CAs/GPs...MP11 etc.), even a NU1X, none of them made the cut for me as a piano replacement...I went with a RD2000 last year as I thought it was the best bang for buck, and most resell-able...the sound engine has a bit of life to it and the action isn't that bad; it's grand to do a bit of practice on, and it's great for composition with the computer etc. But even when the upright is dog out of tune I still gravitate to it.

Anyway, if I write off the hybrids, then I'll start trawling the secondhand market for uprights, basically whatever is decent and comes my way at a good price...something like a 90/00s U3; that will last me for many years to come kinda thing. It does seem like these hybrids are considered serious instruments, which is cool...this is really a long term plan; I think it'll be after christmas kinda thing, maybe this time next year even...but when I get a chance to play a N1X etc., I will drop back and post my thoughts.

...by the way, I had thought between my dodgy upright and the RD2000, I'd be grand for the next while...but since it went out of tune so quickly this time (2 weeks!), and the tuner seemed pretty wrecked after tuning it (and this guy is really good), it looks like it's finally just taken a turn for the worst...which kinda wrecked my ad interim plan.

Spno - just to show I’m not too terribly old school acoustic only, I found a link in my email to the latest Kawai hybrids. They do look cool.
Kawai NV5