Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Tiffany Poon interviews Ron Losby, CEO of Steinway

Also she plays a duet with him. Today I learned: The CEO of Steinway originally wanted to be a concert pianist. A pretty interesting video I thought!

Learned a lot about Steinway; this was an excellent interview and worth checking out.

CEO Ron Losby is a likeable character.

Thank you Tiffany Poon for making this video.

I notice Mr. Losby slightly grimaced when asked about "new technology" in the pianos. Then he went on to extol the Spirio Player. Steinway bought the Spirio system, they didn't invent it.

The company is now actively discouraging Steinway owners from using state of the art parts and techniques available from other sources by claiming this will void the owners rights to sell the piano as a Steinway. This is a taking of Steinway piano owners property and rights.

Makes Mr. Losby a little less likeable doesn't it.

I can't help but agree!
I may not have a Steinway but I think that is unfair and unnecessary!

Funny, I posted an article on Wayne Stahnke’s work in the comments section of one of Tiffany’s videos. She doesn’t seem to know anything about the history of solenoid-based piano systems.

This was the article:

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/14/business/technology-ivories-that-tickle-themselves.html

So, who did Steinway buy the technology from? I don’t understand all of the business relationships.

I’m not too impressed with Steinway because they can’t seem to produce a piano with recording technology for less than $100k. Yamaha can do that in an upright.

One thing, how much do you think 1024 levels of key velocity matters in the Disklavier Pro series vs the standard series? Some people have told me they thought the difference would be inaudible compared to 128 levels.

I enjoyed the video. Thank you for posting. I am not a Steinway owner, unless my Fairy Godmother waved her wand and drops a Steinway in my living room or changes my Estonia into a Steinway A. I didn’t really pay close attention about the new technologies other than Spirio but did listen about the changes in the cabinetry so that Hamburg and NY Steinways have one look. Hamburg Steinways will keep their German voice and feel while NY Steinways will keep their American voice and feel. Hmmmm. And it makes me wonder. I was also wondering about the statement that Steinways have an individual voice for each piano. I thought all the handcrafted pianos had distinct voices but was corrected and that other makes had more similar sound and actions but Steinway pianos were noted for having distinctive differences from one piano to the next piano of the exact same size and design. Since this is a post about Steinway, can someone explain this? To me it’s fascinating.

I found an excerpt in Wikipedia:

Steinway

that explains how Steinway came by the Spirio system:

"In 2015, Steinway went back to the player piano industry from around the 1920s by introducing a digital player piano series called Spirio.[112][113] The technology in the Spirio pianos was created in 2007 by Wayne Stahnke, an Austrian engineer who has previously made digital player piano systems for other piano companies, like Yamaha and Bösendorfer.[114] Wayne Stahnke's technology, originally called Live Performance Model LX, was sold to Steinway in 2014 and re-branded as Spirio.[112][115] In contrast to player pianos by other brands, a recording option is not available in the Steinway Spirio.[116] In 2018, a recording option was made available in Steinway Spirio pianos, known as the Spirio r."

I've wondered the same thing. I've watched youtube videos that show the factory at different manufacturers. The Yamaha video started out with a room full of acoustic engineers using a computer simulation to design the sound they want from the piano, then the goal was to build the pianos to sound like that. I didn't see anything analogous with Steinway. So it seems there are two different philosophies that drive the production model.

The other difference is that the Yamaha factory was much more automated. For example the first step they showed was the fabrication of the rim. Yamaha does that on a numerically controlled hydraulic press that doesn't have any humans involved. Steinway has 4 or five big guys who bend the laminated stack around a mold and then use long socket wrenches to hand tighten the fittings that press the rim against the mold. Automation is better at producing consistency than humans. I think the philosophy is that because there is a high level of craftsmanship involved, all pianos will come out sounding good, some just sound different good.

I'm not personally a fan of Steinway's marketing and sales tactics, but I did think the video was interesting and relevant to the group

Ron Losby seems a likeable guy to me, especially as he is also a pianist.👍
Steinway is the most prestigious piano company and IMHO a fair amount of their pianos are sold because of that. They also can do as see fit. If someone buys one of their pianos, they accept the possibilities but als restrictions of their product.
Which at least in some of the cases, could give rise to perhaps think twice about making such decision. I doubt many will. Of course the question of “authentic parts” mostly affects those with used instruments. And those techs working on them. But in the end who is going to police the whole thing? The FBI? If you buy (or sell) a used Steinway with new whippens made by someone else, it would most likely be Renner parts. And Steinway owns Renner.
So, wouldn't loose too much sleep over it.
Play on Charly.

Norbert

Do you have any links to the video that shows the Yamaha factory? I read somewhere that the YUS models are voiced by computer so as to achieve a consistent sound but I don't know for a fact if that is true. If it is true, how is it done?

As for building laminated rims, I used to build furniture and I built chairs that had a laminated rail. I did it by hand, of course. Machines are certainly more consistent than humans but wood is tricky to work with, so you need humans to supervise the machines, I would think. I don't think there would be much difference in sound quality between a grand with a laminated rim made by hand vs one made by machines. I'm sure a few guys could build many rims in a short period of time and that that is not the limiting factor in building finished pianos.

Now I remember reading that Yamaha’s CF line pianos were handcrafted in a different building or different site from Yamahas bigger factory which does the CX and other models. I’ve played one CF4 which was an outstanding, handmade 6 foot piano. And their SX line is mostly hand made but has a few manufactured parts. I’ve never tried an SX.

So, thinking aloud here. Even “manufactured” pianos do have quite a few human hands involved especially the making the action, voicing, regulation and tuning. “Handmade” pianos are tuned, voiced, and regulated to be the best for the individual piano rather than a model standard. Except for Steinway, in which each piano has a very individual character. What does that really mean? Their is an identifiable Steinway sound and action. How is that individual character expressed?

There was long time ago discussion about it here. And, to be honest, I actually agree with Steinway route. You can have lots of old Steinways, rebuild or prepared by some bad renovation companies (for example, in Poland price for fully reconditioned Steinway of size similar to B, is 20-30k, all job done in Poland by specialized companies).

You just can't take thing like musical instrument, throw off original parts, put the one you like, and tell that this is original Steinway (or whatever brand). Sometimes tha only thing which is reminescent from original piano, is case. I wouldnt call new piano in Steinway case, a Steinway. I know that there is the construction, patents, how it was made and so on, but there is very valid reason why different companies sound different: the tested all of the parts to match their perfect sound. IF you are exchanging them, it's not Steinway (well, to some extent).

I realize though, that this is very problematic, and costly for rebuilders.

To the best of my understanding, at least for NY Steinways, it's really the inconsistency of production that is the reason why dealers employ the "each Steinway has its own voice" line. This may have changed because articles have indicated that Steinway has improved their various elements in its production in recent years. Other high tier pianos are generally considered to be more consistent although each piano will have some difference from the next model of the same size.

But some would say things like:
1. Changes made are sometimes improvements on the original Steinway design.
2. The rebuilding factory at Steinway uses contemporary parts and fits them into older Steinways. So one could argue that rebuilds at the Steinway factory do not sound the way the piano sounded when its was originally built.
3. The scale design of a piano is significantly determined by the plate which is always retained in a rebuild. So rebuilt Steinways cannot be a completely new instrument in the Steinway case.

In view of the above, I have always wondered how often a Steinway would be chosen without showing its magic name over the myriad of other good choices. How many would really come to the conclusion it being a superior piano? Having said that, what difference does it make which particular (mecanical) are being used? And to which extent do any of them affect tone & touch? What if they should actually make things better? A regular occurrence in almost each and every case of rebuilding! (Can hear the smiles...)
Is it actually worth to discuss this? Who benefits here? Not the consumer thinking.
And he/she always has the right to complain after. Closely listening in....

Norbert

One of the uprights we tried was the K52 ,which of course
is very nice, although not one of my real favourites.
At that time these new "laws" of so called authenticity
in rebuilding Steinways were not in affect ,yet knew about
that company's need to control many aspects including
artists and even another company called Grotrian Steinweg.

I thought about us buying such an instrument, and any possible
warranty problem ??? Would this company really show any
concern in such a problem ?
The answer I decided was No ! " Control "seems too important
to them !

Hamburg and NY Steinway factories each have differing ways to make the soundboards. Steinway is now claiming only they can make a suitable soundboard for a Steinway.

These two facts cannot be reconciled.

If two ways exist to make a Steinway soundboard, why couldn't there be more?

The same arguments can be used for the hammers. Hamburg and NY use different hammers.

The new claims by Steinway that only they can produce an official Steinway piano sound are obviously false if there is more than one way used in both their factories for obviously critical tonal specifications like soundboards and hammers to produce an official Steinway sound.

Steinway is attempting to steal Steinway piano owners rights to have whatever work they deem valid to their piano and also be able to restore the original appearance. When did Steinway pay for this right? When did the owners of Steinway pianos relinquish this right?

Steinway is also claiming that because some rebuilds of Steinway pianos are poorly done this damages their brand.

Well in NY for over 100 years the factory has been over tightening the agraffes when they install them. This leads to broken agraffes. For over 100 years the shape of the V-bar has not been placed withing the proper range to eliminate the possibility that the treble strings will begin to buzz. Since WW2 the hammers have been made heavier than the older Steinway's and this causes poor action response, more rapid wear and noisy or weak treble tone. The treble strike points also usually include some error in placement.

If Steinway is so concerned with bad used Steinway pianos damaging their reputation, they should recall all the defective ones made.

Note that not only Steinway pianos have these same problems.

Great video and thank you very much for posting.

Steinway, or any luxurious product, is not made for those who cannot afford it.

The question should be "if you could loan a piano permanently for free, which one would you pick?"

I don't think many would pick an Estonia.

At least, buying a Steinway, and the name and the factory is probably there for another 20 years.

Buying a brand that is actually made in Asia? Likely better off buying a real Asian piano.

There is very little chance of survival for faux American or European brands.