Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Hailun 218 vs Feurich 218

I'm in the market for either a Hailun 218 or Feurich 218. I played both of these pianos recently. They have a beautiful sound at a huge cost advantage to a Yamaha. So unless one happens to prefer the particular "bright" sound of a Yamaha, they are a very attractive option. The Hailun and Feurich are the same price here in Australia. The Feurich could be considered a "rebranded" Hailun 218, coming as it does from the same factory and looking almost identical. However, there are some significant differences.

Feurich claim that they supervise the manufacture, providing quality control. The Feurich has different strings, different hammers and a different action. The music stand has gaps in it to let more of the sound reach the player. It also has a built-in LED light to illuminate the music stand, which gives it the unusual feature of being an acoustic piano with a dangling power cable to plug into the wall.

Finally, the Feurich has a solid spruce soundboard from Austria, while the Hailun has a laminated soundboard. My understanding is that laminated soundboards are no longer either cheaper or inferior to solid soundboards, and in fact offer some advantages. Each layer of the Hailun board has the grain running in a different direction. They claim this allows the board to vibrate in all directions (whereas a solid board vibrates only in the direction of the grain), allowing the sound to vibrate to all four corners of the soundboard, so the sound comes from all directions. In addition laminated soundboards are resistant to cracking.

There is a recording of the Hailun with good sound quality here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC38cpd34zQ

And a recording of the Feurich here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdj147NcjS0

It's hard to compare two pianos played in different room sizes in different locations, but I felt a bit like the Feurich had a more "pure" sound, while the Hailun had a "warmer" sound. I feel this difference seems to be borne out by the above two recordings.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these pianos?

it is true that on youtube videos, hailun seems to be warmer and mellower.
and I like warmer sound.

here is another good example:


however, this might be caused by different level of prep and voicing.

I am interested in these pianos too, too bad there is no Hailun here.
You have played both pianos,
which one do you prefer?
please tell me your opinion.

I say buy the piano you enjoy most. I do not think you could do badly with either choice.

This I think is pretty complete rubbish and marketing puff. The purpose of a solid soundboard is trying to achieve a better tone, although many more factors contribute to that as well as the soundboard.

Just pick the piano that you yourself prefer, irrespective of how it actually achieves the tone it has.

Wow, what an interesting idea! So, is the light a bar along the base of the music stand that points/shines upward to the music desk? I googled but couldn't really find an adequate photo (among other sites, I checked Feurich's but still couldn't tell).

As for comparing sounds, I don't envy you, this will be a difficult decision....

I love the sound in the Paul Barton video, but he's sponsored by Feurich so I would guess (??) that the audio in his videos is always professionally mastered.

And in the video you linked and the one linked above by Tirta, the Hailun also sounds beautiful, not better or worse IMO, just different.

Good luck and keep us posted!!

Actually, the marketing line is the solid spruce soundboards are superior. So what I'm suggesting is that this may not the true anymore. There is some info in the article below for example.

https://www.pianobuyer.com/article/the-benefits-of-laminated-soundboards/

I think it was a bar in between the player and the stand, but I didn't look very closely.

What gwing is suggesting is that you're repeating marketing "fluff" regarding the laminated board (the "vibrates in all directions" stuff). In this particular example the possible advantage is more likely to be resistance to cracking, and possible cost savings for the manufacturer. If you read the linked article carefully, it shows how the different angles can hinder performance when layered at too great an angle. I believe when Fazioli has experimented with this design, they're layered at 0 degrees for best possible performance.

At the end of the day, I care more about the sound and touch of the finished piano than the technology that got us there.

My suggestion that the Feurich has a slightly purer or more conventional sound is about as far as I can go. I felt I had more fun playing the Hailun, but there may be no reason for that. The Feurich was in a much larger room which may have reduced the amount of reflecting sound.

However, I noticed something unexpected about the sound and volume of both pianos. At the Hailun dealer, the smaller Hailun grands nearby seemed to have a more clear and direct (louder?) sound. I thought it might be because these pianos were up against a wall (the 218 was not). The dealer suggested it was because the hammers were closer to the player on the smaller grands. A large Schimmel concert grand there also had a clear and direct sound.

I felt this was even more true of the Feurich 218. But, it was also in a much larger room. At the Feurich dealer, a smaller Feurich grand near a wall also had a more clear and direct sound than the 218. In fact, it sounded very similar to a very expensive Bechstein in another part of the shop (not against a wall). Even a refurbished Yamaha C3 in the centre of the room seemed to have more "go" in it.

But I don't know whether this is simply a consequence of the mellower sound, or because more of the volume is directed away from the player. I have noticed in the past that upright pianos have a more "direct" sound than grands, for example. Someone I've corresponded with who owns the Hailun tells me it's the loudest piano he's ever owned. And anyway, people put a lot of effort into trying to deaden the sound of large grands for home use so it's not necessarily even a drawback.

It seems the trend in “veneered” (formerly laminated) sound boards is increasing. I’m sure due to cost and availability of consistent spruce. One thing that upsets people is different colored boards. This is solved by covering the board with veneer. A real advantage of laminated sound boards is their dimensional stability. These things help with costs, manufacturing processes and lifespan.

But they don’t have an advantage in sound. My problem with modern laminates is not the same as my earlier aversion to plywood boards. The issue now is when using laminates it allows for the use of all sorts of garbage in between the covers. They are using wood of different widths and lengths inside. Think of a hardwood floor with random end seams. These can act as sound terminators preventing the smooth flow of sound waves traveling from end to end. When the resin joints are new it might not make much of a difference but over years as those internal joints loosen the drop outs will become apparent.

Given a choice, I still will go with solid wood over laminates every time. Just my personal opinions and observations.