Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Pearl River vs. Otto Meister

Help me decide please. I can get a 5'5" Peral River or a 6'1" Otto Meister around the same price. Otto may be abit more. Actually, I can get the Otto for $7000.00. Which way should I go?

Two questions:

1. Which one do YOU like better?

2. Which dealer will do a better job of prepping the piano for you?

I am new to the piano world. I think I like the the sound of the 6'1" Otto Meister over the Peral River. I think the prepping of the piano would also be the Otto. I guess I am just worried about the build and the components of the two.

Jolly's right on both counts, in my opinion: build quality is not going to be the deciding factor here, as that playing field is level in respect to both pianos.

My subjective opinion is, that if both pianos are sufficiently prepped and in tune, you'll find the Meister preferable.

Not only because it's a bigger piano, and consequently has the potential for a scale design that takes advantage of additional space on the soundboard for longer bass strings and more advantageous bass bridge placement, but because I think other factors like hammer hardness and action design make the Otto Meister more of a pianist's piano.

Pearl River has wider US distribution, and probably better name recognition, but I think it would only give you a very slight advantage relative to resale value, if you are looking at other such factors besides inherent quality, playbility and tone.

And I think you're smart to do so, since they're both Chinese.

I think the Pearl River may be a bit better in the resale department, but the other piano is bigger, and size does make a difference.

If you have tech you can trust, or you have a friend with a good tech, you may even want to have the tech look at the Otto for you. It's a little unusual for a tech to go over a new piano, but that tech fee may buy you a lot of peace of mind.

I think $7000 for the OM seems like a good price/value. I was quoted a price of $8350 (including sales tax) for a 6 foot Bergmann (by YC).

Rickster

go with the otto, after asking the same questions here, ive decided to go with the otto also. I just dont like pearl rivers, mabye for firewood, or a beginner piano?.

my opinion

6' Otto Meister.

No question.

Longer piano.....

Norbert

Thanks for the input. I am going with the Otto. Is there anything special things I should have the paino tech pay special attention to, such as special adjustments,etc.?

I don't remember where I read this, but the general advice is that when shopping for entry-level grand pianos, to get the biggest piano your space and budget can accommodate. The larger piano gives you more to work with, and you'll benefit more from any additional tech/prep work (voicing, regulation, etc.) you have done after the purchase.

If 6' Otto Meisters are selling for $7-8K, I wonder if they'll bring out a 7' model. Introducing one of those in the ~$10-13K range could really disrupt the market.

Have the piano well prepped, tuned and regulated.

This model has a solid spruce soundboard, good hammers and should sound terrific.

[Sorry, not my favourite name......]

An amazing deal, though!

Come back at some later time and tell us how things worked out for you!

Norbert

From a piano tech point of view I like dealing with brands that have a U.S. distributor that has a customer service dept. and stocks parts. I know that Pearl River is so in Ontario, CA. I don't not know Otto Meister in this regard. Maybe other can answer.
Certainly Pear River's association with Yamaha and Steinway has given it a leg up in the profile department.

Craigen said:

Profile perhaps.

But not necessarily in the 'music' department.

Confident makers always can stand quite well on their own.

My recommendation is always to choose a piano for what it actually *is* -
not because of some story about it.

At the same time Pearl River is playing up the Yamaha connection to their own pianos,I doubt very much that Steinway or Yamaha would appreciate people pointing out the connection of their pianos to Pearl River in reverse - allowing for some kind of a conclusion about the quality of their own pianos as a result of it....

Norbert

This week I tickled a "hybrid" Ritmuller/Yamaha vertical (a totally decent piano - I liked it a thousand times better than a "regular" Ritmuller) and it had a little sticker on the front lower side of the keyboard that said something like "Made by Yamaha for Ritmuller."

It didn't look like something the dealer would have added on in the store (like a paper label) but was definitely a transparent sticker w/gold lettering, and not an applique'.

As a consumer I didn't really CARE that it was built by Yamaha (or whatever the deatils of that deal are) but more that it was a darn nice feeling action.

A little pricey though. I wonder if I could have gotten into a Yamaha upright for about the same $ or less.

The piano is assembled in a Yamaha/Pearl River 'joint venture' facility using Pearl River components. Apparently in China, the piano is sold as a Yamaha.

If there was a substantial difference in action performance of that Ritmuller upright vs other Ritmuller uprights, it is likely because that particular piano had received a bit of attention from the dealers tech, while the others hadn't. (or none of them had been serviced, and that one just happened to show up needing less) That's been our experience in the ones we've sold.

Yes, definitely could have been the floor stock for that dealer. Makes sense that they would fluff up that one, since it was a couple of grand more than the "average" new upright on the floor, competing with the new Kawai prices.

I also noticed that even though I was quite infatuated with the Knabe grands he had, the upright was a "Definite NO" after just a few bars. The action was light as rice paper (to my numb fingers.)


At least they were all in tune

Norbert,
I agree the piano must stand on its own. My comment about profile would speak to possible resale down the road. This is a common thread amoung threads.

That Yamaha and Steinway both chose to do business with Pearl River instead of others in China must be given some consideration.

My comment about local stateside distributorship support is much more important.

Harleysdad's questions were regarding small grands. How did we digress into discussions about uprights?

Fair enough.

But nobody seems to know exactly what the nature of this 'business' is.

It could have been a stricly corporate decision -less to do with presumably "exclusive quality"...

Yamaha, on their side, certainly seems to remain rather nonchalant about their cooperation with Pearl River in China.

Is it perhaps because Yamaha's previous Eterna line of pianos made by P.R. were nothing special to write home about?

In fact, it would be nice to find out what exactly Pearl River is building for Yamaha these days.

From the consumer point of view, it certainly would be mor transparent if a manufacturer restricts its advertising and product description to the very piano he is selling under his own name.

That's all.

Norbert

Norbert, are you suggesting that Yamaha and Steinway make business decisions without regard to quality?

Is this how you think they have taken their leadership positions in the market? By disregarding quality?

Interesting Theory.