Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards AVANT GRAND N3X pros and cons

I think the case was made for rental N3 pianos; it is impressive.

That looks good! The more I see and hear the N3X the more I like it 🤤 (Kawai better hurry up and come up with its own!). Wishing you lots of fun time with it!

I had never heard of the GT1 before, it'll be interesting to have your feedback on how the hybrid technology upgrade feels!

I had the chance to try one once at a dealer, here's are my first impressions:

Pro's:

- it's amazing

Cons:

- it's expensive

Lack of short stick not a problem for y’all?

I have an N3 and I never use its short stick. It may have its use on an acoustic piano where you may want it in that position to lower the volume a little (but not too much as to close the lid completely).

With the N3 and N3X, it just looks cooler to use the long stick to hold up the lid always. If you want less volume, just turn down the volume knob. So there's really no more use of the short stick for volume control anymore on the N3X, and having a lowered lid on the short stick just doesn't provide a better aesthetical value than having the lid on long stick. That's probably why they decided to do away with the short stick.

And I never close the lid completely on my N3 either. Not unless for moving or for a long away trip to avoid collecting dust on the speaker cabinet.

For me, the short stick (position) looks cooler.

Wow.. looks absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful. Enjoy your new piano!!

Osho

I am not in the market for a piano - but if I was, it would be something I would miss but it won't be a deal breaker. Can you replace the stick in the after market?

Osho

The lid has to be designed to support the short stick as well. There's a little round groove at the bottom of the lid to rest on the short stick (and there's another one for the long stick as well). Without this short-stick-groove built-into the lid, you have nowhere to rest the lid on an after-market short stick anyway.

My impression of N3 and N3X is that the lid and the music stand affect a lot when it comes to the sound that the player hears.

Open lid gives a fuller sound than closed lid, just like the acoustic piano. Yamaha AvantGrand speakers already have some kinds of muffled sound. When playing with the lid closed, it is even more muffled.

Unlike an acoustic piano, the music stand also makes the sound muffled. I think this is due to the fact that there is no resonance from the piano body. I like to play with the music stand laid down and use an ipad with an ipad stand. The sound is more open.

The thing is that in the ‘short’ stick position the speakers are not fully covered, so there should not be too much, if any, loss in sound quality (muffled, etc..)

I’ve wondered if it would be possible to transplant the lid & stick from the N3 to the N3X. This could work since the dimensions are identical between the two instruments, but I’m not sure if a dealer (having both instruments) would be willing to do this. Perhaps Yamaha could sell the lid & stick directly to the customer?

Yes, I do.
I tried a real Yamaha grand, and it produces this ringing effect also...
Strangely the Yamaha uprights don't have this problem.

...but is this really a ‘problem’?

It depends on your ears.
For me it 's a defect because I don't like the sound ; it is more a resonance. It is almost painful.
But after some times, I finnally get used to this acoustic paticularity.

Congratulations to this awesome piano!

Congrats! Enjoy the new piano!

That is wonderful! Enjoy your instrument!

I did a brief search and didn't find anything... BUT... what's the going rate for an N3X in the US? I'm in the 1% of posters in the forum, but, that's the only place where I am in that group. But I am curious. Is this a $10-15k US instrument? 15k+?

A dealer "offered" to sell at $20,000. Bovine exudate!
Unfortunately there are no N3X listing in the prices paid thread.

The closest thing there is the older N3 model ... selling between $9,499 in May 2019 and $11,900 in Jan 2015.

Costco price $15k so start there?

I'm never quite sure if you're being totally serious Is the short stick really that important?

You could prop the lid open with an Amazon Alexa or something. I bet you could source a grand piano hinge and short stick (maybe even from Yamaha service) much easier than you could convince a dealer to swap out a lid on a new retail product. Drilling a pilot hole and wood screw for a new prop cup is pretty trivial too, in comparison.

A quick search: Prop sets are like $100 or less:

http://www.piano-fiks.net/inne_550_555_560e.html
https://gemmpianosupply.com/products/grand-piano-lip-prop-stick-steinway-style-31-long
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Grand-Pian...eplacement-Part-Unfinished-/391355529687