Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Long term reliability of Broadmann, Pearl River, Petrof

Hello,

We are looking to buy a piano for our sons who have been playing for 12 years. We went to few shops and they tried various instruments. They like a Broadmann PE121, Pear RiverEU118, and a Petrof 115.
The Broadmann and Pearl river are new, the petrof is used, made in 2007.
The Brodmann is the most expensive of the 3 and on the top of our budget. Pear River and Petrof are in our range but one is used, the other is new.
They tried Yamaha, Kawai and did not like them. Others they liked are not in our budget.

Can people share how Broadmann, Pear River new pianos hold over time. How many years has a Petrof made in 2007 left.

From searching the forum most people are not fansbof chinese made pianos. The fact is that almost everything is made in china from cell phones to TV etc... Even companies like Steinway get their entry level piano lines manufactured in China.
If anyone has owned a Broadmann, a Pearl River, or a Petrof from 2007 please share your experience. Thank uou

I haven't gotten that impression at all either on PW or from reading the Piano Buyer. Of course, there will be some who don't rate them highly, and if one is comparing Chinese pianos to very high end pianos most will say they don't compare favorably. But my impression is that the best Chinese pianos are considered very good pianos in their price range.

Quite a few Chinese verticals are listed in the Piano Buyer's staff picks:
https://www.pianobuyer.com/article/staff-picks-recommendations/

This is less about where it is made and more about manufacturing and quality control standards.
China made Essex is Steinway design and quality control.
I would go with Petrof if inspection shows no problems.

This is quite a tough one. The Petrof 115 is a really good design and a solid piano, and it's not so old. They're a really fine make, but it's shorter than the Brodmann.

The Brodmann 121 may work well enough for your needs, I wouldn't worry that it's made in China, especially if you're not going to subject it to 8 hours practice a day.

I don't know the Pearl River, but they're a good make. It's probably on a par with the Brodmann but the Brodmann may have a warmer sound.

I think maybe 1 out of 500 piano owners practice 8 hours/day. IOW unless the OPs sons are preparing to enter a conservatory we can assume the piano will get far less playing time even between both of them.

@Pianoloverus, you are correct. The piano gets played on average 1 hourva day

Being played a couple hours per day, all of these pianos will last for many, many years. If it were me, I would choose the one that the sons were most excited about. Reliability would be rather low on a list of requirements.

I previously owned a Petrof 115 made in 1990, so it was a good bit older than the one you’re looking at. I bought it used and kept it a few years until I got my current instrument (a grand).

I liked the Petrof a lot, and selected it over a Baldwin Hamilton specifically because of its tone. But I’ve never played a Brodman so I can’t really help you there.

I think any new piano made today will reliably last 40-50 years. There are millions of pianos still going that were made in the 1950s and 60s and they weren’t all of the highest standard to begin with. Most China made pianos have CNC and laser cut parts that are more precise than 60 years ago here in the US.

I feel it’s more a matter of material quality and it’s seldom revealed what parts are MDF or particle board or plywood. These are things that affect tonality but not reliability.

Most China piano manufacturers have lines with higher grade materials that they do (rightfully) brag about. I would seek these higher grade offerings.

I think between the Piano Buyer's information about each manufacturer and each maker's website one can almost always find the composition of the case(perhaps not the lid), pinblock, and soundboard.

This is pretty widely accepted. Unless the Petrof was used in an institution, at 13 years it's not old at all.

So the Petrof is a better option than the Broadmann, even though it is 10 years oldm

Some posters think yes and some clearly think no. It's not a black and white issue. The Petrof is 13 years old.

If the Petrof is in good condition my order of preference would be:

1. Petrof
2. Broadmann
3. Pearl River

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts

Let us know what you end up deciding!!

I like my Brodmann PE-162. The technicians I’ve used have commented on how nicely built it is.

Time will tell.

My tuppenceworth on the matter is that your piano isn't going to receive a lot of punishment, and all of the pianos mentioned are made from good component parts. It would be difficult to see any of them having major problems in the long term, and with that I would personally pick the piano I liked the best. There isn't such a great difference in height between the 3 pianos and if I'm not mistaken the design of the Petrof is such that it sounds like a taller piano anyway.

Petrof sounds the best, but it depends on its condition.
I bought one 70s Petrof recently and it is still great.

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts. He played them again and liked the Petrof the best. We are getting he likes best.