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I own a refurbished 20's Era model A Steinway. It's a beautiful piano and is situated in a corner of a 12' x 25' living room. Here's the issue, I have tinnitus in both ears, rather loud in the left and I am sensitive to high volume, have always protected hearing during concerts, lawn mowing etc etc but damaged hearing in early 20s playing in rock bands. I have tried various room treatments but the A is just so powerful and loud except playing very lightly. I fear I may have to part with it but was.curious if going to an M or other brand like a yamaha GC2 would be tame enough for the room I have it in and my sensitive hearing. Is there much change in "volume " difference moving down to a smaller grand? It's so difficult to evaluate that in a store because each store has different acoustics than my home.i even kicked around sucking it up and going to a hybrid digital but as a last resort. Thanks for any feedback.

See this thread, there is a lot you can do to treat the piano in addition to the room!

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3103293/all/softening-a-yamaha-c7.html

My "quick and dirty" recommendation is towels/blankets stuffed into the beams under the piano. Acoustical foam panels will do even more dampening. And if that's not enough, you can have a technician (find someone who is skilled at voicing) to voice the hammers to a softer volume.

There are many things that can be done to quiet a piano:
1. Play with the lid fully closed.
2. Voicing
3. Install acoustic foam underneath the soundboard and/or on top of the plate struts. I am familiar with this last one because I used it to quiet my M&H BB when my neighbor started complaining. Before using foam you can experiment with putting a comforter between the soundboard and wooden braces to get some idea of the effect.
4. Rug underneath the piano
5. Continual use of the soft pedal although some think this can eventually cause a problem because the hammers a always striking off center

Have you considered ear plugs?

I have a 6'1" grand in a room with wooden floors. Thus, it can get quite loud. Closing the lid fully makes a huge difference and that's how we now play (the music desk sits on top of the closed piano, with a piano cover in-between to protect the piano's finish). I also put a fairly thick 9' x 6' rug and rug pad under the piano (including castors) and that also helped some (but not as much as closing the lid). I don't have experience with acoustic foam underneath the sound board, but I have a Dampp-chaser so that wouldn't be a good idea in my situation.

I don’t know what it’s like for a person with tinnitus, but I have a pair of audiologist fitted earplugs, into which I can insert filters or solid plugs to block out maximum sound. The 9 dB filters that I can plug into them are something I use when tuning pianos, going to movies, or going to non-classical concerts. After a few minutes of adjustment, I can still hear everything full frequency (even beats, while tuning), just softer. And because they’re fitted, I can comfortably wear them for a couple hours at a time without driving me crazy.

Just a thought.

I use these, they’re great! They aren’t like foam plugs AT ALL, you can hear everyday sounds like ordinary speech, the cat meowing, iMessages dinging, lol, even setting your drink down on a table. They specifically filter harmful sound waves, so hearing the piano tone is no problem at all. I’ve been wearing these for years and years, I also have tinnitus in my left ear. They’re very comfortable. 👍😊

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RM6Q9XW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mic the piano and listen with headphones. Add a reverb unit for a different listening experience.

Have it voiced to the room first. Made a dramatic difference on mine, and now I don't have any notes or chords where I wince, and the piano doesn't instantly set off my tinnitus. I've been playing it without earplugs for the past month, and it has made a huge difference in my tinnitus attacks.

I get my custom fit earplugs next week, so will add those to the mix, and ENT doc just prescribed meds as I apparently have high fluid pressure in my middle ear (Meniere's), so we're gonna see if lowering fluid levels make the tinnitus go away.

Prior to being voiced, even with the lid closed some notes struck me as harsh and would set me off. ENT doc told me that sounds ringing at the same frequency of your tinnitus can aggravate it.

+1 !!!! I use them myself.

They have a fairly-flat, 20 dB loss across all frequencies. I've never had any urge to "upgrade" to custom-made earplugs.