Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Silent Piano or Hybrid . . .

Recent discussions have begged the question; NU1 owners using VSTs; others with hybrids do too from time to time.
A fairly decent upright silent would retail at £6900; cheaper available down to £5200.
I guess that's expensive, certainly these have gone up lately in price. But you know, they're rather good and of course, the real deal.
A hybrid is hmmmmm;a decent digital with a decent upright or baby grand action and can cost a lot more than said acoustics.
Thoughts? My own is that one day I will have a silent acoustic; prob a k300 Anytime.
Well, maybe not anytime soon, but I am getting on a bit . . .

Certainly agree that the difference may be small and rhe silent acoustic being worthwhile, but I am not sure of an hybrid being more expensive than the comparable silent acoustic... A silent sc2 b1 is more expensive than nu1x (small difference of 400 euros) in my country and the same thing with kawai b15 atx3 vs nv5. Then you have to consider that speakers need to be included in the equation (or the cost of regular tuning) and be sure that output midi exists (I think that some silent systems only include headphone out, and do not send midi values...). And not sure to which model the actions are comparable... Maybe the nv5 action is the same as k200 and not b15, and the nu1x action comparing to u1 and not b1 (no expertise on this...).

As an example Gamma1734 bought a kawai k200 atx3...

I occasionally use my iPad with my NU1 just to have a different piano sound from those built in, or even for fun with guitar or organ or synth sounds, etc.

I too am or have been considering an acoustic, originally a K500 which I have played, but lately a K300 which I have not. But that opens up the problem of maintaining reasonable levels of humidity, tuning, and managing the limitation of just one piano sound so that for variety I would have to get a slab DP or controller for iPad sounds. Then there's the side thought that maybe an NV5S will give me enough satisfaction for a step up and change, but no chance of trying one at the moment. So my faithful NU1 goes on with me on this journey, although I have recently added a Casio CTS1 and Yamaha Reface CP with DAW to explore other musical directions.

I can recommend the silent version of the K300 if you'd like to keep the advantages of a digital, but also want an acoustic action + sound. It can confirm though what you say about humidity. I recently bought both a humidifier and dehumidifier for my K300, otherwise the large humidity variation in my home (between 30% and 70%) affects the tuning of the piano too much. And tuning is about 95 euros each time (once/twice a year). So there are definitely added costs. The dehumidifier is also quite noisy, so you can only run it for a longer duration if you are not around (or at night).

Thanks. As part of this restlessness I looked a bit into humidifiers. I already have a small portable one and yes it's noisy. Someone else on another thread recommended this one from Meaco as being quite quiet. I/you would have to figure out if it's good enough for the room/space.

I have an acoustic and a digital piano. When I want to record myself or play without disturbing everyone, I use my digital. I don't mind if my digital piano is old and does not have the latest piano action because when I want a digital piano that play and feel like an acoustic, I play my acoustic piano.