does anyone here own a yamaha silent piano or diskclavier (upright)?

[amelialw]

Hi, does anyone here own a yamaha silent piano or diskclavier (upright)? if so, or if you've played on one before, what is your opinion of it? is the touch still the same as a normal accoustic piano?

reason being why i'm asking this question is that I will probably be moving back to singapore to pursue my B.A degree in music. I will have to live in my grandpa's flat which will not be able to fit and grand and secondly, I will drive him nuts practising for hours everyday, so I will need to get a silent piano or a diskclavier.
thanks!
Amelia

[spaciiey]

I dont own one, but I have played a disklavier a fair few times. As a piano, you could call them passable... but I'm not a big fan of Yamaha in general. The touch I thought was roughly the same of a normal Yamaha piano.. but I didnt *really* like it that much. Its probably just because I dont think piano and technology mix that well though... good luck in finding a piano.

[pianowolfi]

I am talking only about "silent". As far as I know the touch is different to a normal acoustic Yamaha piano, because the silent mechanism requires a bigger distance between hammers and strings. The escapement of normal pianos releases the hammer about 2mm before it touches the string. In silent pianos it's 5 mm before it touches the string. So you need to make compromises on dynamics when you play it "not silently". Its harder to play really softly. It's different in a grand piano though. As far as I know silent grands have no remarkable difference in touch.

[nyonyo]

I have a disklavier. It feels exactly the same like regular piano. They are much more expensive than a regular piano though.

Your grandfather will get used to hearing you playing whether he likes it or not....

[daniloperusina]

I tuned an almost brand new silent one, and I changed my mind about Yamaha completely. It was an astonishing instrument in it's acoustic mode, both in sound and in touch. I didn't experience any problem with what pianowolfi says, but I remember seing a little attached note next to the mechanics about two different release distances, and instructions on how to adjust it. I had no time to look deeper into that then, but it's worth checking out. Problems with that will be irritating in the long run. But as I said, playing on it I didn't notice anything wrong. On the contrary, it felt wonderful.