Yamaha NU1

[pennib]

At present I own a CLP 440 and have found the the key weight much too heavy, so recently I visited a local dealer to look for an alternative. After trying one or two Arius models which although having a lower key weight I didn,t like. So going from one extreme to another the dealer pointed me  in the direction of a NU1 hybrid, liked it very much, key action very nice similar to my kemble upright, sounded very nice too which you would expect at that price plus the fact that I could get a very good price for my CLP440 so will be going back soon for a longer play on it. Has anyone else had any experience of this model? if so would be very interested in their comments.

[justinrp97]

I recently purchased a NU1 and I am very happy with it.  For a practice piano to use in an apartment, or house I don't think you can beat it for the price.  Great feel to the action.

[hfmadopter]

I have not played one but I'd think it would be technically ideal for you with its true upright action and hybrid interface. I think Yamaha has a winner in this one !

[trus]

Hi there,

I have played the NU1 yesterday in the local shop. I personally didn't like it that much ( I rather preffered another Yamaha, Clavinova) , I noticed that when playing and pressing dumper down all of a sudden the volume of that some odd key pressed/ gently stoked went through the roof. I played the pieces I know well, but I struggled to control the touch so that "volume" thrust when dumper pedal used was not there. May be it was the fault with the NU1 (may be with me!!!), don't know! I like real pianos anyway.

[pennib]

Update
Had a good tryout on the NU1 yesterday, played for about an hour, no trouble with the arthritis which I would have had with the Clarinova. So have ordered one, should be delivered next week.

[hfmadopter]

Update
Had a good tryout on the NU1 yesterday, played for about an hour, no trouble with the arthritis which I would have had with the Clarinova. So have ordered one, should be delivered next week.

Nice congrats  ! Please update us on features, how you get along with it etc. as you own it for a while.

[pennib]

Hi,
UPDATE
Having had the nu1 now for just over 2 weeks my impressions are as follows.
Very impressed overall, I particularly like the key action which is beneficial for my arthritis. The sound is a definite improvement on the Clarinova imo. There are fewer bells and whistles which suits me, three grand piano options, two electric piano sounds and Harpsichord. To sum up the more I play it the more I like it.
Alan
 

[hfmadopter]

Hi,
UPDATE
Having had the nu1 now for just over 2 weeks my impressions are as follows.
Very impressed overall, I particularly like the key action which is beneficial for my arthritis. The sound is a definite improvement on the Clarinova imo. There are fewer bells and whistles which suits me, three grand piano options, two electric piano sounds and Harpsichord. To sum up the more I play it the more I like it.
Alan
 

Nice, excellent !

[hiyamy]

Sorry this post comes too late to be useful to you.  But I guess I'll chime in anyway and hope that someone someday might find this helpful.

I played a NU1 in a local store some weeks ago.  Didn't like it -  basically there's no control over the volume from pp to mp, like hmfadopter mentioned, a slight trigger (slightest increase in force) would push the volume up the roof.  I am quite sure it's the action, nothing to do with the damper pedal, or me.    But that piano did look like it had taken some bad beatings from passers by and customers so I assume it might have been an out-of-regulation or a faulty action after taken too much abuse.

Today I had an opportunity to play an all new NU1, it was just shipped to Hong Kong and just arrived in the shop today, and here are my impressions.

The sound. 
It is beautiful.  Simply wonderful and one of the best I've heard for digital pianos.

The Action.
It is terrible- nowhere close to a real acoustic piano, which is such a shame considering how much work has gone into it.  Here's what I think are issues leading to the poor action:

1. Leverage problem. 
The keys are on the "light" side but I think it is not helpful to talk about "lightness" or "heaviness" of this or a Clavinova/ Roland etc without considering the physics of the key mechanism.  I haven't taken the NU1 apart but I can imagine that the key is somewhat short (esp. the part beyond what is visible).  So what happens is, it takes a harder press at the back of the key than the front of the key to generate a sound of the same volume.  As a result, it is "light" in front and "heavy" at the back of each key, which makes it very different from an average upright and this unevenness makes it hard to play passages with sharps/ flats (not even Moonlight 1st movement).

2. Non-linear response between finger pressure and sound volume at lower volumes.
As mentioned above, very difficult to control the volume between pp and mp, as I found out today this is apparantly a characteristic of NU1 and not due to an abused unit, making it pretty useless for playing or practicing soft music like Moonlight sonata (1st mvt) or Chopin nocturnes.

3. Inertia of the metal hammer replacement.
I think that Yamaha is using a metal weight to emulate the behavior of the hammer, and I think they have made this hammer a little too heavy.  This screws up the key rebound- try to play Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor (posthumous) and you'll see what I mean.  The trills are completely out of control due to the inertia of those metal heads.  I think the Kawai's RM3 Grand II action suffers from the same problem.  The PHA III action of Roland LX-15 has a smaller metal part (from the action models I see in the shop) and seems to be better of the three makes- at least the same trills play better.

In conclusion I think that Yamaha hasn't nailed it this time at least with the action which is rather disappointing.  So if you're looking for something to play like a real acoustic this is going to disappoint - the technology just doesn't seem to be there - yet.

[dagny_taggart]

In conclusion I think that Yamaha hasn't nailed it this time at least with the action which is rather disappointing.  So if you're looking for something to play like a real acoustic this is going to disappoint - the technology just doesn't seem to be there - yet.

I totally agree with you, unfortunately! I wanted so badly to like it! Believe it or not, I am a classical pianist and teacher who uses a Casio Priva PX 130 (because I live in a loft and don't want people to hear me practice for 5 hours a day) and I prefer it to the NU1. The first thing I said, after playing it, was: " I am going to wait for the technology to get better". There WILL be updates on this in the future. I am going to wait for the next update before I buy one. I think the action is tough and it was difficult to play passages with many notes smoothly. I know they attempted to emulate that little stop of the keys, that a grand piano has, right before you hit the bottom, but has a feeling which is too forced.

[leroy199]

the nu1 is not to be confused with the N1 avandgrand,  the nu1 has a real upright action and not a grand action like the n1 n2 n3. this also explains why the keys are harder at the end of the keyboard like any upright piano would be.  

I ask my self what was the pion to emulate an upright action?  i have no idea, i know its a bit cheaper then the n1 for example but then i tried the kawai sc7 and this is a bit cheaper then the nu1 and unlike the nu1 it has a very convincing grand touch.

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[gvfarns]

the nu1 is not to be confused with the N1 avandgrand,  the nu1 has a real upright action and not a grand action like the n1 n2 n3. this also explains why the keys are harder at the end of the keyboard like any upright piano would be.

Keys are harder to press at the back than the front for both upright and grand actions---the principle is the same.  I'm also not sure the key length (from the front of the key to the fulcrum) is any longer in the NU1 than in the N1.  The latter has the action of a very small grand.  Long compared to DP's but plenty short enough for the leverage difference between front and back of the key to be noticeable.  Many would consider the N1/2/3 action better than that of the NU1, but I believe key length is not the driving consideration.

[chupachups]

I agree

I am a Nu1 owner and have been so for a year.  I am an intermediate amateur who played pianos under all sorts of conditions  - anything from broken uprights, yamaha clarinova to steinway baby grands to steinway concert grands when I practiced in boarding school and college.

I agree with hlyamy on the following points with some caveats

1) Absolutely agree that it has the best sound I heard from a digital piano and even triumphs some acoustic uprights (it's from recordings of CFX...which is even better than the recordings of N1, N2 and N3!).  The quality of the sound is more pronounced if you use headphones as the speaker of the Nu1 is not really spectacular.
2) Actions is not the best but not worse compared to most yamaha digital models, roland models or some cheaper upright yamahas in my humble opinions
3) Leverage problem does exist and I think her explanation is right (the technician took the piano apart in front of me before)
4) Regarding the non-linear control, agree that it does exist but the problem can be partially resolved by changing the "stiffness of the keyboard" (controlled digitally).  For example, if I choose a softer option, the difference between pp and mp would be more pronounced.
5) Changing the stiffness might be able to partial mitigate the inertia problems well.

Overall, these issues do exist but they are not noticeable enough to deter me from choosing Nu1, and the benefit of being able to play whenever I want (I just practiced at 11pm today) in an apartment means that I could probably get much more practice out of it than an acoustic piano, no matter how fabulous is the acoustic piano.

Not to mention that price point or Nu1 is cheaper than some of the better quality uprights and almost half of the price of N2.