Grand piano rec's for my budget please

[steinwayeagle]

I've been reading your posts and all replys with much interest. I found myself in your position early on. I owned several pianos over the years and many were quite exceptional instruments. I can truly say that I deeply loved each one. But, it wasn't until I met Frank (super tech) before I realized what I had been missing. He took me from the showroom back to his workshop and showed me a 1915 M model Steinway that he had been working on for two years. It was in parts scattered around the shop. He slid the keyboard back into the case and I sat and played for the rest of the day. All the pianos I had ever played never made me feel this way. It "sang" to me. Many pianos can be said to "sing" but this piano "sang to me".
It sounds like, maybe, you keep coming back to the thought of owning a Steinway. Maybe they're are other makes that would "sing" to you. A good (super) tech means so much to the outcome you seek. You might consider to keep trying pianos until, hopefully, you find the right one. I would hate for you to buy a piano that needs to be restored. Buy something that "sings" now, not something that might "sing" after the restoration.
Good luck in search!
 

[anie]

Hah and now of course there's that sostenuto that's just begging to be tried out, though I haven't used it for anything yet besides just messing around.

 The Rachmaninoff Op 23 #7 prelude is good for this (at least for practicing).

  I've been enjoying the discussion on discovering how LOUD a piano is when it's in your smaller home after hearing it only in a much larger space. 

  And especially when I HAVE (because it's too much to re-arrange all the stuff already there) to have the piano in a corner with the open size facing out over a 20' length area from the piano.  But the left and backsides are almost up against the walls, so the bounceback is often STRONG at the piano seat (though I'm learning to ignore it).

  I put up an old carpet from Turkey and two halves of a new runner carpet from Afghanistan  on the two walls to try to absorb the sound. It was absorbed better when I had a big black sound-absorbing blanket, but the dark blanket covering the wall depressed me to see so we removed it.

  Nevertheless, I love the sound of the piano, a Ritmuller GH-160R (designed by the guy who designed the Steingraeber and helped with the Bechstein, Lothar Thomma.  He oversees the production quality ('made in China'), and my piano tech says that while it's a little 5' 3" baby grand it sounds to him like a 6 footer.  Certainly in this space.  I play with the lid down (to protect my downstairs neighbors)  and have the sound-absorbing blanket under the piano now, on top of a couple of pillows.

  Tonight I did a post about making an audio of the basic sound of this small grand, but I had to keep the dynamic range down (so it is a snooze of an audio) and I just played arpeggios and clusters to check the resonance, sustain, and clarity of the piano. 
Did not play even a tune on it.  Just arpeggios and then holding the results to hear individual notes.

  Because the piano is quite loud in this apt space, the cell phone audio (which did not distort when a friend was playing large European grands in a vast store space) either would limit or compress the sound a lot but, worse, it would distort it.  So the audio is a quiet one, until I can figure out how to mic the piano for loud and soft both.

  I forgot to say in the post that the lid was fully down.  So the top two octaves are muffled.  It's not muffled when I use even the small raising stick.

  I did photos (slideshow) that are fitted to the audio file (using free Windows Movie Maker) and if anyone's curious about the basic sound of what I consider a good, affordable baby grand from China, they may find the audio somewhat interesting though annoying because there's so little there and it's mainly listening to decay in chords.

  The post with the video (slideshow of my new piano) is part of my post in another topic tonight (titled "Ritmuller," at

  I traded in a 10-month old Kawai K6 upright to buy this.  The street price of the Ritmuller GH-160R is about $14,000 per PianoBuyer guide.

   But re Steinways, my piano tech (who was the tech for his city's symphony and for the college there and does piano tech for Gordon Getty) feels this piano sounds as good as most high-priced European makes.  Is not that high on Steinways, though he owns one but they replaced one of their Steinways with a Broadmann (he then worked  on it to enhance it the way some guys do with good cars).

 I feel the same way re "Steinway"  -- but probably because most people don't have their Steinways regulated and don't seem to notice things have deteriorated, as is normal for pianos not regularly maintained.  My favorite piano I've tried though was a really singing Hamburg B, but the piano tech says these vary quite a bit.

 As for tinnitus, I was in our SF Symphony Chorus for 9 years, and as a shortie, I was often in the lower rows right behind the brass (but that beats being in front of them).
So I did suffer some hearing loss, and a mid-ear infection got to the nerves of upper octaves in one ear, luckily the left one.

  So am careful with sound now.  With the one set of neighbors below, often gone at work very late, I can play as loud as I want.  But it does put a burden on even a mic like the Audio Technica AT 822 which I tried once and I have to learn how to do the set up.

  Congratulations on finding your piano!  You got a really GOOD DEAL on that.  The thread was a good read, reading slowly up to the point where you actually bought it and then found you really do love it...

[mjames]

Holy *** sh*t, piano really is a rich people thing. Seriously, 175K for a piano?! Jesus...

Then again Shigerus are *** beautiful.