Silent Piano? (Kawai Aures, Yamaha Silent, Boston with QuietTime, etc)

[jenniferlh]

Hello!
My son is about 5 years into studying piano and has become quite serious about it, preparing for competitions and dreaming of becoming a professional musician. However, we are struggling with when to fit in piano practice time for four kids without disturbing my husband's work from home, younger kids' earlier bedtimes or older kids' later mornings. I'm desperate for a silent option for practice, and our teacher is not okay with any electronic keyboard. I recently learned there are some lines of "silent" hybrid pianos, and our teacher is not familiar enough with these to comment on whether they would be sufficient for fine-tuned practice. The piano sales professionals at the galleries tell me that they're perfect, but I'd love the opinions of those of you familiar with them who don't have a financial interest in selling them

Right now my kids practice on a console piano from the 1960's that was my grandmother's, and I'm looking into replacing it... but not yet sure what budget will allow.

[lelle]

I have a Kawai grand piano with a silent function and a master's degree in piano. Practicing with the silent function is NOT the same as practicing acoustically, but it's as close as it gets, because its the same mechanism except that the hammers are stopped before they strike the strings. You still need to practice on an acoustic instrument regularly to develop everything you need as a pianist, but silent function practice is still fine and enables you to get a lot of work done. Hope that helps.

[stevep1000]

Following this carefully as I am looking at the Aures option.  I'm interested in lelle's response: 

Practicing with the silent function is NOT the same as practicing acoustically, but it's as close as it gets, because its the same mechanism except that the hammers are stopped before they strike the strings. You still need to practice on an acoustic instrument regularly to develop everything you need as a pianist

On different forums one can read many comments about the impact of action of the silent system, adj to let off etc.  I'm curious lelle - when you say 'You still need to practice on an acoustic instrument regularly' would you classify the Kawai piano in acoustic mode ie with the hammer hitting the strings as practicing on the acoustic instrument or is there a broader concern about the action and that you'd still need to practice on a 'real' acoustic?