I know this has been discussed before but I don't think anybody actually had any real experience of it. Has anybody got a Yamaha piano with the silent system. What do you think of it? Am thinking of blowing my savings....a lot better than spending it on nappies!

I have the Kemble Conservatoire with the silent system (which is a Yamaha silent system) - good job seeing as Yamaha now own Kemble fully! I bought the Kemble Silent Piano rather than the Yamaha as I preferred the tone (obviously a personal choice) - plus the Kemble's are/were cheaper than Yamahas

Regarding the Yamaha Silent System - I LOVE IT!!! It's great for silent practise with headphones rather than the muffler pedal I used to have. Recording yourself is easy and very beneficial so you can hear how you're really doing I record my pupils and save their recordings onto my usb memory stick, then email them on. It's also great for recording duet work, as you can play along as if the other person is there (again I send the respective parts to my pupils so they can benefit from this too). It's lovely having the different instruments too, and I regularly use the harpishord voice when the pupils are working at Baroque music, so they can imagine how their music would have sounded.

I could talk forever, but in summing up - much better investment than nappies (I'd rather wash the old Terry type than give up my piano ).

Let me know if you need any more info!

Go for it!

I've been saving for ages for a mid-life-crisis car but will probably end up adding it to my piano fund - I just need to move somewhere with space first!

LOL @ the nappies thing... I quite enjoy having nephews and nieces - all the benefits and nowhere near the expense so I can spend my savings on myself!

I have an 11 year old Yamaha U1 with Silent system. Mine only has 1 sampled sound: piano, and no facility to record. The sampled sound is probably not as good as the new silent systems (I say this comparing it to a new silent b1), but it is so much better than the practice pedal.

As far as I am aware the Yamaha's use optical sensors underneath the keys so whilst the touch is affected slightly (it feels slightly heavier) it is still better than having a retro fitted silent system. As far as I know there is the cheap option of a Gabor system - around £800 which is a non optical version or the piano disc which is optical but around £1800!

I chose a U1, because acoustically the sound was so much better than the B1 but I would say that I use silent/acoustic 50%/50% split. So if you do end up using the silent system very frequently I would go for a new Yamaha.

Hope this helps