Piano Video Lesson: Steinway VS Chinese Piano - Can You Hear the Difference?

Welcome to livingpianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin. The question today is, can you hear the difference between a Steinway and a Chinese piano? Now, many of you are scoffing, "Of course, you can." Well, it's amazing. They did studies for example on wines and wines when you think that they're an expensive bottle of wine, you're always going to choose that as being a better wine because there's a subjective nature to this taste and the bouquet of wines. Well, the same is true of pianos. Now, I'm not suggesting one is better or not better than the other. I'm leaving it up to you and what I'm going to have for you is pretty cool. It's a blind listening test.

I went through the archives of Living Pianos because we have hundreds of piano videos, and I found two grand pianos of about the same size, both in brand new condition. One is a Steinway and one is a Chinese piano, the name shall remain nameless for right now. At the end there'll be a reveal. But don't cheat. Don't look at the notes. Don't go forward on this because I want you to really critically listen. If you've got good speakers or headphones, really listen. Then at the end, before I tell you, I want you to write down your answer. Write it down on a piece of paper. I'm serious about this. Because it's so easy to later go, "Well, I chose that because I thought it was this. But really, I like..." It's so easy to do that when you're all done. If you commit it to paper, then you can't argue that you thought something different because it's harder to tell than you might think in some circumstances and so this is going to be a wonderful test.

I found recordings of the beginning of Beethoven's Opus 10 No. 3 second movement Sonata. It's the same exact piece of music you're going to hear on both of these instruments. So here goes and remember, don't cheat. I want you to really write down the name, the number one or number two, which one you think was the Steinway and which one is the Chinese piano. Here we go.

All right. So that was interesting listening experience. I bet many of you have very definite ideas and some of you may be wondering which one is which. Well first of all let me tell you what these pianos are and then I'll tell you which one was first and which one was second. The Steinway is a 2010 Model O which is right around 5'10" in brand new condition, I mean, barely played. The Chinese piano is also 5'10" 2017 Hailun Model 178. That's right.

So which one was which? Have you written it down on paper? I'm serious about this because it's easy to cheat yourself because you don't want to be wrong here, do you? Because there's a drastic price difference. You could buy several of those Hailuns for the price of a Steinway. So which one is which? The first performance you heard was the Steinway and the second performance was the Hailun. I don't know how many of you are shocked and how many of you feel confident that you got it right. But if you got it wrong, there's no right or wrong because every piano has something to offer. Not only that, but every piano is unique. If you played several brand new Steinway model Os in the showroom, each one has a unique character of sound as do the Hailuns. All pianos are made of wood and are highly crafted.

Now, I will tell you that there was a slight difference in these two performances in that the first one was made later on in my studio which I had much, much higher end microphones. I had a pair of Neumann recording the Steinway and I only had a pair of Audio-Technica 4033s, which are pretty inexpensive large diaphragm condensers, on the Hailun. So it was a different room, different microphone so it wasn't totally scientific here. Really the Hailun didn't have the benefit of those multi-thousand dollars' worth of microphones. But nevertheless you can get some idea. But the fact it was the same piece I thought made it interesting.

It was an interesting playing experience and I can hear what I went for and what came out on these, but I'm more interested in what you heard. Be honest in the comments. I'm really interested here at livingpianos.com. We have a blog that you're welcome to join as well as YouTube. And we'll see how this comes out for you. Thanks again for joining me and share this with your friends and see if they get it right or not. I'm very interested in how everybody responds to this. We'll see you next time. Again, I'm Robert Estrin here at your online piano resource livingpianos.com.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/steinway-vs-chinese-piano-can-you-hear-the-difference/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---