Went to Marriam Music in Vaughan

On Saturday, I went out to check out the new Marriam Music store in Vaughan, located just east of the 400 on Rutherford.  I met Robin, representing Kawai Canada, who was very helpful.  Mariam Music carries many brands including Kawai (and Shigeru Kawai), Fazioli, C. Bechstein, Grotrain, Young Chang and Pollman.  Their website shows that there are other brands available but at the Vaughan location, only those above were present and the rest (like Baldwin) is over at the bigger branch in Oakville. 

Robin was showing me around the differences between a Yamaha grand (GC1) and a Kawai grand (GE30).  While I can't remember everything about the comparison, these few things stuck out the most that were favourable to the Kawai Grand Pianos:

• Kawai only makes pianos vs Yamaha who doesn't
• Kawai is also found in Roy Thompson Hall and Massey Hall (EX series)
• Better materials (most of the technical tour was showing me the different woods and screws/hardware that made up a Kawai piano vs the Yamaha. 
• The Yamaha grand piano was a 'good' instrument but it just didn't have the same craftsmanship.

"Craftmanship" on a machine made piano?  I find that a little bit hard to believe since the two pianos are about equal in terms of people's preferences.  Many people that I've spoken to in the past about purchasing a piano that's between Kawai and Yamaha love both of them and they'll both go on to tell you what makes their product better.  I digress, I'm looking forward to hearing more from the Yamaha dealer to tell me about the details about it's craftmanship to see if i can tell the difference. 

I spent about an hour and a half in the store playing between the GC30 and the RX1 which sounded and felt much better.  While it's the same size (5'5), the RX1 has a noticibly fuller tone and smoother response.  Pricing between the two was about $16000 vs 21000, a $5000 difference.  For the extra $5000, I'm leaning towards the RX series simply because I've justified keeping this piano for the rest of my life (or at least 20 years). 

A note about the Fazioli sitting in the corner:  This $125,000 piano was in the back corner right beside the dehumidifier.  It's a beautiful piano which looks very formal.  The styling on the piano seems a bit nicer compared to that of the Yamaha's and Kawai's that I've been seeing but then again i would expect much more about its appearance from a 125 thousand dollar piano.  Playing the piano wasn't as great an experience as I've read on the internet and it's probably because i'm not a concert pianist (far from it).  Instead, i'm a casual player looking to fulfill a life long dream of owning a grand piano.  The keys are very soft to touch and very repsonsive.  But it sounds as great as any other $50G piano that i've ever played?  Sorry for those hoping to get a good idea about what it felt like to play this beast, but, I thought that my blog post couldn't end without mentioning the Fazioli since it was prominently displayed in the store.

Next weekend I'll try to get to the Yamaha dealer to chat with him/her.