Yamaha U1 (Silent) or U3/5?

[samoaleather]

I'm looking to buy a new piano and these are the approximate prices i've been quoted:
 
- Yamaha U1 (Silent) - USD5,400
- Yamaha M112T (Silent) - USD4,225
- Yamaha U3 - USD6,015
- Yamaha U5 - USD7,130
 
I've tried them out at the showroom and love the sound of the U3 & U5, but the U1's silent function would be useful for practising at night (I stay in a flat). Can anyone who uses the U1 (silent) comment on it? I'm rather afraid the internal electronics may suffer over time.

Appreciate your advice!

[heidi34]

I'm curious where you live. I've been shopping for a piano in Los Angeles and those prices sound pretty good to me, especially the U3 and U5.

[samoaleather]

I'm from singapore. Yamaha's having a mid-year sale and the U1 (Silent) now costs the same as the original U1. There's not much of a price reduction for the U3 and U5 though.

[Barrie Heaton]

 
I've tried them out at the showroom and love the sound of the U3 & U5, but the U1's silent function would be useful for practising at night (I stay in a flat). Can anyone who uses the U1 (silent) comment on it? I'm rather afraid the internal electronics may suffer over time.

Appreciate your advice!

They suffer less then the retro fitted ones as they have less moving parts on the Yamaha I have a few on my tuning round the oldest is about 5 years and to date no problems on some of the retro fitted ones like the Technics one you get clicking on the keys after a few years of hard playing, but no problems with the electronics. Yamaha do give a 2 year Guarantee on the electronics part, the other advantage is the Midi you can connect your piano to your PC


Barrie,
Barrie,

[samoaleather]

Thanks, Barrie. Is the clicking very obvious? Does it affect the entire keyboard or only a few keys?

[Barrie Heaton]

Please note this in not the Yamaha that has this problem as they use inferred to detect movement of keys, were the other systems such as Technics one use a rocker to detect movement of keys.

The clicking can be very prominent on some keys However, this all depends on the player. The piano I have in mind there are 2 grade 8 players and two kids doing grade 6 so the piano gets above average home use but it is getting worse.

Barrei,