Bechstein - 1:11
Steinway - 5:25
Actions - 9:47
Will They Increase in Value? - 11:57
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Thanks for joining us here today at the Merriam Piano RU-vid channel. Today, we’re going to be comparing two companies of piano royalty - Steinway & Sons and C. Bechstein. We’ll be covering some of the technical, design and musical differences between these two behemoth manufacturer’s.
It’s hard to think of two other brands who have had more of an impact on the piano industry over the past 150 years. Both brands at various times have occupied the absolute top market position in the premium piano category.
Currently, Bechstein sells the majority of pianos priced at over 10,000 Euros throughout many European markets, positioning it as the top premium manufacturer overall if accounting for uprights and grands. The Steinway Model D and Model B remain the majority choice for Concert grand and Semi-Concert grand instruments in concert halls around the world.
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Brand Differences:
Sub-Brand Approach:
Both of these manufacturer’s have glorious histories and offer some of the best pianos money can buy, but they have many differences. The first difference we’ll highlight is the disparate approaches these companies take to their less expensive sub-brands - in the case of Steinway, their sub-brands are Boston and Essex, while C. Bechstein’s sub-brands are W. Hoffmann and Zimmermann.
In Steinway’s case, the Boston line is actually manufactured by Kawai in Japan, and the Essex line has floated around among different Chinese manufacturer’s, currently settling with Pearl River.
With Bechstein, they directly manufacture all of their 5 European lines; C. Bechstein Concert, C. Bechstein Academy in Germany, and W. Hoffmann Professional, W. Hoffmann Tradition, and W. Hoffmann Vision in the Czech Republic. Only the Zimmermann is contracted out to Hailun in China.
While it’s not fair to say one approach is superior to the other, it is fair to say that there is going to be a lot more in common musically among the Bechstein family of pianos than among the Steinway family of pianos.
Grand Lines:
When it comes to grands, it’s a much fairer fight between these two companies. Steinway grands have a beautiful dynamism to their tonality, ranging from very dark to aggressive and layer after layer of beautiful harmonics. Their actions while heavy as very responsive, and the cabinetry is legendarily robust. The extensive use of maple produces a bassline tone that is a little bit more mid-range focused, and the Steinway D has some of the best projection of any concert grand currently available.
The Bechstein grands are built with a more technical design, which creates a far more noticeable cabinet resonance. Their approach is quite similar to Italian manufacturer Fazioli - extreme precision in the laminations, with layers of high quality alternating hardwoods in the rim. Bechstein’s also employ a more finely tuned duplex scale, and like the larger Steinways, the larger Bechstein’s also use a treble bell, which creates more sustain and projection in the treble. The result is a more colourful treble than the Steinway, and greater level of lower-mid warmth at softer dynamic ranges.
In terms of the actions, Bechstein’s are known for having a lighter action than a Steinway. Bechstein’s quality control is of the absolute highest quality, whereas Steinway’s New York facility has dealt with some quality control inconsistencies over the years.
Will Either Piano Increase in Value?:
This is something that stills comes up, in particular with Steinway’s, the idea that a piano will increase in value over time.This is by and large fale. If by the term value we mean buying an asset, and down the road liquidating said asset for more money than originally spent when accounting for inflation, the idea that this will happen with a piano simply isn’t true. A piano will not outpace inflation, and it’s also highly unlikely that a buyer would spend more for a used instrument than a new one.
The only exceptions to this rule are when considering one specific piano’s collectability, i.e. if the piano was featured in a movie, of course a collector may be willing to spend an inordinate amount of money to acquire said instrument.
13 сен 2020
