Steinway Review

[Jonathan Finger]

Very interesting.

Pretty "on" for the most part.  I'd like him to come play the Sauter 
275, and the Steingraeber 205 though. 
What's difficult with comparisons like this, is that it generalizes 
things a bit too much.
Companies like Audi (owned by Volkswagen) and BMW build cars in many 
different places, and to different quality levels - just like pianos.  
You can't fairly say that Audi is at one quality level.  Which Audi are 
we talking about, the A4 1.8T?  The TT?  The S4?  The Mythical S8?
Which Volkswagen are we talking about when we compare it to the Petrof?  
A Volkswagen built in Mexico? Brazil? Wolfsburg?  The Golf, the Passat, 
the Pheoton?
Without becoming too impassioned about car-talk ....   It's clear that 
we can't simply say piano-a compares to car-a and piano-b compares to 
car-b.  Like cars, many pianos have lower quality brethren built to 
different standards in different countries, which make use of their 
higher quality counterpart's name. 
Steinway for example markets two other pianos built in two different 
countries - at two very different quality levels - and has salespeople 
saying that they're all related under the Steinway name.
Young Chang builds both in Korea, and in China - so it's not fair to say 
that a Young Chang is at one standard quality level.
The same goes for Yamaha, Kawai, Samick, etc.

And NONE of this takes into account dealer preparation!  This is what 
makes a piano!  Regardless of build quality, most pianos are coming out 
of the box at a fraction of their potential.  To take any piano to its 
full potential takes time, and expertise, and the technician's ability 
to do this is what makes a well built piano a high performance piano.

I like the comparison between Grotrian and Aston Martin though - even 
though it's hard for a self respecting German to compare a Grotrian to a 
British car.

Jonathan Finger RPT