Hello Piano Society!

This is my first post since becoming a member, but I have been a loyal listener for almost a year.

I'm not sure if someone has already discussed this before. I recently traded my old U1 in for a Yamaha U1 silent and I'm in love with the "silent" function. I'm curious to know if anybody else has a U1 silent and how they like it. Here are some pro's and con's in my opinion...

Pros:
Great for apartment living - you can play all night long without bothering your neighbours!
Sampled sounds are pretty high quality.
Recording functionality (in midi format if you are just using a USB key, but you can connect the audio output to your computer and use a program like Audacity to record..)
It's still a regular U1 when you take the silent function off. So if the electronics malfunctions you still have a good quality accoustic piano.

Cons:
Since volume is adjustable while the piano is in "silent" mode, I had to make some adjustments when I take the "silent" mode off.
The recording functionality is rather limited. Recording speed is very slow and you can only record one piece at a time with a USB key. However if you have the right cable connection to a computer this problem goes away.
Sometimes when I play fast repeated notes, the optical sensor gets confused and makes the sound really loud (startled me once or twice).
I had to get used to the fact that essentially I'm playing on two different pianos all the time. Pedal sensitivity is different; sound is different.. etc. However I feel the touch is pretty consistent so that is a big plus!

All in all I think it is worth every penny I spent on it. The biggest thing for me is that now I can practice much later without worrying about waking up half of the town. And I still have a decent quality accoustic piano!

Hello alexw86. Thank you for spending time listening to our recordings.

Regarding your U1 Silent piano....I know for a fact that one of our members here has a Yamaha silent piano too, but I'm not sure the model number. He is not very active on the forum, so you probably won't get any comments from him regarding this.

I'm sure my family would love if my piano had a 'silencing' feature! That the touch of the keys feels about the same whether you're playing in the regular mode versus the silent mode is good. However, the change in the way the pedal feels might bother me. I'm currently working on a piece that has tricky pedaling (for me), and I'd be afraid of screwing up my progress if I have to pedal differently on the silent mode. Still, it's nice that you are happy with your piano.

Aww.. I guess it takes some time for it to catch the market .

Yes there's definitely a difference with pedaling. I've played something in silent mode and thought it sounded great.. then switched back to normal and it sounded like a muddy sticky nightmare!