Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Disklavier Standard vs Pro Question

Over the last week I've started looking at player pianos and have been looking at the some of the differences between the various systems.

I've played with and listened to a Disklavier DGC1E3 and Steinway Spirio Model M and B |r in person which was fascinating.

Since looking at the pianos I've done a lot more reading and one thing I can't work out that I was hoping someone here might know the answer to was around the Disklavier Standard system in either the E3 or the Enspire series.

I understand that the Pro system can record in high resolution (Yamaha XP, 1024 levels of sensitivity) and that the Enspire or DKC-800 module can play back this format on both instruments. I can see from the some of the listed specs that the solenoid units in the two models have some differences but what I can't work out is do the standard models play back with any higher level of sensitivity than what these systems can record at (ie. 128 levels).

I would guess the playback would be pretty close. The extra data of the PRO is not necessarily ALL reproduced by the "different" (if they are really different) solenoids of the more expensive Enspire PRO. So it is not a 10-fold increase in resolution, but it may reproduce a subtler dynamic performance.

Depends on your price range........ and the size of the piano, because that determines the overall dynamic range in the room.

Great point about piano size and dynamic range of the room thank you.

Isn’t the DKC-800 the old playback module that has been replaced by the 840?

I have an upright DYUS5, that’s a YUS5 with the Enspire playback mechanism. I don’t have the physical space for a grand.

I don’t think most people can perceive 1024 velocity levels per key. Like the other poster, I think any differences would be subtle.

To answer your question, the encoding is done in such a way that the standard models can play back the same files but without any increase in resolution.

This thread talks about the resolution of various player systems:

https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...h-historic-performances.html#Post3082088

My take of that the Disklavier is a unique form of home entertainmen and a good professional tool. There is one award winning film composer that uses the Disklavier, if I recall correctly.

That post was fantastic thanks Larry. Particularly noteworthy to me was the part around the practical range being around 58% to allow for clipping at the lower and higher ends. Maybe a topic for another thread, but it would be interesting to put a challenge out there to play a single note with 30-40 different variations without the use of pedals.

What kinds of sources do you use most frequently on your Disklavier?

I pay for a Disklavier Radio subscription and I buy some individual titles from the PianoSoft store, which can be downloaded immediately to the piano. I can put any MIDI file into a folder on the piano and play that way as well, although I wish there was a better way to manage midi files.