It's a little hard to find recordings of the Yamaha S7X since they haven't been around that long. But I just noticed this guy bought an S7X about a week ago, and since then he's posted about a dozen videos of different pieces. Definitely worth a listen if you're in the market for a new piano and considering the SX line. I'd be interested to hear people's opinions about the piano, including comparisons to Steinway, Fazioli etc.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ClarkBryan/videos

As an example, everyone's favorite Brahms intermezzo:

Sounds amazing!!! Does it use tapered soundboard

Very nice sound! As with other Yamahas, it lacks some of the personality (eccentricity?) of some American and European pianos. But it is very pleasing, and seems to offer the pianist a huge range of choices.

No idea if it is just because it is engineered to sound great in a recording studio and on my laptop, but I've liked what I have heard of that whole series.

Is it an S7 or S7X? He says S7 in two videos, but not sure if he's just dropping the X.

It's definitely an S7X as he bought it recently. The S series will have been discontinued and I don't think there ever was an S7, only S4 and S6.

Looking through some of his old videos, it seems like used to have a Steinway B in the back, and a C7 in the front. With the new acquisition, he got rid of the B, and put the C7 in the back and S7X in the front.

Maybe the B wasn't that great? I couldn't quickly find a recording of the B in his channel.

Wild.

His C7 seems to have a lot of the character of the S7X. Maybe it is just the EQ on the recording, or a sympathetic tech? Anyway, it has a nicer patina than many other Yamahas of that vintage. And also sounds very good. It will be fascinating to see if he does comparisons after the new one has settled in.

In cae you are wondering (as I did) who Mr. Bryan is - and why he is capable of producing high quality music videos on a daily basis - here's his vita.

https://clarkbryan.ca/about/

He says in the video that piano goes out of tune rapidly. Is this normal to hand-wound strings or something? Can't remember my C3 going out of tune noticeably even when new.

I think it's normal for the reasons he explained.

Any new piano will go out of tune quickly for the first year. Perhaps your C3 had been in a showroom and had several tunings put on it before it was delivered? We try to give EVERY piano several tunings, even for ordered pianos during our prep. But not everyone does, and even this may not prevent some additional stretching the first year, as it does happen gradually. It helps though.

I was a little bit surprised to see that video come up. Mr. Bryan was my piano teacher for several years when I was a high school student.

He is a superb teacher, who prepared me well for further piano study at Yale.

I picked it from showroom so it was tuned once between factory and delivery, but I do not recollect it needing tuning several times during first year (maybe twice) and now I have it tuned once a year (it holds tuning extremely well). I don't have absolute pitch but I can hear in the Brahms video that piano is out of tune. Having owned previously a piano that didn't hold tuning well, it's an absolute dealbreaker for me. Does anyone here actually own SX series grand to give feedback?

Yamaha pianos are renowned for their build quality and reliability, and the SX series are their premium line. We can safely assume they hold tune excellently. I think a few people here are jumping to conclusions.

Seriously. Just off the truck, and we're worried because it might need re-tuning?

Thanks, that makes sense now. I did have the opportunity to try S5X awhile back. It's a really nice instrument!

He talks too much, and then the piano is... out of tune!