In my experience what Stevesong says is quite right, a technician can do wonders for a sound on a piano and there is a surprising amount of flexibility there. Whether his particular piano sounds good or not, I'm sure clearly to his mind it sounds good to him and that is what is important. Plus it is clearly a rare and precious instrument regardless of the technical aspects involved - simply for it's age and that it is in playable condition!

I don't' mean to sound argumentative, just contributing.. [:)]
Miklos.

Laurent:

Each of us has his or her own opinion regarding what the best years for Steinway pianos are.

I want, however, to thank you for your brave, completely unsolicited, initiative in stepping in to offer instruction as to the defective nature of my "very old and very small" piano. Blissfully deluded and ignorant as I was, I had been extremely happy with this piano for many years and even thought myself lucky to have found it - - until you revealed my delusion and made me painfully aware of its defects. What is even more remarkable is that your extraordinary perceptive powers allowed you to arrive at this judgement without ever having actually seen or heard the instrument in question. (My insurance agent, lacking such powers, foolishly accepted the appraised value of my piano.)

On the one purely factual matter at issue, I think we must agree that, according to Steinway, the model B is 211 cm in length - - but, again, whether this means that the Model B is large, medium, small or "very small" is entirely a matter of opinion. (If size matters to you, you might check out the Rubenstein R371 - - 371 cm in length. You can see and read about it at http://www.rubensteinpianos.com/)

Thanks again for your instruction and help.

I should add that my mom likes that subdued Steinway, so you're right that we all have our opinions. But she does agree that the other one is better.

Nick:

Quite so! [:)]

I just wanted to voice my own impression of VI SE, especially for those of us who own Opus 1 and qualify for the US$60 upgrade. It seems to me that for $60, VI SE is a nice way to "try out" several of the VI libraries. It's a bit crippled in that many articulations are missing, but still, there's certainly useful stuff there, and as I said, it's almost like paying $60 to get a fully functional preview of VI. Is this a fair assessment?

@MDesigner said:

I just wanted to voice my own impression of VI SE, especially for those of us who own Opus 1 and qualify for the US$60 upgrade. It seems to me that for $60, VI SE is a nice way to "try out" several of the VI libraries. It's a bit crippled in that many articulations are missing, but still, there's certainly useful stuff there, and as I said, it's almost like paying $60 to get a fully functional preview of VI. Is this a fair assessment?

Well.. I don't know about that, one does have to buy the standard edition at regular price after all... if it was only $60 who could question or complain about anything? [:P] [[;)]]

It IS $60 for Opus 1 owners like myself.

@MDesigner said:

It IS $60 for Opus 1 owners like myself.

No, the Extended IS $60. You have to buy the Standard first to qualify for the Extended.

DG

The email newsletter says:

@Another User said:

Registered users of Opus 1...are eligible to purchase the Extended Library of the Vienna Special Edition at the VIP price of only EUR45/US-$60, saving EUR420/US-$535!

So let me get this straight. If I wanted the VI SE Standard, I have to pay US$445. But if I want VI SE Extended, I pay only $60. I don't think I have to buy Standard first, it doesn't make any sense.. then it's not really a deal anymore since the difference between Standard & Ext is $150, so this deal only saves me $90.

This is a bit confusing.

sam, discounts apply to extended libraries only and extended libraries can only be used if the respective standard library is there.
standard + extended is the full library, extended alone does not work (this applies to any collection)

so having registered already opus saves you USD 535.- when purchasing special edition extended. special edition standard is needed anyway ...

christian

ps: the mising discount in the calculator should be fixed now ....