What is a silent system piano?
The Silent piano is a traditional acoustic piano with an electronic device to make it completely silent. This is the Silent System. The Silent System pianos therefore offer a clever mix of digital and acoustic piano, which differentiates them from digital pianos which, despite great advances, do not offer the same playing emotions and pure sound quality.
Once activated, the Silent System allows the pianist to practice his or her passion without disturbing others, with headphones on.
The composition of the Silent System
The Silent System is an electronic and mechanical process, consisting of three parts.
- The mechanical part, which acts as a mute.
By engaging the pedal or the dedicated lever, a hammer stop bar is engaged, so the hammers no longer touch the strings. This maintains the feel of the acoustic piano, without the piano producing sound. - The electronic part is composed of optical sensors that collect the information transmitted to the keys, and transform it into a MIDI signal that is retranscribed by a sound card. The best Silent System pianos offer a very precise system, taking into account the sensitivity of the touch, the power and the time of pressing the keys.
- Finally, the control part is a box, consisting of a sound card, which receives the signal from the optical sensors. Thanks to the sound sampling of the best pianos, it will reproduce a quality sound in the headphones.
It is also via this device that it is possible to control the sound, the volume, and the other options (recording, metronome...)
In this way, the musician can play the piece without worrying about disturbing neighbours or relatives. Similarly, when learning a new piece, many pianists like to be able to rehearse in a more discreet way, before showing the piece to their friends and family.
Which Silent System piano to choose?
Piano models
There are upright pianos with a silent system, as well as grand pianos. The choice of size will depend on the space available, but also on your personal preferences and budget. The budget can vary depending on the acoustic and silent system pianos, their brand, the specific model, the quality of manufacture, etc.
Which brand of Silent Pianos?
At Hanlet we have a large selection of Silent pianos, from Yamaha, Schimmel and Bösendorfer.
If you want to find the most advanced Silent system on the market, look to Yamaha/Bösendorfer pianos. The company is the specialist in this field. It markets two Silent Systems: the SC2 and the SH2, completed by the Transacoustic system.
The Silent SC2 system is used in the B-series student pianos. The Yamaha B1 Silent SC2 piano offers the best price/performance ratio on the market. You will find this upright piano in many music schools and homes. It offers excellent quality in terms of construction, touch, sensitivity and sound.
The Silent SH2 system is used on the manufacturer's mid-range and high-end pianos, such as the Yamaha GC1 Silent SH2 grand piano and Bösendorfer VC series.
The Schimmel piano brand also offers very good models, with their clean, efficient system, but slightly less efficient than the Silent Yamaha system.
