Yamaha N-1X PE Avant Grand Digital Piano

General

Compacting the sleek curves of a full-sized grand piano down to the size of an acoustic upright, then adding smart mechanics to make it feel just like the real thing, the Yamaha N-1X PE Avant Grand rewrites the book on digital pianos. While the price tag is super-serious, this is one super-serious instrument, especially since the internal workings have been directly lifted from Yamaha's own acoustic concert grands. Any pianist will feel spoilt by the weight and feel of real wooden keys and the responsiveness and expressive potential of a surgically accurate, non-contact optical sensor system which measures the speed and depth of each key depression, while an additional optical sensor has been coupled to each hammer shank to measure the force and timing as the hammer strikes the virtual strings.

The Sound of the Yamaha N-1X Avant Grand

This digital piano is home to the sound of two highly acclaimed grand pianos: the Yamaha CFX and the Bösendorfer Imperial, and because they've been sampled in such realistic quality, you're essentially getting the incomparable sound of two concert-class pianos for a bargain price. Both models have been recorded using Yamaha's Spatial Acoustic Sampling approach where the soundboard is recorded at four points to capture the full complexity of sound. Since the sample quality would be nothing without a speaker system to match, the Avant Grand has been given a three-way system which has been developed from the ground up to convincingly mimic the experience of the resonating body of full sized grand. This is further supported by Virtual Resonance Modeling technology that recreates the effect of passive string vibration - the rich and complex sound of all the other strings lightly resonating in response when a note or chord is struck.

Enveloping Realism

The fitted pedals support half-damping techniques, just like a genuine grand piano, and even when wearing headphones, the binaural audio reproduction of the Yamaha CFX simulates spatial acoustics to breathtaking and enveloping effect. CD-quality WAV file recordings can be effortlessly produced by slotting a USB flash drive into the provided port. The same USB port can be used for direct connecting to an external device or computer, and external recording equipment can be connected via audio cables. Even in-depth control over further internal features is offered via a range of apps when a phone or tablet is coupled via Bluetooth. All of this technology is seamlessly integrated and invisible, leaving nothing but the clean and elegant design of the piano itself.