Bösendorfer 225

This is an amazing piano, made by one of the most respected and trustworthy piano manufacturers in the world. The process that it takes for one to be made is a legend in and of itself. The same family has made these pianos in Austria for about 180 years. Each piano takes about five years to make and is meticulously crafted. It was a rare pleasure for me to be able to play this piano, as a host whose house I spent a weekend in had one. Before touching it, I saw that the bottom end of the keyboard extended to F, which was cool, as I was used to the normal ending point of C. The first thing I noticed after I started playing it was the immaculate feel of the keyboard, the comfort and response. It felt as though there wasn't anything getting in the way of me playing the piano and the sound emerging from it. Speaking of the sound, it was interesting in that it felt absolutely enormous yet wasn't so overpowering as to greatly disturb the other houseguests. One of the great things about this piano is the smoothness and sweetness that it contains; each note played, regardless of how loud or soft, high or low, comes out smoothly and accessibly. The dynamics can go from pianissimo to fortissimo easily, and without a drastic change in tonal quality. Single-note runs, heavily accented chords, everything sounds great on this piano. That makes this piano ideal for classical pianists primarily, as a jazz pianist would probably need something with a bit more of an edge and a harder timbre. This piano is insanely expensive, so I'd have to say that this is probably a lifetime investment for most players. However, there are many pianists worldwide who would agree that it'd be worth it.