Baldwin Pianovelle Vs. Clavinova

[Sam Samuelian]

My wife and I saw a Baldwin Pianovelle today. It was a beautiful looking polished mahogany Model 2600 baby grand. We could not play it to compare it to our Clavinova (have the 208) and we wondered if anyone here can tell us more about this unit or can list any benefits this piano has over the Clavinova series.

[wes_56]

Hi,
A higher end grand piano should sound better than Clavinova 208. An accoustic grand piano sounds more realistic and "stereo" and live than Clavinova.
The touch on a grand piano should be slightly better than a Clavinova. The bass notes should sound better on a baby grand.

Wes

[jjm542]

I believe the Baldwin digitals are made by General Music, an Italian company. I looked at them before buying my Clavinova. I found the interface very confusing. General Music has pioneered a resonance modeling technology that some people believe improves the piano sound.

Baldwin is now owned by Gibson, the guitar company, which I believe bought them out of bankruptcy. I could find no references to the Pianovelle line on the Baldwin site so don't know if they're still going to carry them.

I'd keep my Clavinova!

[wally]

I've kept up with the Pianovelle to some extent. I like that the Pianovelle has an internal hard drive. However, the user interface is the worst I've ever seen. I sat with a Baldwin salesman for two whole hours trying to figure out how to modify a midi file from a diskette. He had been trained on the Pianovelle, but wasn't able to do it. Shame.

[Sam Samuelian]

Wally....
I guess the internal hard drive is why the spec sheet I just found on the Baldwin web site mentions the large quantity of songs programmed into the unit when you buy it.
I did see that they have a 70 watt amp (a bit more powerful than Clavinovas) and also two two inch, two six inch and two eight inch speakers. I believe these are somewhat larger than the Yamaha?When you heard the Pianovelle did you think it had better sound quality?
It also seemed to have more inputs and outputs underneath.
I am certainly not going to run out and trade in my new baby...just curious about the differences and what features the Pianovelle may have OVER the Yamaha. Obviously the Pianovelle is not user friendly! My only real observation so far is the excellent cabinetry and looks.
I did try playing the Yamaha vocal harmony demo disc through the Pianovelle and it seemed to download but would not play it.
Sam

[wally]

It's my opinion that the Pianovelle has no advantage over the Clavinova. The sound was mediocre and the keyboard was terrible (couldn't repeat rapidly). The piano I played would only save files in MIDI Type 0 format or in its own proprietory format. No Midi Type 1 as far as I could tell.