The $120,000 Steinway Spirio player piano system is now available in Vancouver and it’s taking the city’s luxury market to new heights.
Steinway pianos are considered to be the greatest in the world, and while the player piano is not a revolutionary concept, the Steinway’s Spirio system takes it to the next level.
Player pianos have been around since the late 19th century. They traditionally contain a mechanism that plays music automatically using a perforated piece of paper, which produces more stilted sounding music. But the technology in the Spirio makes it sound like you have a professional piano player in your living room.
Ron Koyanagi of Tom Lee Music says the piano can identically reproduce the original recordings of music legends like George Gershwin or Billy Joel.
“This is really meant for what Steinway would call the great listener,” said Koyanagi. “It’s the music lover who would really enjoy a live performance in their home, the piano actually reproducing the original recording of the artist.”
The Spirio uses an electromagnetic system that has the ability to duplicate concert-quality sound. It has more than a thousand dynamic ranges reproduced by sensors built into the keys. The library of music available for the Spirio contains more than one hundred hours of songs that vary in style from classical to contemporary, which can all be accessed on an iPad. The iPad can also wirelessly control the piano. For those who prefer something more traditional, the Spirio can also be played like a regular piano.
The instrument does not come cheap but Steinway says the expensive components are expected to last the lifetime of the piano. While this might not be an accessible price for the average family in Metro Vancouver, there is clearly a local market for the brand’s pianos. Koyanagi says Vancouver tops the North American market for Steinway sales.
