I have played several Faziolis at the last two Pacific Northwest Regional Piano Technicians Guild conventions. (thats a mouthful) I also saw a presentation about the factory and their manufacturing processes. Very impressive construction...supposedly the soundboards come from the same strand of spruce that Stratovari made fiddles with. Anyway, well made all around but for me they are a bit less expressive for playing then a really fine Steinway or Bosendorfer. the Faziolis I played (all different sizes of grands) were very powerful but not particularly warm . That said would I take one if it were offered to me? In a heartbeat.

i love the fazioli, and i've found that the kawai shigeru line is rather the same type of feel, only not *quite* so unreachable financially (although what's $60k to $100k for a piano, right?) *shrug* i'm not much of a steinway fan, either as a pianist or a technician, but that's largely taste unless one wants to get into an all-out geek fest. ;)

I found them to be incredible. So nice in fact, I traded my steinway in for one. In my opinion they are the best grand piano made in the world today, in every way; touch, tone, expressiveness, very powerful sound. I'm using the 10'2" in my concert this year. Why? Because unfortunately a Steinway just isn't going to fill that hall the way I would like it to.