🎹Ritmuller Grand Piano | Ritmüller RS160 Grand Piano Review & Demo🎹

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0:00 - Introduction
0:55 - Opening Playing Demo
1:08 - Video Overview
3:57 - Ritmüller Piano Line Up
4:32 - Ritmüller R.S. Line Upgrades
5:16 - Piano Sound and Tone
8:02 Review Bass Tone Review
11:43 Mid-Range Tone Review
13:39 - Treble/High End Review
16:25 Conclusions on Sound and Tone
16:44 - Piano Action
17:31 - Piano Features
18:09 - Final Conclusions

Welcome to the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel! We’re back with another piano review as we take a look at the 5’2” Ritmuller RS160.

Ritmuller pianos are an interesting offering in the marketplace that probably consumers with a lower cost, high-value option built to compete with instruments from Indonesia.

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Background
As we covered in our recent video exploring the Chinese piano industry, the demand for pianos in the domestic market has been extremely high for a few years now. This has led to consolidation within the industry, and with that, industry leaders have clearly emerged.

Hailun is a major player pumping out high-quality instruments, and of course, Pearl River is the largest producer of pianos based on units per year in the world.

The Ritmuller line is made by Pearl River and represents a step up from their entry-level Pearl River branded line. There are three quality levels available within the Ritmuller line - Classic, Superior and Premium.

The RS160 is part of the middle Superior lineup, and is a brand new release for 2022, replacing the R9.

Upgrades over the R9
The RS160 improves on several aspects of the R9. For starters, the RS160 now features a tapered soundboard, upgraded hammers, upgraded bridge design, and better strings, and we think the cabinet has been improved as well due to some noticeably improved cabinet resonance.

These are all material improvements, and as long as the execution is good (which it is), we’ve definitely got a superior instrument on our hands than R9.

Piano Sound
Starting in the bass register, the combination of the strings, hammers and voicing is not really producing a brassy tone. In a piano of this size, that can actually be a blessing as there is an absence of any uncontrolled harmonics.

The bass is instead, warm, round and very clear, especially as compared to the R9. We think they’ve improved the quality of the strings, as well as the scale design.

As we move up into the bass register, the range of variation in tone isn’t very wide, but the consistency of tone is a little bit all over the place. The lower octave of the bass is well above average for the price point, whereas is the upper octave of the bass register is simply average.

The midrange is voiced with a very American-esque sound, with a very heavy emphasis on the mids. It’s also a very blended tone.

Moving to the treble, there’s some nice complexity and depth to the tone up here. A lot of this is due to a well-executed duplex scale, as well as some good factory-level execution of the hammer regulation.

The overall tonal palette of this instrument really challenges the notion that a Chinese instrument should automatically cost less than an Indonesian or Japanese instrument.

Piano Action
The return speed of the action feels a lot faster than on the R9. They’re also using genuine ebony tops for the black keys, which is definitely a nice texture for your fingers.

Overall, this action is easier to get around on than the action in the R9, and is in general, simply more enjoyable to play.

Other Details
The RS160 is available in a variety of finishes, and the pedals are on the smaller side in terms of width and depth.

They’ve also incorporated a snowfall fallboard, which is very welcome!

Closing Thoughts
Anyone looking at the Yamaha GB1 or Kawai GL10 price point, do not discount looking at some of the leading Chinese manufacturers, including the Ritmuller and the RS160.

This is a musically mature instrument with a great tonal profile and nice action - something that people wouldn’t have said about a Chinese instrument only a few years ago.

Thanks for watching!

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