Best practice keyboard?

Oh I was on that way, too. I fear there is no digital piano keyboard that is able to give you the true feeling of a piano action. I know only those of the NU1 and the avant grand, of course. As you already mentioned, these are ridiculously expensive, especially if you own a Bösendorfer.
That is why I abandoned all those digital pianos and build my own one out of an old piano action that I have refurbished.
Maybe one option could be aiming for a silent sollution for your Bösendorfer?

That is interesting to hear. I ask myself what do they have to fit it much in the factory? do they offer these felts that are pushed into the triggering mechanism, to change the trigger point if you play silent?
Of course doing regulation for a proper silencing system may be some work, too.
Anyway try the Numa Nero, but I have to tell you I was very disappointed by it when I played it, but its a matter of taste, finally...

S80 ... I hear what you're saying. I recently went through the same decision-making process myself and found all of that conflicting info out there on the internet. How to make sense of it? Some loved the NN! Some hated it! Some were REALLY vociferous in pointing out it's faults! Finally, I purchased a Nero Numa, just a few weeks ago- w/out having tried one. I decided in the end to trust the salesperson with whom I was working - his opinion on the Numa was positive as were those of his colleagues who knew others who used them.

Having now had it for a few weeks, my impression is extremely positive too. I could enumerate a million this and thats about it in terms of what does it feel like, does it allow fast repetitions, does the keyboard appear to be calibrated (or does it allow calibration), is it light or heavy, is it large or small, is it possible to to play the entire range of MIDI velocities (0 -127) on it (the the answer to , yes, of course it is), does it run from a powered USB hub (the answer again is yes - which means it's one less power chord I need to worry about), is the documentation clear (here, the answer is no - it's poorly translated but readable), can it be played for hours w/out inducing hand fatigue (yes). Can I use it to improve my piano technique? Yes ... Among other things, I'm working on a few Chopin etudes and am finding my practice time on the Numa is helping my technique on the piano. I also play through Bach Chorales to practice bringing out bass, tenor, alto, and soprano voices (as in let's make the soprano the prominent voice for the whole chorale. Let's make the tenor the prominent voice for the whole chorale., Etc.) The NN is fine for that kind of practice.

The plastic on top of the keys is perhaps a little slippery but not to a major degree and definitely in such a way that my technique on the piano only feels more secure (and improved) after playing the Numa. I read recently in a book by Charles Rosen (about pianists and pianism) that Horowitz often sprayed the keyboards on which he played w/hair spray ... so that his fingers could really get a hold on the keys as he felt he needed them to. So, while I'm not about to apply hair spray to my NN, I do keep that anecdote in mind.

Having said all of the above, well, "does it feel like a piano?" ... My answer would is no, it doesn't particularly feel like a piano. But having said that it feels very accurate and precise. In terms of what's out there and overall prices, etc.,  for me it's clearly the best solution. By a hundred miles. While I was in decision-making mode, I was able to try Casio, Roland, Kawaii, and Yamaha actions. For me, they were different shades of awful. BUT. That's my personal opinion only.

As I'm sure is obvious from my overall tone, I find the NN to an excellent excellent keyboard. Sooner or later and more than likely something better will show up on the market. But for now, NN is a very nice solution. I have a four-year warranty on it, so if something strange does happen over time, I'm confident that the dealer from whom I purchased it will take care of things and make it right.

Hope this helps ...

Right out of the box it didn't feel comfortable. So I pulled out the manual, went to the You Play part interface and was somewhat amazed at how much it was possible to shape the feel. Then I went to Pianoteq and made some adjustments in the Velocity section of the interface. And that helped too. I'm still at the beginning of the learning curve but what I see so far is it's a very flexible controller w/a lot of options. But using those options will take some exploration. I don't have the keyboard set up yet the way I'd like it to be. But I can see that there are enough options to get me to some kind of workable place - an "optimised comprise" to use your phrase ...

Now, having said all of this great stuff ... here some "kind of" bad. HOW bad I don't yet know. Last night, I was upgrading the Numa operating system as per instructions in the manual and the Numa control panel you can download from the Studiologic site. During the upgrade process, the Numa touchscreen display froze ... and I haven't yet been able to unfreeze it. The keyboard itself is still sending out MIDI and controlling Pianoteq perfectly well. It's just that I can't now use the touchscreen to edit anything in the Numa. Obviously, this is not good.

I"m sure all that's needed is some way to do a hard reset. But it's not immediately obvious as to HOW to do that ... the manual doesn't address that and there's no mention of it that I can find on the internet.

One way or another I'll find a solution - and/or the dealer from whom I bought it will find the solution. but at the same time I'm hoping this isn't an issue that comes up again and again. It's not something I'd want to encounter on a gig or during a performance. But stuff does happen and my experience is the strangest most frustrating exasperating stuff always happens when first working with a new piece of gear. So, we'll see ..

I don't have much to add to what pianissimo said in his detailed post as it reflects most of my own thoughts. I will say that I think I know the review you are speaking of from 2008, I saw the same one when I was first considering the Numa. But I later found a follow up post by the same guy on a different forum where he disavowed his earlier review. I think (if I remember correctly) that he later sorted out the problems he was having.

I tend to think of the Numa as neither a Fiat or Ferrari. Maybe it's more like a Jaguar. Fiats are supposed to represent crappy hardware, right? Well, the Numa is a nice piece of work. No keyboards that I know of are even close to being a Ferrari. Jaguars have the reputation of being nice cars when they are on the road but that go into the shop too often. This kinds of reminds me of the Numa in this respect: it seems that the quality control of the Numa isn't quite up to par so every now and then, a bad board gets out of their shop. The one I have has giving me no problems and I just really like the simplicity of it's feel, it doesn't try too hard to be a real-feel piano, a goal pretty much unattainable right now unless some company comes out with very expensive board where they basically try to put in a real piano action.

One other thing so you will no where I am coming from. I believe it's true that Sliatoslov Richter, the great Russiain pianist, once said that when he encountered a new piano for a performance, that he would not try it out beforehand but preferred to play it 'cold' and figure it out as he went. In that respect, I don't twiddle very much with velocity curves or You-Plays or other things like that, I just play the Numa as I find it so my opinion of it might be better or worse if I did. So maybe you should put more stock in pianissimo's review than mine!

Total disapointment!!!!
As planned I went to a Numa Nero reseller yesterday to try the keyboard.
OK, I had high expectations but, as a sumary, I would say that it is still closer to a synth than to a piano.
Firstly I played it with no sound, just to get the feel of the dynamic.
In a blind test, I do not believe that ONE pianist on earth would be fooled by this keyboard, even against a South Korean traditional up-right (and yes even Richard Clayderman).
I don't know what wood they chose (I checked it's wood), but this must be on the similar variety to build toy replica planes/boats.
In truth I am technically unable to say if the type of wood as any impact, or if it's the combination of all elements, hammer included, that generates the weight impression, but this does not work for me.
No pleasure.
After that I connected my laptop to try it in association with Pianoteq, but the fun was already gone.
Because of the prejudiced opinion I could only hear defaults such as a slight delay between action and sound, un-eveness in sound volumes, possibly imagined and certainly adjustable.
But you know the expression "The dog you want to kill has rabbits".

In order to balance that judgment I have to say that, in that price range, it's by far the best and more realistic KB I have tried recently (in my view to have something worthwile, one has to go to the Yamaha NU1, four times the Nero price).
So this opinion, as any opinion on that topic, has to be put in context.
The key issue (if I may say), is the reference point.
For someone who has no KB and wants to spent £1000/Euro 1,200 in such an instrument, the Nero is an excellent choice, and certainly the best for pianist focussing on the classic repertoire (as long as they use it with a good sound modelling software...).
For someone who wants to replace a KB bought in a similar price range and expecting a jump in quality, I do not think it is worth the money.
For someone who wants to use a digital KB in conjonction with a traditional piano, to keep peace with the neighbourhood, this may work, but with much reduced pleasure.
Numa Nero, the best practice (condom) keyboard. Maybe.

I had the NUMANero and now I have the Acuna88. In my honest opinion, the Acuna88 whips the Nero by far. The Nero, while actually being a lighter play action, is actually far less controllable than the newer TP100LR in the Acuna88.

My advice - if you can, at least give it a try.

Kindest Regards,

Chris