@inthehands

You can also get a silent piano: one that has a conventional mechanism, including hammers and strings, but which, at the flick of a lever, you can put into silent mode and play through a synthesiser and headphones instead. It's not completely silent, because the keys and hammers still move, but the strings aren't struck. It's good enough for practising at 2am if that's what your schedule forces you to do.

A silent #piano has the fragility and neediness of a conventional acoustic piano — you still have to maintain reasonably constant temperature and humidity — but it's a lot more sociable if you're in cramped quarters, and you get the joy of playing an acoustic when circumstances allow.