I see that the discussion has produced just what I thought it would.
After owning two Steinway VertGrand Duo-Art pianos, and one also played
by a Welte-Mignon Vorsetzer, I can really appreciate the technology
that went into these reproducers.

If you love the music first, then the newest solenoid piano system,
Wayne Stahnke's LX player, is all you need.  It plays the piano perfectly.
If you are more intrigued with the old pneumatic reproducing systems for
their own sake, then by all means get one and collect the rolls for it.

If it were not for Spencer Chase's disk with that ocean of fine music
on it, things might be different.  However, after several years of
playing his disks on a Yamaha Clavinova, personally I have nothing to
complain about.  They express just fine when played loudly or softly as
background music while I do other things.

The other system connected to the Clavinova is an old Pianomation
Playola, the one with the heavy solenoid bank that sits on top of the
keyboard, and included the QRS calibration unit.  The Chase disk was
playing the piano via MIDI from a laptop computer with the files in it
and the Pianomation was played by a 5-disk Sony CD player.

(When first brought home, the Pianomation was tried out on the kitchen
floor with a disk of hot ragtime tunes.  It looked like a caterpillar
with fits.)  The laptop uses the WindPlay system, so an operating
tracker bar is seen on the laptop screen.  This program allows one to
make custom files for playback.

Now, fortune has smiled and I was able to purchase a 1930 Mason & Hamlin
6-foot grand with an Ampico A system from an estate liquidation.  The
piano simply had not been touched by human hands for the past 30-plus
years.  The lady used the piano as a platform to put her photographs on
in the living room.  The tracker bar is black from oxidation and shows
not a bit of wear.  This piano will be restored, the Ampico removed and
carefully wrapped up and crated for the next owner to tangle with.  An
LX system will be installed.

Jim Crank