Well i was very happy with version 1.64 and still am. However i feel it necessary to point out some very important features to potential purchasers as of version 1.7. From version 1.7 onwards Ivory will be iLok only. Now regardless of whether you are an iLok fan or not, i think it is rude to change the copy protection to something that a) will cost me money (to buy a dongle) and b) was not the copy protection system i chose - i prefer no dongles on my system. Where's my free dongle Synthogy? Oh i don't get one.

Also as of 1.7 you can no longer buy expansions, but have to buy the entire Ivory engine for each (Grand, Italian, Upright) which of course means they get more money, we get less value for money. Nice.

So the sounds of Ivory (as it was, now a separate product - Ivory Grand Pianos) are superlative but the customer support is non-existent: no forums, no emails about the iLok situation etc. and i have to say that value for money gets a minimum score now because i'll never be able to update (unless i buy an iLok) or even be able to buy expansion packs.

i know reviews are supposed to be for the version you have, but i feel that such a shift in Synthogy's policy has to be considered for future purchasers.

i am now looking for an alternative piano now even though this one works fine because i would like a company that responds to customers and will not change their protection policy half way through.

Ivory is the best sampled piano I’ve heard. I could not wait for this to come out on windows. I have an old Kurzweil Keyboard and I just love the pianos on it, so when Ivory came out with sounds programmed and sampled by the same people I was excited to hear the result ....i was not disappointed. Because it was on Mac first I was a bit worried about the stability i needn't have been it was very smooth no problems, the samples loaded quite fast too. I’ve had no reason to use customer support so I gave a 5. As for features it’s just a piano but you can really tweak the sound to extremes and layer synth pad sounds so it dose more than you would expect. I had The Grand and listening to the examples of The Grand 2 and the Akoustik piano they still seem to have that same plunky sampled piano sound, Ivory sounds and responds like a real piano. I have played grand pianos in good sounding halls and rooms and Ivory has that rich and lively sound of the real thing sweet. Ok I like it a lot .