Before buying a piano keyboard for a starter learner, there are some facts to consider. Okay, so that should give you an idea of how each manufacturer structures their lineup of digital pianos, and what you get for the extra money. I didn’t really dislike the sound, but I still think I prefer the sampled sounds for now. I've mainly played Bach's Prelude in C, Czerny's Etude Op 299 No 8 and Comptine d'un autre été as pieces, along with scales/arpeggio/chords/chromatic exercises. This, once again, emphasizes that you need to try out the piano yourself to see how you feel about it. Hey OP, I actually have a yamaha p105 that i bought just a few months ago, it's in perfect condition, still in the box. When the lid is open, you can also see some of the hammer action inside of the piano which is an added bonus. Regarding the other specs, I have been completely unable to find any detailed information about counter-weights, linear graded keys, etc, so I will just have to assume it doesn’t have them. Go and check it out in a music shop before you buy it though, just so you're sure it's right for you. Let me say right from the start that many consider the warranty to be an advertising gimmick, and that longer warranties plays a minor role in most cases. So, the … The same disclaimer about personal taste is applied here as well. I have to admit that I didn’t really try the SK-5 too much, but I did play a lot on both SK EX Concert and EX Concert, and found them both really enjoyable. Find Everything You Need To Enjoy Piano In The Digital Era! Very impressive start time! For me, there were two downsides to this key action. Other people, however, like that it doesn’t rely upon looping shorter piano samples and can resonate more “beautifully” over a longer period of time. Slab: A slabis simply a keyboard and, usually, pedal(s), without a stand. I will try my best to point out all of these things, and as I have read a lot of opinions about them, I feel fairly confident to where things seem to differ much. One of those that I most strongly noticed is the acoustic feedback you get from vibrations. Casio CTK 2550; 1.1.2 2. I am in the same process of researching DPs to upgrade from my old Yamaha p95. Generally speaking, this is the most accurate method of determining value when one has access to a body of information on recent sale prices of comparable items. All key actions mentioned here are graded, which means the lower keys will be heavier than the higher keys, which will be lighter. Being a quite well-known manufacturer for a broad variety of items, not only instruments, Casio decided to enter the competition of more exclusive digital pianos and introduced an entire new lineup for what they call hybrid pianos. It reminds me more of an acoustic piano, and it helps me develop finger strength better. A Guide For Best Digital Piano Buyers. I send many thanks for your time and willingness to produce such a document. In my case, I had to travel to a neighbor country just to access the Kawai series, since they weren’t available in my city. I haven't spent much time on a P-105, but I would think the two keyboards would be fairly similar. I like being able to play loud with my headphones, and I had absolutely no issue with Yamaha’s volume. Similar to Kawai, Roland offers the same key action and piano sound for all models in this lineup. However, while that is true (for me), I should also mention that some problems also might occur with Kawai’s key action. If you need to buy one, you should read our Best Digital Piano reviews and choose from our list of Top 10 Best Digital Pianos 2021. The key noise from the keys are fairly low, I would say. The highlight for Kawai’s top digital pianos is the fact that you get three full-sampled world-class instruments along with it. If you managed to read through the whole guide, then I’m very impressed and thankful that you took the time. This might be a deal-breaker for some people, and it seems this is a downside of making the action a simplified version of the real thing. Can I ask you what your playing level is? Those are all good, but what they brag about the most is the pivot length of the key, which is the very same as on an acoustic grand piano. Buying guide for Starter Keyboards. My view on the two of them is that Yamaha is more like the solid giants, while Kawai could be described as maybe a tad more niched, and often praised by enthusiast on PianoWorld.com (the biggest piano forum). Here are the five most common. In one way, that’s not completely unreasonable, seeing that both Yamaha and Kawai are sampling their very own instruments, and Casio clearly missing out on that benefit. Hot. Some customers are experiencing problems with a clicking sound from some keys after a while (or in some cases immediately). Good or not, I still admire Roland for taking this different approach and creating an interesting alternative. I would really not recommend buying a piano just from reading and researching. Personally, I think that this could be the beginning on something big, and something that could be superior to the sampling technique, if developed correctly. I also started with a Yamaha NP11 in March 2012. It’s the only brand that has an angled panel for connectors, like it or not. However, you should also consider some general features of a piano before buying them. The more expensive CLP-585 also has counter-weights in the key action and includes more instrument voices. The experience of using a musical instrument is not the same for everyone. Hi, i have been playing for almost two years and started with a Yamaha NP-11. For a beginner’s keyboard the number of keys starts from 25, it will range up to 88 keys. People say it sounds nothing like the real thing, not even in sound character. If you’re passionate about learning to play, have the space, and can find enough change in your couch cushions, consider the real deal. 1 Best Digital Piano Reviews. (Captions sponsored by blacktietranscription.com.) For those on a tight budget, look for promotions, sales, demo units, refurbs. It really feels like a long time when you sit down, ready to play, and have to wait full 12 seconds before you can make any noise. If you need to take the piano to a gig, or if home is a dorm room or a small studio apartment and you need to make the most efficient use of every square inch, you may opt for a slab tha… Last couple of weeks I’ve spent basically all of my free time to research into my next purchase of a digital piano. I had no opportunity to play a Kawai in my city (Gothenburg, Sweden), so I had to travel to Copenhagen just to try them out. I have been saving up and I am looking for an upgrade. In most cases, very little information can be found about the details, but if not mentioned otherwise, I will assume that the graded action is not linear, but divided into different zones across the board. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-P105-Portable-Digital-Piano/dp/B009DER0MA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406648800&sr=8-1&keywords=p105. Those were my first two choices i considered as well, they both seemed to be as rated as well as eachother, I managed to get a reasonable deal on a P-105 in the end. Personally, I like the key action very much, and compared to the competitors, I found the key action to be somewhere in the middle in regards to weight. … More expensive ones usually strip down features but have better quality sounds & speakers. If it makes a difference or not, that’s up to you, but the important take from this should be the benefits of the longer pivot point. Start-up time is just absolutely terrible, around 12 seconds. The PHA-50 is not a true wooden key action, but while that may sound like a bad thing, you shouldn’t really let the specification decide whether it’s nice to play on or not. Kawai even have a high impedance mode for headphones, but on the other hand, the volume can be pushed to the same levels as default with Roland’s models. Real Pianos vs. Digital Pianos. I can’t wait to see what features we will see in future generations. Search for: Best Digital Pianos of 2020 – The Ultimate Guide. But you might get used to it, and some people doesn’t care about key noise at all, but I know that others do, and then this is a big downside. Hot New Top Rising. In this guide, we’ll cover all the important things you should know before buying a digital piano or keyboard.. I also encourage you to check out our comprehensive 7000-word Digital Piano Buying Guide that will walk you through everything there is to know about the world of digital pianos and keyboards.. Key action, sound and speakers are the three main aspects of picking a digital piano for most people, and thus, emphasize will be on those. Sometimes that opportunity may not be available, but at least try to see if it’s solvable. The pianos I am referring to in this tier is: Let’s start with a very short introduction of each brand, and what differs the maker’s different specifications. One of my main gripes with digital piano reviews is a lack of pedal details. Do you know how old the second hand one is? Smile, as the team of experts at Music Critic, have reviewed the top digital pianos considering; Value, Compatibility, Customer Feedback and lots more. First of all, the key noise is far higher than all the other brands. r/piano's User Keyboard Database. I have a budget of about £300-£500 and was most likely going to buy a Yamaha P-105, however I have recently found a second hand Yamaha P-120 that could fall in my price range. Stepping up to the more expensive HP605 gives you a very small number of extra features, like streaming audio over the built-in Bluetooth, along with a more impressive speaker setup. This has resulted in a plastic hammer that moves very beautifully, and is fully visible through a window on the top of the cabinet if you open the lid. Here were my thoughts: It was obvious right away that (to my taste) the actions of the Rolands and Casios were not realistic enough. Will correct that. The volume was significantly lower here on max volume, which made it slightly more difficult to compare, but they sounded good indeed, and close to CLP-575. I'm hoping to get another 5 or 6 years out of my P-120. Only a qualified piano technician can know exactly and to what extent, the piano you’re looking at has 'deteriorated', and if what you’re shopping for is, in reality, in excellent condition. Unfortunately, they miss simulation of the escapement mechanism that all the other brands have. The other manufacturer, besides Yamaha, that also makes both acoustic and digital pianos, is Kawai. That's actually one of the reasons that I started to look for a new piano. A lot of money is put into the speakers and cabinet, so if you play a lot with headphones, some of the value is lost only to cosmetics. Bottom-line is that Kawai has at least one very good piano sound that most people would find pleasing enough. Read More... Steve Cohen (Fall 2020) Buying a Used or Restored Piano: What to Buy. If I had to pick one to have the better sound, I would pick CLP-575, but if we add in the factor of acoustic resonance feedback as well, CA97/CS11 comes on the top in my book. 1.1.1 1. Comparing CLP-575 to CA97/CS11, however, turned out to be quite difficult. For me, personally, I wanted the key action that, in my mind, was most like the experience on an acoustic grand piano, and the winner in that regard is Kawai, by a very, very slight margin, followed by Yamaha. If Yamaha is taking a safer approach to their products, Kawai feels a bit more innovative and pushing for development, even if it might backfire a bit. Kawai really didn’t hold back on their key action, and specification wise it contains most stuff that the competitors have, including let-off mechanism, graded counter-weights, triple sensors and the top model baseline “feature” with synthetic ivory surface. They actually differ a lot in price, and often, you have to pay drastically more money “just” for better speakers and esthetically different look. Whether this is a problem worth caring about is completely up to you, but for me, this was a deal-breaker for key action. But in the end I picked CA97 because I would probably regret it otherwise, and I will also try to play way more with speakers instead of headphones. That may be true, but in the cases where it actually breaks during the extended warranty period, you will of course be happy to have it. I should also add that the key noise was quite low, around the same as Yamaha/Kawai, but I didn’t compare too much. The black plastic keys come as no surprise, but compared to Yamaha they look even more dull to me, but that’s a very personal opinion. Roland is really on to something that a lot of people likes, and with refinement, this already popular, but new, technique might be the next black in digital pianos. My Yamaha DGX-650 was good (with pedal unit), but it was just a huge difference compared to the acoustic upright piano my piano teacher has, and in order to practice the proper technique, I needed a better pedal action. I really hope their modelling technique can continue to develop in future generations and forcing competitors to bring their A game to the table. Having sold pianos for more than 50 years, and helped guide thousands of piano shoppers toward wise and well-considered purchases, I’ve also seen my share of costly mistakes. Unfortunately I don't have the money to get a top of the line model, so I narrowed my options to the Yamaha clp25 Clavinova and the Kawai CN25. The “hybrid” here is not really truly hybrid compared to Yamaha’s more expensive lineup, but contains a simpler model of the key action that can be found in Bechstein pianos, which they cooperated with to make this series. Recording from a Digital Keyboard into a Computer. Unsure on the best digital piano to buy? Being that Casio is a well-reputed brand, I would only guess that their coverage should be fairly good, but I’m just taking a guess here. A full-sized piano has 88 keys, arranged in a regular sequence of white and black keys. Yamaha P125; 1.3 … i would be willing to sell it. Yamaha YPG-235; 1.1.4 4. I really like that the sounds have different character, and also premade character presets for them, but they just don’t sound as good as the others. The width of the instrument is 52.0 inches, which is quite standard for full-range pianos. The guide can still provide helpful information for anyone looking to purchase some of the models (I hope, otherwise, feel free to tell me why not). It's great, I love it. This sounds great on paper, but I am hugely skeptical if anyone would notice a difference. Hot New Top. It seems that most people that tried a Roland have a very clear opinion whether they liked the modelling approach or not. The pedals feel a bit stiffer than the competition. Join. I saw it as an alternative to an upright acoustic, which makes it fairly reasonably priced. Taking a different approach, Roland doesn’t really work of samples, but rather models the sound as you play. I also seemed to note a lack of deeper bass sound when I played, but of course that’s my personal experience, and I’m by no regards an expert in the matter. Recently bought an LX17, and I'm very happy with it. I did not have much luck in looking for used units on Craigslist. Around 3 seconds, ready to play almost immediately! I can’t really say I was disappointed at the CFX sound, and I think it’s a reason that it’s the default piano sound. Terrible menu system in combination with a messy front control panel. Casio advertises the key action as having the “full key length” and referring to grand pianos in this regard. Updated: February 2021. We have taken a look at the four top manufacturers for digital pianos in their respective top segment and made comparisons between what their models have to offer. It actually starts with CLP-525, and continues with CLP-535, CLP-545, CLP-575 and finally, the beast CLP-585. The Roland models have its control panel buttons right in front of you, unlike the other brands that all have side panels instead. I know that many piano experts differ in opinions here as well, and if you are at that level, you would notice your personal preferences when trying out the pianos anyway. Other people have the same experiences even without high impedance headphones. How accurate it is compared to an actual pedal is also a tricky part since it varies a lot from piano to piano, even on the acoustic ones. FAQ Outline: What's my piano worth? I will try to make this very clear whenever I express my own opinion, and I will also encourage you to think what fits your needs, and try them out yourself, because that’s what matters in the end. This make it look like a wooden key, although it’s not entirely wooden, but whether this makes a difference or not in feel is up to you. The ‘S’ in each name shows the main selling point of these new keyboards – the slim factor. I do think, however, that it's important to mention other brands, so if you investigate it further, I encourage you to provide more information about it!