REVIEW - Casio AP650 Celviano digital piano - Recommended - As most people know, Casio produces some fine tech products that millions of people use all over the world. Casio is also know for designing and building quality lower priced (under $2000) keyboards & digital pianos for over 30 years and thousands of families use them every day. Casio has two lines of digital pianos under $2000. One of the lines is called "Privia" which and those models sell for under $1000 and the other line is called Celviano which sells between $1000-$2000. The Celviano pianos consist of three models under $2000 and the best one is called the AP650 and is now my top pick for "best bang for the buck" under $2000 selling price. This is because the AP650 offers so much more in terms of a satisfying piano playing experience with more useful features than any other brand or model under $2000 in a traditional furniture style cabinet based on my playing experience with it...and I have played it many times. The AP650 is actually a digital piano which combines the piano sound chip technology of the slightly lower priced and stripped down Casio AP460 ($1499US internet discount price) with all of the "technology," connectivity, & educational features of the popular Privia PX780 ($899US internet price). So essentially the AP650 is really an AP460 (minus a couple of secondary functions) plus the PX780 in an upgraded furniture cabinet with a bigger, better internal speaker system. The PX650 is available only in one color finish which is an attractive textured satin black. So if you are looking for a color other than black, then the AP650 may not be the right choice for you but fortunately black does fit in with most home furnishings these days and I think that cabinet is quite attractive as compared to other brands. The AP650 also comes with an upgraded padded height-adjustable bench which is really nice considering the other digital piano companies include only standard height benches in this price range.

The AP650 ($1899US internet discount price) is very popular because it has Casio's best piano graded weighted key action and piano sound chip technology under $3000 which is quite impressive along with having all of the "bells & whistles" as some people call it. I really like the extra technology features because they can help with the learning/education process and really are fun to use...but I will talk about that later. This model weighs in at 110lbs and the cabinet measures approx 54" wide x 17" deep including sliding metal key cover and full sheet music rack. If you look closely at the pictures in this review, you'll notice that the cabinet has front support legs which is normally found on much higher priced digital pianos. Most digital pianos in this price range are just "pedestal style" with no legs. Not only do the front legs offer more support and stability to the piano, but they add a touch of class and elegance to the design of the cabinet in my opinion. The cabinet design also offers a full size privacy panel on the back so that it looks as much like a piano as possible in this price range and hides all the cables in back. The AP650 is using Casio's latest upgraded digital technology which, in my opinion, exceeds any other digital piano in this lower price range under $2000 for what it offers in a furniture cabinet piano. I have played this piano many times and was quite impressed with its realistic moisture absorbing synthetic ivory/ebony keytops (similar to real ivory & ebony on the old acoustic grand & upright pianos), and graded piano hammer key action response. Although there are certainly other piano brands and models that I like and recommend, in this price range they have a difficult time competing with the AP650 for a number of reasons.

A big advancement not offered on many other digital pianos in this price range is the 256-note polyphony piano sound processing technology. Even the respected Yamaha Avant Grand digital grand piano selling for approx $15,000 has a maximum 256-note polyphony technology which makes Casio's achievement pretty special in my opinion at only $1899. More polyphony note processing power helps to keep notes from electronically dropping out when playing difficult & musically complex passages along with layering 2 sounds together and using the damper sustain pedal. However, when the polyphony gets near 200-notes of processing power in the major digital piano brands, that is normally more than enough to suit nearly all skill levels of pianists when playing solo piano music. Also, like many name brand digital pianos including Yamaha, Kawai, and Roland, the AP650 offers the "half-damper" sustain feature with pedal resonance effect which helps recreate the real acoustic piano pedaling  damper/sustain sound for more intermediate to advanced piano music. For those students and recreational players who are at the beginner skill level, they will have something to grow into and not need to trade out of this piano for a long time, if ever.

As for the actual grand piano sound reproduction and key action, the AP650 is impressive and upgraded in noticeable ways over its competition, such as Yamaha in this price range. Although no digital piano that I know of actually sounds exactly like a real acoustic grand piano (I play real acoustic grand pianos and know what I'm talking about), the AP650 may give you the impression that you are playing a real acoustic piano more than other brands and models do in this price range...and that's what really counts. The key action has 3 electronic sensors under each key (tri-sensor key action) for better recognition of key repetition and this is important as your progress in your piano playing ability or are already a good player. The dynamic range of volume & tonal change (color and expression) when playing the keys is also very impressive and noticeably wider than Yamaha or Korg and allows for a greater range of musical expression which is always important, especially if you are taking lessons from a good teacher or you are at a higher playing skill level. The sonic quality of the Casio's new stereo piano sound is really good across the entire keyboard and something which can be enjoyed no matter what type of music you play. Also, from what I have been told, the piano sound in the AP650 is sampled from a real Steinway acoustic grand piano and you can't get much better than that, although don't expect the AP650 to actually sound like a Steinway grand piano...that would be wishful thinking:).

Piano pedaling is also an important aspect of any good piano and the Casio AP650 is no exception. The pedaling offers continuous detection half-damper control for variable sustain amount and duration of time. The piano pedaling also triggers damper resonance which is when the dampers in a real piano are off the strings and there is natural resonation of the strings occurring along with the note that is played. Casio has recreated this experience in the Celviano AP650 and it certainly is impressive to hear, especially for those who are used to a real piano. The middle sostenuto pedal and left soft pedal also work like a real piano and give people the added benefit of reproducing the functionality of those pedals as well, although the right damper sustain pedal is the primary pedal used more than 90% of the time for most recreational piano players.

The Casio company has its worldwide headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (left pic) and as I mentioned earlier, has been producing digital pianos for over 30 years. They also produce keyboards, pro synthesizers, as well as being famous for calculators, advanced digital cameras, sports & consumer watches, advanced digital technology for communication devices, and some very impressive new digital computer technology. Casio produces their own computer chips and proprietary micro technology and is able to do it at a fraction of the cost of some of it's biggest competitors and that is why Casio tends to have lower prices. Some people equate lower prices with lower quality and think you need to spend a lot more money (over $3000) to get something really good. However, in my opinion, this latest model Casio AP650 is very impressive for its lower price and easily competes with the other popular digital piano brands including Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai for features, cabinet construction & style, and overall piano playing experience realism.

Another impressive feature to me is the fact that Casio has included "wav file" audio recording and playback in this model. What that means is that you can record yourself as an audio recording (CD quality) and save it to a USB flashdrive in the piano and then play it back in full CD quality sound. You can also can take that recording in the flashdrive and plug it into your computer and email that song to your friends and relatives to let them hear it on their computer just as you played it! Beyond that, you can import that music into computer music programs for music education, composing, song arranging, etc for further musical interaction and even turn the wav file recording into an MP3 file on your computer to play as an iTune on your iPad or iPod. The other major brands such as Roland, Kawai, or Yamaha do not have this feature in this price range. Another recording feature that is very useful and I use it in my teaching studio, is the ability to record right and left hand playing independently on 2 separate MIDI recording tracks and then play back both hands simultaneously. This feature is very helpful in allowing piano students to practice and record one hand and then play that recording back while they play the other hand "live" along with the recording. It's like having your teacher there playing along with you to give you help in understanding your rhythm and timing better and it's also more fun to practice this way. You can also save this recording and other song recordings you have done to a USB flashdrive for storage so you can come back later and work on and play along with those pieces again.

One interesting & innovative feature I like is a new piano lid audio projection system (see pic on left). Simply put, you can physically open the top lid on the AP650 into an open, propped up position like a little grand piano would do so the sound is projected towards you for a more realistic listening & playing experience. No other digital piano brand has this special open lid feature under $3000. The internal 60 watt 4-speaker sound system is heard more like a baby grand would be with an open and angled lid and no other digital piano has this useful function. The overall sound on this model can be quite loud and big so there is no need to attach external speakers in my opinion and the volume will easily fill up a big room. In fact, the main speakers in this piano are larger than any of the other Celviano models as well as compared to the other brands in this price range. As I said, I have not seen this sound projection system before in any regular digital piano and although it would seem like a simple thing to do but Casio is the only one doing it. This interactive cabinet gives the player more piano sound depth than some other digital pianos and can make the piano more exciting to play. The AP650 also has a lot of connectivity to external devices thanks to having built in 1/4" audio outputs, 1/4" audio inputs, USB direct output, and USB flashdrive input for recording, storing, and playing General MIDI and audio files. A General MIDI song recording and playback involves using up to 16 separate tracks on the AP650 enabling you to record up to 16 separate instruments (one at a time) and playing them back at any simultaneously. This allows a person to create their own full band or orchestra song and save it to a USB flashdrive and later be played back on the AP650 or played back in your computer. You can also download load thousands of songs on the internet in the 16-track General MIDI format to playback your favorite songs at any tempo and then play piano along with those songs. It's a great way of learning songs as well as just having fun playing and/or singing along. The AP650 does not have WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity which would have been a nice feature, but I guess you cannot have it all...but I would have liked to see Bluetooth connectivity just to make things easier in connecting laptops, tablets, etc. Maybe on future models?:). But in the meantime you can connect to a tablet or computer with a USB cable and/or audio cable depending on what you want to do musically with an external device.

- Below are some of the important highlights of the AP650:

USB class compliant core MIDI high speed direct connection to iPad or laptop computer to utilize some outstanding piano education & notation apps now available for tablets.

360 drum rhythm patterns for timing and rhythm training

250 nice instruments for use with song creation, arranging, composing, and playing just for fun (most digital pianos under $2000 offer approx 10-25 instruments.

wav file audio recording so you can make live recordings of your playing (useful in converting to MP3 files for MP3 players or to attach to emails for sending to friends and relatives).

Plugging a microphone into the piano to record live vocals while you're singing & playing at the same time or separately and then saving it all to a USB flashdrive in a .wav audio file

General MIDI 16-track instrument playback for use with Alfred, Faber, and other piano teaching methods. For important info about General MIDI lesson song accompaniments & lesson practice, I recommend you go to the following link:General MIDI & digital pianos

General MIDI 16-track instrument recording for song creation, arranging, composing, etc. up to 16 instruments played back simultaneously

Arranger style chord system with 360 music styles for full accompaniment on your left hand. This allows for integration of a live band or orchestral backup while playing "chord style" using a variety of music accompaniments in the piano including Jazz, Classical, Latin, Country, Rock, Oldies, Waltz, Big Band, Blues, Folk, Contemporary, World Music from other countries, and many other music genres. This feature helps with allowing you to integrate rhythmic music styles into your playing to make your playing music even more enjoyable.

LCD user display screen directly in front of you for easy to read control panel information.

86 "Jam Session" chord progression loops for learning song improv. This unique feature allows the player to learn how to "jam and improvise" with built in chord progressions with 86 recognizable "song loops" that make learning to play "by ear" fun and enjoyable. Ear training is a great way to play piano and helps with understanding music.

Layering & splitting any two sounds anywhere on the keyboard.

Duet "4-hand play" for two people playing on the piano simultaneously.

Grand piano "stretch tuning" function to give a more realistic grand piano sound based on the way piano tuners tune grand pianos.

Transpose and modulate to any key up & down half-steps while playing the piano.

Variable reverb, brightness, key sensitivity, octave shift, song & accompaniment volume.

Panel control button lock to protect your settings for inadvertent button pressing along with auto power shut off function.

Connectivity: Stereo 1/4" audio outputs, stereo audio inputs to run your iPad or computer volume back through the piano, MIDI in & out ports to connect with MIDI sound modules, other keyboards, and other MIDI devices, Dual 1/4" headphone jacks.

Console type furniture cabinet with full control button panel and sliding key cover for panel and keyboard protection

Although some people may not care about these interactive features of the AP650, I personally find that they make the piano playing experience more enjoyable and educational when used in the proper way. They also help piano students learn more quickly when it comes to understanding rhythm & timing along with being able to record and improvise. If you choose not to use all the extra on-board features and you just play the piano sound by itself, you have a selection of 10 different acoustic piano sounds and can play any kind of music with them such as classical, jazz, rock, church, etc. So just playing traditional piano on the AP650 is quite enjoyable and if that's all it did it would still be a great buy compared to other brands & models in this price range based on my playing experience with it. It's my belief that just because a digital piano has many built-n features and buttons on the piano does not mean the piano cannot stand on its own as an instrument for people who mainly want to play piano. In its price range it really does a an excellent job as an instrument for just playing piano and then perhaps you can later use some of the extra features which can make your music even more enjoyable than it already is.

Whether you and/or family members are taking piano lessons, just playing recreationally, or you play at a higher skill level, I believe you will enjoy the Casio AP650 digital piano very much and the Casio company also offers a very long 5 year parts & labor warranty making this warranty far longer than most companies in this price range especially as compared to the normal 3 year warranties. I do recommend you research other brands & models in a variety of price ranges (I have many reviews on this blog which can be helpful) before you make your final buying decision because making music is what it's all about along with having fun doing it:)...there are few things better than that! For me personally, playing piano is my "relaxation therapy" and a way for me to express myself that is very satisfying. So make sure you give yourself, your spouse, and/or your children the opportunity to have that same experience and you'll be very glad you did.  Do your research and homework and be sure you contact me before you purchase anything, anywhere, and I can give you some helpful advice.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* I recommend eMedia educational software. If you decide to make a purchase after clicking on link below, I have arranged a big discount for you direct with eMedia for their educational software and that discount price is displayed through this link only! I want to see everyone learn to play and enjoy piano!

REVIEW - New Casio GP500, GP400, GP300 Celviano Grand Hybird Digital Pianos - Recommended - I try to play every new digital piano that comes out on the market regardless of whether I already like that brand or not. There are some brands known for poorly designed digital pianos, others are known for cheap price digital pianos, and still other brands are known for being pro quality instruments that top pianists, music teachers, and other advanced players (like me) enjoy playing. So when it came to trying out and playing the new Casio Grand Hybrid GP500BP with a retail price of $5999US (the BP stands for polished ebony), I was very skeptical that it really could be a good piano, and in reality I thought there was no way the GP500 could be taken seriously, especially at its $5999US price. Casio? $5999? I figured there is just no way those two things could possibly work together, especially given the huge competition in quality digital pianos from big well known names like Kawai, Roland, and Yamaha The name Casio has had a reputation for producing low priced but high quality consumer digital pianos as opposed to the much higher price Grand Hybrid pro series pianos. I like all of the consumer Casio piano product such as Privia and the lower price Celviano pianos and have done many reviews on those models under $2000 and they are quite nice for the money and a leader in that price range. But a Casio well over $3000?...and upwards to $6000?...there is just no way I thought...but WOW, was I ever wrong!

The new Grand Hybrid GP500 (I will be talking about the lower price GP300 & GP400 later in this review) is called "Hybrid" for mainly one reason...the key/hammer action. Theses days it seems as if all the major digital piano companies want to do whatever it takes to get as close as possible to reproducing a real acoustic "grand" piano. So the GP500 key action and piano sound chip is Casio's way of doing this especially in replicating the touch action of a real grand piano. The question is...did they do it? Actually, I believe they did but it was not Casio who designed and built this GP500 key action, it was the C. Bechstein grand piano company in Berlin, Germany working in cooperation with Casio. The C. Bechstein piano factory was founded on in October of 1853 by Carl Bechstein in Berlin, Germany. Carl set out to manufacture a piano able to withstand the great demands put on the instrument by the virtuosos of the time, such as Franz Liszt. List was a phenomenal pianist and was very hard on pianos (he played like a monster!) when it came to key action. In 1857, Hans von Bülow (Liszt's son-in-law) gave the first public performance on a Bechstein grand piano by performing Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor in Berlin. By 1870, with endorsements from Franz Liszt and Hans von Bülow, Bechstein pianos had become the norm in many concert halls and private mansions.

By that time three piano makers, all of which were founded in 1853, became established as the industry leaders across the world and they were Bechstein, Blüthner and Steinway & Sons. So the Bechstein brand was in very good company:). In 1881 Bechstein began supplying pianos to Queen Victoria and a gilded art-case piano was delivered to Buckingham Palace followed by several more Bechstein pianos to Windsor Castle and other royal residences. By January 1886 they were among the piano manufacturers holding was was called "a Royal Warrant" as a supplier to the Queen. Several British embassies across the world acquired Bechstein pianos and they are still popular across the world today and used by professional pianists in concert, but that brand is not as well known in America as they are in Europe and other parts of the world.

What this all means is that the wood key action movement in the Casio GP500 grand hybrid is directly from the Bechstein piano company and built for the new Casio GP500 piano and the keys themselves are authentic full size grand piano keys made from real sprucewood from individual spruce trees in Austria (wow, that's pretty cool!). From what I have learned, the natural wood is precision cut and aged slowly over the time so that the keys in the key action can remain solid, aligned, and playable over years of practice and performance. Attached to the wood key action inside the GP500 is a moving hammer mechanism designed to imitate real hammers in an acoustic grand piano. This moving hammer mechanism is made from resin and synthetic compounds, etc that can withstand weather and humidity changes so that the hammers will last almost indefinitely without the need for adjustment or maintenance as you would otherwise have in a real acoustic piano. When the hammers move as you are pressing a key, you can actually feel the weight of those keys under your fingers and direct connection of the moving hammer mechanism inside the piano to the keys which gives the player a feeling of natural expression and being directly connected to the music in a way that digital pianos without moving full length hammers cannot really do. The hammers in the Grand Hybrid pianos don't actually strike any strings in the piano because there are no strings...and that's one of the positive points of a digital piano...no strings to tune and maintain.

When I played the GP500 for long periods of time, it was like I was actually playing a real full size European grand piano and the feeling was pretty amazing for a digital piano, at least it was to me:). The weight of the keys are also unique in that they are like no other top name brand digital piano that I have ever played in this price range in the way the keys move and feel under your fingers. Although the key action is a bit firmer in my opinion when pressing the keys down than the some of the other higher price digital brands, the touch-weight (amount of finger pressure/force your fingers need to push the keys) is still relatively smooth, easy, and quick so that the overall experience playing the keys is more like playing a naturalgrand piano in my opinion than any of the other digital piano brands in this price range, and I have had other piano players tell me that as well. The GP key action does not have the escapement/letoff feel that you would normally experience playing a real grand piano but there is a reason for this. I was told that the Bechstein company wanted the fastest responding acoustic piano style action that was possible to get in a digital piano. To make this happen Bechstein's only recourse was to leave out the escapement "simulation" because otherwise that feature would have prevented a faster key movement for those players who perform at very high skill levels. In reality for most pianists, the escapement function on digital pianos is somewhat irrelevant because it's not the near same thing as in a real grand piano and is only simulated in a small way. With this in mind, the importance of key movement and faster triggering of the piano sound took priority over having a "simulated" escapement feature. I believe that Casio/Bechstein made the right choice because this Grand key action is lightning fast when it comes to playing authentic piano pieces and if giving up a simulated escapement/let-off function allows for a better moving, better responding action and sound then I am all for it. As I mentioned earlier, the key weight when pressing down on the keys is firmer and a bit heavier than other digital piano key actions I have played but the movement is still smooth, responsive, with excellent touch-weight and if you are looking for piano playing authenticity that is not available on other digital pianos, then I believe you will be impressed with this GP key action. As far as the material used to produce the key tops, the white key-tops are made from the latest technology in plastics and are identical to the keytops of the Bechstein European concert grand pianos. Many of the new name brand digital pianos are using synthetic ivory feel white key tops with the purpose of trying to recreate the feel of older grand pianos from the 1960's and earlier years when real ivory was the material used to create the key tops. However, for many years now, real acoustic grand pianos have not had real or synthetic ivory on their keys so the key feel of the new Casio GP500 is identical to what current day acoustic grand pianos feel like. In this way you can transition from a real acoustic grand or upright piano to a Casio/Bechstein Celviano Hybrid GP500 digital piano (or vice-versa) with no differences at all in the key "feel" and materials used on the keys. The black keys are a natural satin finish made of phenol so that feel will also be the same as an acoustic grand piano. *Take a look at the video at the bottom of the page showing the key action hammer movement. It's pretty cool:)

As a reference and comparison, the only other top name pianos with actual moving piano hammers in a digital piano is the Yamaha Avant Grand series of digital pianos including the NU1, N1, N2, and N3. However, these pianos all use wood hammers, wood hammer shanks, and organic connective parts which are very good and just like an acoustic piano but will likely require more maintenance over time. The Yamaha NU1 (left pic - see-through front is for display purposes only) upright style piano sells for approximately $5000US at local store discount price and it has an upright console hammer key action but not a grand piano key action, and there is a very big difference between the two types. Beyond that, the NU1 has very few sounds and very few digital options and features so it's a very, basic digital piano in that way, although the cabinet is attractive in its polished ebony finish. The higher priced Yamaha N1 ($10,000US retail price) has a grand piano style action with all wood parts, but would likely require more maintenance over time as I mentioned earlier. The Yamaha N1 AvantGrand is an exceptionally nice digital piano, but even at discount price it sells for approx $8000US in Yamaha piano stores and the functionality and features are also very basic, The N2 and N3 go up in price quite a bit from the N1 and all have the same key actions as the N1 and pretty much the same basic features with a few exceptions. So when it comes to a key action mechanism in a digital piano, this new Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid GP500 (above left pic) in my opinion is years ahead of the lower priced Yamaha upright NU1 and very competitive to the higher priced Yamaha Avant Grand N1, N2, and N3 pianos, especially when it comes to all of the additional digital features and user display screen.

The GP500 has the industry standard 256-note polyphony processing power which is important in helping to give the player enough power to play more complex pieces of music without the loss of notes or damper sustain. As far as piano sound authenticity goes, all of the major digital piano companies would claim to have the best piano sound in their digital pianos and certainly Casio is no exception. What else would you expect them to say?! Casio wants you to believe they have the best piano sound found in these new hybrid digital pianos and overall I believe they have done a very good job and I was impressed. Casio has developed a new proprietary piano sound chip and electronics key sensing system not found in some of the other digital pianos and I thought these new acoustic piano sound samples to be very impressive in the GP series, especially the GP500. All of the digital piano companies use fancy words and phrases to describe how they get their piano sound along with the natural organic nuances they try to capture from real acoustic grand pianos to enhance the piano sound of their digital pianos. I won't bore you with all the terminology except to say that Casio records/samples 3 distinct well known European acoustic grand pianos which includes the Bechstein (Berlin) German Concert Grand, the Steinway (Hamburg) German Concert Grand, and the Bosendorfer (Vienna) Viennese Concert Grand. These three famous piano brands are the standard by which all other acoustic and digital piano companies try to emulate. Since the Casio GP500 is designed in cooperation with the Bechstein piano company of Germany, it is easy to understand why the three main piano sounds in the GP500 are so good. I found each piano sound sample to be unique with there own qualities of tone and dynamic range, but yet they were all enjoyable to play. What did impress me most about the piano sounds were their dynamic range of tone and the ability to really express yourself across all tonal ranges depending on your touch and finger movement. The Viennese Bosendorfer sound was also impressive to me and much more natural and realistic than the Bosendorfer sound sample offered on the new Yamaha Clavinova CLP models. With 256-note polyphony processing power along with good pedal sustain and dynamic expression, even advanced classical music can be played well including the layering of two instrument sounds together.

Pedaling is always important to the piano playing experience and the GP500 will likely not disappoint you since it is done the traditional way with damper pedal including continuous detection pedaling along with adjustable half-damper control, sostenuto pedal, and soft pedal. The pedals seem to move naturally and they have a type of grand feel movement to the pedals unlike some other digital pianos I have played that have lightweight movement or no half-damper pedal control. Casio also added pedal resonance and damper noise to simulate what real acoustic pianos do when using the damper pedal for sustaining the piano tones. So the pedaling portion of this model is convincing, at least it is to me and I played it quite a bit.

As far as the operating system goes, Casio incorporated a side panel control unit with LCD display which is very similar to what Kawai and Yamaha are currently using in their digital pianos. Although this is a simple and elegant design created to reduce the "digital look" of the buttons and controls of the piano and make it more minimalistic, I would prefer an attached lid or cover on that panel so you wouldn't see it at all when the piano is not in use or you just don't want to change controls while playing and don't want to see the panel. Kawai offers this design on its top of the line digital piano called the CS11, but that model retails for more than $8000. The Samick piano company offers a beautiful upright style digital piano called the NEO with a side control panel and it has an attached cover that closes up over the buttons and display screen, and that piano is less than $4500US retail price. Regardless, the control panel still looks good, is minimal in design, and I found that using the GP500 controls was fairly easy to do (although there is still a small learning curve) and the display screen was, overall, easy to read and buttons were easy to use. However, in additional to the LCD control panel, I would also like an iPad/Android app to connect wirelessly or with Bluetooth to the piano which could display  all internal controls and features on an app so that you could access all functions that way. There still is no top name digital piano that can do that yet although some of them are trying and do have a few features accessible with an app for iPad/Android use, but it is all still quite basic yet. The GP500 is designed primarily for a person to play piano with a few other extra features added along with some basic but good instrument sounds, MIDI & audio recording, and some editing features, so the display screen & navigation is generally satisfactory for those purposes.

The feature set and sound library in the GP500 piano include 35 instrument sounds which include acoustic pianos, strings, choirs, organs, harpsichords, etc. Theses sounds can be layered 2 at a time, split with 2 different instruments one on the left side and one on the right side, duet piano mode for 2-person simultaneous play, registration preset "scene" mode for saving your own setups or using preset factory setups for instant play, lots of different hall/reverb settings which really adds to the realism of the piano sound along with adjustable touch sensitivity, brilliance, and DSP which helps the user/player create a customizable piano sound and action response. There are a number of specific organic piano sound elements which Casio/Bechstein incorporates into the GP500 which allows the piano sounds to be even more natural and organic. This feature is called the "Acoustic Simulator" and would include things like adjustable Hammer Response, Damper Resonance, String Resonance, Aliquot Resonance (this feature is found in fine grand pianos and adds to the harmonic richness of the piano sound), Open String Resonance, Lid Simulator, Key Off Simulator, Damper Noise, Key On Action Noise, and Key Off Action Noise all of which are adjustable so that you can micro -customize the piano tones the way it would sound best to you. The GP500 also has a variety of tuning temperaments as well as a variety of piano stretch tunings including being able to shut off the stretch tuning depending on what sounds best to you. But for many people the factory default preset acoustic piano sounds may likely be enough to give you an outstanding piano playing experience.

When it comes to adding some "fun" to this model, Casio has a new feature called  "Concert Play" which means that you can select from up to 15 songs that are full orchestral CD quality renditions of famous classical music that you can listen to and play along with. You can even slow down the concert song while you try to learn it as well as rewind, fast forward, and loop a set of measures together for repeat play. You can also download new Concert Play songs from a Casio internet site, save them on a USB flashdrive, and then play them on the GP500 piano. The Concert Play songs sound absolutely authentic just like listening to a full, live orchestra right in your home coming through the internal piano speakers. You can also play MIDI piano performances along with education piano song lessons by downloading those files on the internet and saving them to a USB flashdrive for playback on the piano.

Speaking of speakers, the internal speaker system is unique in that the top of the piano has a movable lid which can be propped up to allow more sound to come out towards the player which gives you the feeling of a grand piano sound experience with the lid open. You can even see the hammers move by looking through the inside top of the piano while you or someone else is playing. The only other digital piano that has a lid that opens in this general price range is the Roland LX17 but that piano retails for $1000 more at $6999 and has no moving hammers like the GP500. The GP500 has 6 speakers, 4 amplifiers, and 100 watts of power which is actually plenty for this piano, but it pulls only 38 watts of power from your electricity, so the amplifiers are fairly energy efficient. The 2 main, larger speakers of the piano are housed in separate acoustic boxes mounted underneath the piano with the speakers facing downward rather than forward as on some other digital pianos, so that the GP500 piano sound is coming both towards the player on the top and the bigger speakers towards the floor like a grand piano soundboard would do. In my opinion this makes for a more natural piano sound experience and I did like it very much.

The piano also has 2 headphone jacks for private play along with USB output to device for iPad and computer connectivity and USB flashdrive input for song play and recording, and also two regular MIDI connectors for those people who have MIDI music gear that they want to connect to the piano. Casio included 1/4" input and output audio jacks for connecting external devices to enhance the piano sound even further through external speakers or use the internal speaker system to amplify other sound devices such as computers, tablets, MP3 players, etc.

There are other functions and features on the GP500 but those are secondary things as compared with what I believe it this digital piano's primary purpose and goal...to offer an impressive grand piano playing experience in a beautiful polished ebony cabinet with folding key cover, full size music rack, opening lid and matching bench along with a complete 5 year factory warranty on manufacturer defects if they should ever occur. The GP500 is only available in polished ebony finish so if you want some other color other than polished ebony then this model is probably not for you although the top of the line Kawai & Roland pianos are only available in a polished finish as well. Based on what I have seen for many years on all of the other digital pianos that Casio has produced and the overall quality and "bang for the buck" they have brought to the table, I believe Casio has a great future in this premium category for higher priced digital pianos with the advent of their new Grand Hybrid series in cooperation with the Bechstein Piano Company. For some people the Casio name has a negative connotation because over the years people have wrongly equated the Casio name with low price, low quality, and low expectations simply because Casio has focused on the lower price range with many of its products. But nothing could really be further from the truth as in reality all that means is that they offer a lot of product and features for less money than you would otherwise expect and the same seems to be true for the GP300, GP400, and GP500 pianos.

Casio has not, in the past, had the prestige or gravitas of a digital piano name like Yamaha, Kawai, or Roland. I know that, they know that, and many shoppers know that. But a name means less these days considering how much great technology is being developed by companies who were not as well known before with having higher priced technology products, such as these Grand Hybrid pianos. There are many examples of these kinds of consumer electronics companies in the computer, cell phone, and TV industries, and even though Casio is very well known in the lower priced digital piano keyboard world, they are definitely not known for having digital pianos which compete with the highest price Kawai, Yamaha, or Roland digital pianos...but now they do. With the help of the Bechstein acoustic piano company along with new piano sound technology developed by Casio, I believe this is just the beginning of their successful partnership and they should be able to continue to develop even more impressive digital pianos in the future. I would not be surprised if they came out with a mini-grand piano shaped product in the future as that would be a logical next step for these two companies working together. But for now in my opinion the GP500 certainly is up there with the best digital upright style pianos that Yamaha, Kawai, and Roland have to offer in this price range, and in fact the GP500 is even more realistic than the competition in a few different ways as I have already talked about, such as its special all-sprucewood European hammer action key movement and tonal dynamic range of expressiveness.

GP300 satin black

As for other Casio-Bechstein models, Casio has a lower priced Grand Hybrid model called the GP300 ($3999US retail price) which is available now in satin black but does not sound as realistic as the GP500 although it is still very competitive with other digital pianos in its price range. In addition to this, Casio is just coming out with a new GP400 which has the features of the GP500 but with a new cabinet design available in a lower priced satin black woodgrain finish priced at $4999US retail. After putting the GP500 through its paces I agree that this model would make an excellent addition to anyone's home, church, school, or studio as long as they understand that the Grand Hybrid digital pianos are primarily designed to be purchased in place of an acoustic grand piano and are not heavy on additional features such as wireless, Bluetooth, lots of extra instrument sounds, has no drum patterns, no automatic interactive chords, no General MIDI recording or playback, no multitrack sequencer, and no proprietary iPad apps like some other digital pianos do. However, with USB to device connectivity you can plug in a USB cable and use many MIDI iPad apps with full MIDI/USB interaction from the GP500 to the iPad along with Bluetooth audio connectivity using a 3rd party Bluetooth adapter plugged into the piano audio input so that music from your iPad/Android device can stream directly through the GP500 speaker system. Also, it has been my experience that direct connectivity using a USB cable is more stable than with internal Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity.

GP500 polished ebony

As far as I am concerned, at 170 lbs in weight with cabinet dimensions of approximately 56" x 19"x 38", the very attractive polished ebony GP500 is a piano I would definitely own if I wanted to focus squarely on the best possible grand piano playing experience that Casio-Bechstein has to offer along with being a more minimalistic looking instrument which adds to the overall elegance of this piano. The Bechstein key action hammer system is not available in any brand of digital piano and you won't get a moving grand piano hammer mechanism until you get to the Yamaha Avantgrand N1 which has a retail price of $9999US. The appearance of the GP500 is also impressive in that when you prop open the lid of the piano to let the sound come out more, you see an attractive red material covering the inside piano top and you can actually see the moving piano hammers through two long rectangular windows in the top of the piano while you are playing the keys. It's a very cool visual experience along with having a beautiful piece of furniture.

There is one thing I find to be a bit odd when it comes to the GP500 and that is the height adjustable black bench included with the piano does not match the high gloss black piano finish. The bench is a single size satin black (non-gloss) finish and even though an adjustable height bench is very nice to have, I am a bit baffled by the lack of a matching high gloss finish on the bench. Is this an oversight on the part of Casio or what? I just don't understand the reason for this but it's something which can be easily corrected if Casio chooses to do that which I recommend that they do. The satin black bench is fine for their satin black pianos, but not for the polished ebony finishes in my opinion. It's also important to note that some very nice high gloss polished ebony benches are available on-line at Amazon.com for low prices anywhere from about $50-$75, and some of those benches look to be as nice or nicer than the Casio bench included with the GP500. So the bench is a solvable problem and the extra cost for a polished ebony bench is a small price to pay, but it still should not be the responsibility of the owner to do that in my opinion. The bench issue is definitely not a deal breaker and is a very small thing as compared with all of the great things this piano can do.

Based on my personal experience I am pretty sure that the $6000US retail price of the GP500 will be discounted a bit in US piano stores that carry this model as most stores do discount their piano prices. The GP500 cannot be purchased on-line from a US shopping cart piano dealer and the Hybrid Grand models are not yet available everywhere in the US at local dealers, so you may have a difficult time finding one at this point. However it is definitely worth the effort and if you want more info on where these models are located or what their competitive pricing would be, please email me and I can give you more info and advice. This is Casio's first attempt to enter this premium digital piano category and I am sure we will see even more models come out in the future having their continued partnership with Bechstein piano company of Germany. As for the the lower priced satin black GP300 and GP400 models, if the GP500 seems to be out of your price range and/or you want a satin black finish, then you should consider those lower priced Grand Hybrid pianos instead of the GP500. But for me, I would spend the extra money and get a GP400 (available in July or August 2016) in the satin finish or the GP500 available now in limited supplies in the polished ebony finish which is quite elegant, because they just sound even more authentic than the GP300. You can still be quite happy with the GP300 and it stacks up extremely well against its competition. But when I buy something like a piano I intend to keep it for a very long time so I figure the extra investment it well worth it if you can possibly afford to do that. Below is a comparison chart of the 3 models so that you can visually see and know the primary differences among them. I will be reviewing the GP300 & new GP400 in more detail in a separate review but you can look at the chart and know the differences among them now.

Features	GP300	GP400	GP500
Polyphony	256	256	256
Total sounds	26 incl strings, organs, harpsichord, etc	35 incl strings, organs, harpsichord, etc	35 incl strings, organs, harpsichord, etc
Main piano sounds	Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna	Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna	Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna
Total grand pianos	12	14	14
Grand hammer action	Yes – individual keys	Yes – individual keys	Yes – individual keys
Full length grand keys	Acoustic grand keys	Acoustic grand keys	Acoustic grand keys
Graded-weighted keys	Yes, medium firm	Yes, medium firm	Yes, medium firm
Austrian wooden keys	Aged organic spruce	Aged organic Spruce	Aged organic Spruce
Grand fulcrum point	Yes	Yes	Yes
Acrylic white keytops	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style
Phenol black keytops	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style
Key Center Pin	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style	Yes - grand style
Grand hammers	Resin - full movement	Resin - full movement	Resin - full movement
Hardware resonator	No	Yes - affects each key	Yes - affects each key
Triple key sensor	Yes	Yes	Yes
Key force detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hammer response	Yes	Yes	Yes
String resonance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lid simulator system	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open string resonance	No	Yes	Yes
Aliquot resonance	No	Yes	Yes
Key on action noise	No	Yes	Yes
Key off action noise	No	Yes	Yes
Brilliance control	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hall-reverb simulator	Yes - 12 types	Yes - 12 types	Yes - 12 types
DSP & chorus effects	Yes	Yes	Yes
Headphone Mode	Yes - surround sound	Yes - surround sound	Yes - surround sound
Touch response	Yes - 5 levels	Yes - 5 levels	Yes - 5 levels
Tuning	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stretch tuning effects	Yes - 5 types, off	Yes - 5 types, off	Yes - 5 types, off
Temperaments	Yes - 17 types	Yes - 17 types	Yes - 17 types
Grand pedal system	Yes - weighted	Yes - weighted	Yes - weighted
Pedaling	Continuous detection	Continuous detection	Continuous detection
Adjustable half-damp	Yes	Yes	Yes
Damper resonance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Damper noise	Yes	Yes	Yes
Transpose	Yes - 2 octaves	Yes - 2 octaves	Yes - 2 octaves
Duet mode	Yes - adjust 2 octaves	Yes - adjust 2 octaves	Yes - adjust 2 octaves
Octave shift	Yes - adjust 4 octaves	Yes - adjust 4 octaves	Yes - adjust 4 octaves
Concert play mode	Yes - 15 songs + user	Yes - 15 songs + user	Yes - 15 songs + user
Music Library	Yes - 60 + 10 user	Yes - 60 + 10 user	Yes - 60 + 10 user
MIDI & audio recorder	Yes - 2 track, 1 track	Yes - 2 track, 1 track	Yes - 2 track, 1 track
Scene registrations	No	Yes - 15 preset, 10 usr	Yes - 15 preset, 10 usr
Metronome	Yes	Yes	Yes
Layer/Split 2 sounds	Yes	Yes	Yes
Backlit LCD display	Yes	Yes	Yes
USB Flash drive input	Yes	Yes	Yes
USB output to device	Yes - plug & play	Yes - plug & play	Yes - plug & play
MIDI input/output	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dual audio ins/outs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Headphone jacks	Yes - 2	Yes - 2	Yes - 2
Volume sync EQ	Yes - 3 types, off	Yes - 3 types, off	Yes - 3 types, off
Speakers	2 x 6.3"+ 2 x 4" + 2 x 2"	2 x 6.3"+ 2 x 4" + 2 x 2"	2 x 6.3"+ 2 x 4" + 2 x 2"
Amplifiers	30w x 2 + 20w x 2	30w x 2 + 20w x 2	30w x 2 + 20w x 2
Cabinet dimensions	57" x 19" x 38"	58" x 19" x 39.5"	57" x 19" x 38"
Cabinet weight	171 lbs	188.5 lbs	171 lbs
Bench	Yes - height adjustable	Yes - height adjustable	Yes - height adjustable

*Please take a look at the video below of the Casio - Bechstein Hammer Action movement and watch how the moving hammers behave like a real Grand Piano. No other digital piano brand in this price range has anything like it. To me that's pretty impressive.


If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

UPDATED - June 18, 2016 - Digital Piano Buyers Guide - The most thorough digital piano reviews on the internet for all major brands of digital pianos from $200 to $20,000!  I am a digital piano & keyboard specialist & adviser to top musicians, music teachers, studios, and churches throughout the country. I am also a longtime musician, composer, & well known piano keyboard, organ, and guitar teacher, and I continue to work with kids and adults in various music education programs as I have for over 40 years. I have taught thousands of music students in group and private lessons on pianos and keyboards of all types and I know how difficult it can be to figure out which digital piano is right for you.  It can be confusing out there and the digital piano "landscape" is constantly changing. There are many pianos that are very good and some that, quite honestly, are not good and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone and not afraid to say so. But how does the average consumer disseminate and figure out which new piano to buy or whether a used digital could be an acceptable option?

The answer is simply...ask ME, Tim Praskins. I am a digital piano expert, and a consumer myself, and I know these pianos inside and out. I have owned and played literally hundreds of digital pianos through the years and understand the technology and the piano fundamentals of these instruments. I get emails all over the world from people just like you who are looking for a digital piano that will meet their own or their family's needs and they also want some good help and advice on whether the prices they're getting from music stores are really good deals or not. I am a pro when it comes to understanding the "ins and outs" of digital pianos, how they work, what they sound & play like, and whether they are good for what you want and need.

Do yourself a favor and please contact me no matter where you may live, and I will be happy to respond by email, or also by telephone if you are in the continental US. Please go ahead and call me directly at 602-571-1864 and I will be happy to give you specific advice only if you live in the continental US. I do this because music is my passion and my mission. I want to see other peoples lives improved and enriched like mine has by playing a musical instrument...especially the PIANO, although playing any musical instrument is a wonderful thing to do!

I will caution you however that just because a musician and/or piano teacher is good at playing a piano or keyboard of some sort (especially a grand piano), it does not automatically qualify them to understand and review digital pianos. As an example, I have seen more than a few piano teachers and "musicians" who play well think they can evaluate digital pianos for their students and others. I can tell you that unfortunately, many of them really don't know what they are talking about when it comes to digital pianos because they simply do not have the experience with most of the new ones out there. In reality, good digital pianos can be great (and even better) alternatives to an acoustic piano in giving musical satisfaction to the piano player whether they are beginner or advanced. After 40 years of playing thousands of digital pianos and keyboards (I started when I was very young), working deep within the music industry with all kind of musicians, and playing some of the best acoustic grand pianos in the world including Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, Bosendorfer, Schimmel, and others, I can tell you what will work and what will not work for you as far as digital pianos go because I am an expert on these things. I do not "sugarcoat" my reviews because a piano store or manufacturer is paying me to be nice to them or I have a store full of pianos I have to sell so I can pay the bills. Also some of the information and reviews of digital pianos on the internet are old and outdated or done by the piano/music dealers themselves, so the information can be very skewed or irrelevant.

I offer a complete BUYERS GUIDE of REVIEWS on many of the new digital pianos today by simply searching my reviews here in this blog with the "search reviews" navigation button above and searching the brand & model number you want to know about. Have fun and do your homework and then contact me before you purchase anything, anywhere.. By the way, if you don't see something on this piano blog that you would like to know about, also contact me as I will probably have helpful advice on that model too.


If you want info on digital pianos and lower prices than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864

UPDATED REVIEW- June 22, 2016 - Digital Piano key actions - graded hammer weighted, weighted, semi-weighted, and unweighted- What's the difference and which key actions are best?! Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, Casio, Kurzweil, Korg, and more.

Question?...can digital pianos exactly duplicate acoustic piano upright & grand key actions in touch, movement, response, and overall playability? The simple answer is no, unless a digital piano has an actual identical organic acoustic piano wooden-key key action with all the connecting key action parts with a hammer hitting with an actual piano string. Anything short of that would be a best, a simulation with some digital pianos manufacturers doing a much better job of that than others. I don't care what the digital manufacturer tells you about how accurate and perfect their piano key actions are, they are not exactly the same as a real acoustic piano...so don't expect it to be.* If digital and acoustic key actions were the same (including the sound realism & reproduction), then there would be little need for acoustic pianos. Duplicating a full & complete realistic acoustic grand piano sound/tone in digital pianos is also a big issue and that has not completely happened yet due to limitations in current technology including cost, and I will deal with that issue in a future blog. *A few Yamaha digital pianos in their AvantGrand "N series" (starting at about $5000) are using acoustic piano key actions derived or modified from their Yamaha acoustic pianos, but there are no actual strings inside the piano.

Famous Concert Pianist Van Cliburn

When it comes to playing  piano, there is nothing more important than the piano key action. It is the heart of any piano including both acoustics and digitals. Good, responsive graded hammer weighted key actions give people an organic connection to the song they play and to the instrument...in other words...the feel, movement, response, and interpretation of the song that is being played based on piano touch and key movement. Without a realistic, quality key action in a piano, nothing else really matters in my opinion. It would be like a transmission in a car...if it doesn't operate smoothly and correctly and built to last, it doesn't matter how good the engine or your multi-speaker stereo system is in that vehicle because without a good transmission, the other stuff really doesn't matter:). The same is true for the piano. Piano key actions is a complex subject and not necessarily easy to understand but I am here to educate you in easy to understand language that hopefully will help you make the right buying decision.

Acoustic upright piano felt hammers

In a digital piano, with the exception of only a few models that have actual or modified acoustic piano key actions in them, all of the key actions in digital pianos use plastic, metal, and/or wood (in the keys themselves), or a combination, depending on the brand and model. Also, all of the connecting parts in a real acoustic piano including the felt hammers moving and striking a string are absent from a "typical" digital piano because there aren't any strings in digital pianos so there is no need for those parts in most cases, except for a few models of digital pianos in higher price ranges that have most or all of the acoustic type action parts, but don't have the strings and instead use a digital sound sensing technology. In place of acoustic piano strings there are digital key contacts or optical sensors in digital pianos that trigger the digital sound (stored in a computer chip) to be heard through speakers inside the digital piano. The Yamaha "N" series AvantGrand digital pianos are good examples of this (as I mentioned earlier) with full acoustic key actions but generating sound through digital electronics as the hammer mechanism triggers the electronic sound senors. The key action movement and feeling of the keys in the AvantGrand series are excellent but those pianos are quite expensive (approx $7500 and up) and the digital features, available sounds, and user interface control panel are very minimal compared to most other good digital pianos in lower price ranges.

acoustic piano with weights in keys

Digital piano key actions can consist of or be called fully hammer weighted key movement, weighted key movement, a semi-weighted key movement, or an unweighted key movement. Another term used by manufacturers to describe piano key actions is graded key action (either semi weighted or fully weighted) which means whatever the type of key action the digital piano has, if it is graded then the weight of the keys themselves are slightly heavier on the left side and get progressively lighter as you go up to the right side keys. This is the way all acoustic piano actions are because the hammers inside the piano needs to strike different size strings (thick on the left and thinner strings on the right side) so the power of the key weight needs to be different for different keys. There are actual round weights inside the back of the wood keys of an acoustic piano (as you will notice in the picture above left), so the digital pianos try to duplicate this key weight on each key. Also in acoustic pianos, the key action needs to overcome inertia and move properly when the key is played repeatedly. This requires the key action to be built and setup in the proper way and is in addition to the actual weight in the key.
Are you getting confused yet??:)...I am!:). I bet you didn't think a piano key action could be so complex?! Have you ever studied car transmissions or engines and what makes them work correctly? A piano action is a similar thing compared to what makes one transmission or engine good while another transmission & engine might not be so good.

spring loaded key action

Almost all "keyboards" that have 61 keys & 76 keys (or somewhere in-between) have unweighted key actions (although a few may still be "graded)." Some of them have semi-weighted key actions, and a couple of them have fully hammer weighted (simulated acoustic piano movement) key actions. An unweighted key action is what it sounds like, there is no actual weight in the key...it is a spring loaded key movement (pic above left) which makes the key come back up very fast after you push it down and also much more difficult to press down like it would pressing down on a real spring. That's OK for keyboards because most people don't buy them to get a real piano playing experience. Also, some pro musicians are not as concerned with proper piano playing technique and they want to play other sounds such as brass, woodwinds, guitars, etc on the keyboard which can require a lighter, quicker movement which unweighted keys can do better. Unweighted keyboards generally are also significantly lighter in total weight because they are made of lightweight plastic, are typically smaller, and therefore much easier to carry. It's important to note that nearly all digital pianos and keyboards are touch sensitive in their key actions. That means when you touch the keys harder of softer you will get a different volume out of the sound depending on how hard you play the keys. This is obviously important and it is normal in pianos. Some keyboards under $100 are not touch sensitive and this is OK for a young child for a short while as they get used to playing. But it's not something you would want to use for piano lessons or practice because that child (or adult) will likely get into bad piano playing habits if they use it too long.

Yamaha CP1 digital piano key action

The graded hammer weighted digital piano key actions are closest to the feel of real acoustic pianos with some being better than others. They have some weight/counter-weight designed into the key actions (to simulate real weights in acoustic pianos as I described earlier) and do not use a simple spring mechanism. These key actions generally have a much more realistic acoustic feel and will give you the best reproduction of key actions in a digital piano without having to use 100% acoustic piano parts which is otherwise very expensive.  At that point the choice gets to be a bit subjective depending on your playing experience, skill level, and expectations. I would advise that a person should stay away from unweighted and semi-weighted key actions (found mostly in 61 and 76 key keyboards) if they want to learn to play the piano correctly. If you don't have the budget for (cannot afford) a portable of stand-up cabinet digital piano with piano weighted keys (they start at only $399 for a recommended portable model), then an inexpensive  keyboard with spring action is certainly better than nothing, although as I just mentioned, you will likely get into bad piano playing habits if you play on it long enough which I recommend you don't do, especially when it comes to your kids. 

Carbon fiber acoustic grand action

Real acoustic pianos are divided up into two basic categories...vertical & grand. The vertical pianos have different names due to their height and they consist of spinet, console, studio, & upright pianos. Depending on which one of those vertical pianos you play in the same brand, the key action may feel differently from each other. To make matters even more confusing, different brands can feel different from each other with some key actions being harder to play, easier to play, slower to respond, quicker to respond, etc. Then there are grand pianos (digital & acoustic) in several different depths from about 3' deep to over 9' deep which consists of micro grand, mini grand, baby grand, grand, concert grand, etc. Beyond that, there are brands like Kawai which use special composite material in some of their acoustic grand pianos (ABS carbon fiber material) as opposed to all organic wood parts so they can strengthen certain parts that otherwise would be wood. The pianos with these carbon fiber parts will (according to the manufacturer) be more consistent over time, not wear out, and not be subject to weather conditions in areas with more dryness or humidity, which can adversely affect the acoustic piano key action's ability to operate correctly. Wow...so many variations in key actions that it can make your head spin!

acoustic upright piano key action

People constantly say to me all the time "I want a digital piano that feels & responds like a real acoustic piano." When I hear that I will inevitably say to them "have you played many different acoustic pianos? Do you know what an acoustic piano should feel like?" It is rare that I speak with someone who really knows what they are talking about when it comes to piano key actions and what they should feel like when playing them and that's because unfortunately there really is no standard where all acoustic pianos feel one way. It's like saying that all vehicles should feel the same when driving them but that's just not the case. Cars, SUV's, van's, sports cars, etc, ride differently, move differently & behave differently, and that does not mean that any of them are necessarily bad or something you should stay away from. So it is with piano key actions...and that's why there is such a wide variety so that people have choices based on how they want to play and their musical goals.

So how does somebody decide on what is right for them, their kids, their school, their church, their band, etc? It's obviously not an easy task and there is no "one size fits all" answer. The manufacturers try to make you believe their key actions on their brand & models are the best...but you wouldn't expect them to say anything less...would you? After all, they are in business to make money. A variety of digital piano companies say things like "our piano feels just like a grand piano," or "moves just like a grand piano," or "simulates a grand piano nearly to perfection," or "has a superior grand piano experience," or offers a "comfortable playability of a grand piano," or "you can enjoy a grand-piano experience at a fraction of the size and price," or offers a "mechanical
design that closely resembles that of our grand pianos’ actions," or that "you can enjoy the playing response and expressive capability of a concert grand piano," etc, etc, etc. It's a wonder
that regular acoustic grand pianos sell at all anymore given that the digital piano manufacturers claim their pianos can do just what an acoustic  grand piano can do, and your enjoyment will be just as great! With that being said, they would have you believe there is no reason anymore for anyone to want a Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, or other respected acoustic grand piano apart from looks, cabinet style, and the volume/loudness of sound since grand pianos are larger and louder. But other than cabinet, getting an even louder piano sound in a digital piano is no problem because you can connect a larger and better external speaker system to most digital pianos. So why do Yamaha & Kawai (as examples) continue to produce thousands of great acoustic pianos worldwide if their digital pianos are so great with regard to reproducing the grand piano key action movement & response along with realistic piano tone and cool functions in nice looking cabinets?! You can figure that answer out for yourself:). It's because digital pianos (depending on brand and model) can simulate the acoustic piano playing experience but in reality, not replace it.

Roland PHAIII key action

A question many people ask me at that point is "why would I need a regular grand piano when I am being told by the manufacturers through their advertising and marketing that their digital pianos can replicate what a grand piano can do?" In my opinion many of the digital piano manufacturers are just making this stuff up (is like, sounds like, plays exactly like, is just like, etc) when it comes to comparing any digital piano they have to a real top name acoustic grand piano, with maybe the exception of the expensive Yamaha AvantGrand "N series" digital pianos which feel great and are very authentic because they have real acoustic piano key actions, but

Yamaha AvantGrand N3 digital piano

even they have their drawbacks in other ways. It is fair to say that the good digital piano manufacturers do try to produce the highest level of piano playing realism they can, given the constraints of technology and price points. But at the end of the day if they were really honest about it, the manufacturers would tell you that their pianos are certainly not identical to acoustic piano key actions. However, in most situations a person can have a verysatisfying piano playing experience with many of the new digital pianos out there. Since most people play for recreational purposes  for themselves, for their school, church etc, playing and listening to a good digital piano can be beautiful and exciting and can come "close enough" to the key action and sound of an acoustic upright or grand piano where the average person. including many experienced players. could not tell the difference...and isn't that what counts?It about you not being able to tell the difference and also knowing a particular digital piano is good enough to play the music you want to hear in a very enjoyable (and proper) way.

I personally know of pro piano teachers and musicians who prefer playing on digital pianos because touch sensitivity velocity curves, voicing, and other key action attributes (left pics) can be easily & electronically adjusted which you cannot do on an acoustic piano (plus good digital pianos don't go out of tune). You can also change other parameters of digital piano key action response (such as how the "hammers" behave) as well as parameters of the piano sound. These kinds of changes can give you the feeling that you are playing on a real organic acoustic piano and allows you to personally "connect" with your music. Ultimately, the music you hear coming from a piano is subjective (and personal), and to prove that point, I have had people tell me they enjoy listening to and playing a piano they bought that in my experienced opinion was a really bad digital piano (a piano that I know is very sub-standard). But these people thought their piano was good. In fact, they were so certain they had a great instrument that they bragged about it and gave those digital pianos good internet reviews ...Yikes! But...it is really no surprise to me this kind of thing happens from time to time because it just depends on your point of view and what kind of music experience you have had in your life. This also means that some (but not all) of these consumer reviews you see on-line cannot be trusted because of who may be reviewing the particular piano and their actual music experience...so you gotta be careful when reading personal consumer reviews! Copyright AZPianoNews.com 2014

So what is a person to do who does not have piano playing experience and is looking for a good digital piano and knows they should get a good piano key action? Can you trust local piano stores, music stores, piano teachers, salespeople, piano technicians, internet amazon consumer reviews...what & who can you trust for you to make an informed decision on key actions? In just looking at the

Casio Privia piano key action

variety and complexity of 88-key digital piano weighted key actions from each of the good digital piano companies, you will see as of the date of this blog article (as far as I know) that Roland has 4 different key actions, Korg has 2 different key actions, Kawai has 6 different key actions, Yamaha has 7 different key actions, Kurzweil has 6 different key actions, and Casio has two different key actions. Some of these actions try to simulate an acoustic upright piano and some try to simulate a full grand piano action with let-off/escapement mechanism. As I mentioned earlier, each digital piano manufacturer tells the consumer that each of their key actions is superior to any other brand in their price ranges. They also say that their key actions are realistic in just about every way and very reliable...but what else would you expect them to say?:). They are all in business to make money (as I mentioned before) so they think they need to

Digital Piano wood keys

say these things...even if these statements are not entirely (or nearly) accurate. I know of some manufacturers who knowingly make up stuff about their products just to sell them and get you to buy them. When it comes to special names piano manufacturers give their piano key actions, Roland calls one of their digital piano key actions "progressive hammer action," Kawai calls one of theirs "Grand Feel," Yamaha calls one of their digital piano key actions "Graded Hammer 3," and Casio calls one of their key actions "Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II (that's a mouthful!)." There is no shortage of key action names but they are only names, and names are irrelevant and mean nothing if the key action is not good!

Kawai digital piano ivory feel keys

Some of the brands have come out with a synthetic ivory & ebony material that is supposed to duplicate the feel & texture of older acoustic pianos that used real ivory & ebony on their keytops during the days when that was allowed. Many years ago various world governments set up laws forbidding the use of ivory on pianos to save elephants where the ivory was coming from. If you have ever played an older upright or grand piano with real ivory keys on the keytops, an elephant gave their life (or tusks) for you to have that! Real Ivory on piano keys is a sweat absorbing material and also can help with finger movement smoothness. But...the real organic ivory also had a tendency over time to dry out, crack, break off, and to have yellowish discoloration. The newer synthetic ivory keytop material used on some of the digital piano models has a non-stick, non slippery feeling to them and can make it more enjoyable to play. They will (as far as we know) not have the dryness or discoloration problems of organic ivory, but durability of this new synthetic material has not been proven yet over time so no one really knows. In fact, on one of the major brands, the synthetic ivory they first came out with had a few negative issues which I think have been resolved at this point. But the overall synthetic material "feeling" is subjective and not necessarily something you need to have, especially considering most current model name brand acoustic pianos do not have ivory keys... they have the regular white plastic keytops. So if regular shiny white key tops are good enough for some of the best grand pianos out there, do you really need this new synthetic ivory material? That question is fairly subjective and therefore ivory feel keys may or may not be important to you.

Fatar weighted key action

When it comes to the design, construction, and installation of digital piano key actions, some of the key actions out there are done by the actual manufacturer such as Roland, Kawai, Yamaha, & Casio whereas other key actions are made by someone else for them (such as Fatar key action company in Italy). In some cases "off-brand" digital piano actions do not even meet the most key action basic standards (typically designed and made in China, but not always) so I tell people to stay away from them. A good key action moves smoothly and helps the piano sound to come out incrementally with minimum key force but with enough downward key weight and upward key weight & resistance to build good finger muscle strength. A good key action must have proper "hammer style" graded key weighting, proper key travel depth, key pivot point, proper key width & length, static & dynamic downward & upward touch-weight, and good solid key movement with minimal noise levels. Unlike almost digital piano key actions, acoustic piano key actions need to be adjusted from time to time by an experienced piano technician, just like the alignment on your vehicle has to be calibrated and aligned by an experienced auto mechanic. Digital pianos (without acoustic piano key actions) have a big advantage over acoustic pianos with needing no key action maintenance, which is obviously a money and time saver if you plan to own the piano for many years.

Kawai digital piano key action

Wear & tear and long periods of time can also change the characteristics of key action feel, movement, and response, for digital as well as acoustic pianos. Action changes over time can also occur due to internal lubrication (or lack of it) of action parts, and outside high humidity (as well as dryness) in the air at different times of the year can affect acoustic piano key actions as well as some digital piano key actions. The list of differences in the way key actions behave due to inside & outside conditions plays a part in the overall playing experience a person will have with a piano. Due to the numerous variations of piano key actions in acoustic pianos & digital pianos, I have known some very picky people who have shopped acoustic & digital pianos for months and even years until they finally found theirperfect key action that was adjusted and regulated (for acoustic) and it played in a way that was perfect for that particular shopper. Some of that pickyness is usually due to a person's finger muscle strength, type of songs they play, personal expectations, piano playing experience, and playing skill level.

Korg digital piano key action

So, will it be like that for the average digital piano shopper in needing to spend months or years shopping for a digital piano with a good key action?...definitely not!:) As an example, the Casio digital piano company, which only offers two key actions, does a good enough job in my opinion for a majority of digital piano buyers and players who want to be in the "under $1000 price range." Kawai has some very enjoyable key actions in furniture cabinet digital pianos for over $1000 as does Yamaha, Roland, and others, as I mentioned earlier. Are all models and their key actions in those brands (and other brands) all good?...not necessarily. A few key actions in those brands have noticeable deficiencies which in my opinion may get in the way of your playing success and enjoyment, and that would not be good. This is because there are some key actions that have bad volume/velocity response, noticeably unrealistic key movement, loud mechanical noisy movement, and/or other deficiencies.

I am generally pretty lenient when it comes to criticizing name brand key actions but I must be honest and say that I do not like the following key actions: The Korg NH (natural weighted hammer action) key action in many of the Korg models is quite heavy and mushy to push, unnatural in movement, subpar in dynamics, and (for me) unenjoyable to play overall. If it wasn't for the key action, the Korg models with the NH key action would otherwise be much better choices. The other higher priced Korg key action with the RH3 hammer weighted key action in some of their models is much more enjoyable to play. I do not like the Roland Ivory feel-G key action found in their FP50, RD300NX, Juno 5, and FA08 stage/workstation pianos. The ivory feel-G action in my opinion is is mushy, spongy, and produces a very loud knocking key noise when playing the keys harder as they strike the bottom. For me, because action is everything in a piano (acoustic and digital), I would not personally own any of the Roland digital pianos with that key action. However, other people may be OK with the action and like it...and that's fine, but for me it's a deal breaker and that's regardless of what else that digital piano can do or how it sounds. Other Roland key actions are much better and very enjoyable to play such as their newer PHAIV Standard key action in the RP401R ($1599US internet price) or especially their PHA50 found in their more expensive models. I am not a big fan of the Yamaha GH key action in the Arius & P155/P255 pianos. The action is not bad but it just takes too much touch-weight (for my liking) to get the keys to go down from a resting position and can be a bit fatiguing to play in my opinion...just too stiff for my liking. The  Kurzweil digital piano company also has a couple of poorly made key actions in some of their their digital pianos in my opinion which are sluggish, harder to push down (especially the black keys), inconsistent, etc. However some of their other key actions (a few made by the Fatar key action company) are more enjoyable to play. The new Casio-Bechstein Hybrid Grand key action (pic - above left) is amazing and not something found in any other digital piano under $8000...and those Casio model digital pianos which include the GP300, GP400, and GP500 start at $3999 retail price. The key action has actual real individually cut wood movement key actions from the German Bechstein acoustic grand pianos along with a new moving hammer system that gives the feel and look of real moving acoustic hammers. Check out my review of the Casio-Bechstein at the following link: Casio-Bechstein acoustic feel key action REVIEW

I would advise that when doing your digital piano research and trying to figure out what model has a good (acceptable) key action and you want some specific advice, that you contact me first I will be happy to give you more detail about what you should know concerning key actions and what would best fit your particular needs and budget. I can also help you find good new digital pianos (with the proper key action) for quite a bit less money that internet and store discount prices. At the end of the day, you can be happy playing on many of the quality key actions that are manufactured today by the name brand digital piano companies including pianos for under $1000 as well as in the higher price ranges. However, just because a digital piano costs a lot of money does not necessarily make its key action good as I can personally attest to in my own professional playing experience. Please don't buy any digital piano anywhere before you ask me about it:). Better to be safe than sorry:)

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* I recommend eMedia educational software. If you decide to make a purchase after clicking on link below, I have arranged a big discount for you direct with eMedia for their educational software and that discount price is displayed through this link only! I want to see everyone learn to play and enjoy piano!

REVIEW- Williams Symphony Grand Piano - Not Recommended - The Williams company is a division and part of the Guitar Center company family of brands and stores which includes Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, Woodwind & Brasswind, Music & Arts, and others. It's even listed for sale on the Walmart web site so that ought to tell you something right away:). The Williams company does not manufacture its own pianos and the Williams brands is not made in the US. They are made in China by another company and Williams has used their own "Symphony" model name for many years that have represented different models. This new 2016 Symphony micro digital grand ($1499US internet selling price) is the latest incarnation of digital piano under the Symphony name and although it has an attractive "micro grand" cabinet with built-in color LCD screen that has many functions, as a piano, in my opinion, it is not even close to the quality and realism of a new $500 Casio or Yamaha digital piano in terms of its piano playing authenticity. In other words, what looks like a fabulous product on the outside does not mean it's good on the inside. I call this kind of piano product a "PSO" otherwise known as a piano shaped object. It's unfortunate because the factory specs and all the selling Guitar Center and affiliate web sites would lead you to believe it's an amazing product and something that blows away all of its competition for an incredibly low price....but it simply does not do that in my opinion.

OK...when you look at the Symphony piano specs and what it can do "on paper," it looks pretty compelling with well over 100 instrument sounds, rhythms, and accompaniments, along with nice audio & USB/MIDI connectivity features including Bluetooth, 128-note piano polyphony, audio and MIDI recording, and a fairly large internal speaker system. But just for a minute let's put aside these "bells & whistle" and concentrate on the fundamentals of any piano and that is...key action, piano sound authenticity, dynamics, & response, and pedaling. Without having good, solid, realistic piano fundamentals, the rest of what the piano can do and how it looks is, in my opinion, meaningless and a waste of time & money. Unfortunately that is the case with the new Williams Grand micro digital piano. The key action is quite light and not like real piano weighted keys. Yes, the key weight of this action is better than a spring triggered keyboard action, but as compared to a real upright or grand acoustic piano key action, it comes nowhere close to them nor does it come close to any new 88-key digital piano by Roland, Casio, Kawai, or Yamaha at any price range, even down to $300. Unfortunately the Williams key action is especially clunky/noisy when the white keys are moving up & down especially at when playing a harder with a bit more force. The black keys are very noisy nearly all the time when moving up & down. In other words, this is another one of those "cheap" key actions in my opinion, and I have played a few different Williams Symphony Grand's and they are all the same so it's an inherent issue within the key action. If you are playing the piano at full volume it is unlikely you'll hear the key noise, but if you are playing it at 50% volume or less, or wearing headphones, then the key action clunkiness and noise will become apparent. This is a tell-tale sign of the key action being designed and built in China and not something of quality. So when it comes to the poor build/component quality of this key action, for this reason alone I would not own or recommend this model...regardless of all the other things it can do.

But now we move on to the piano sound. This is a fairly complex area of reproducing in a digital pianos what normally occurs in a real piano. It is done with piano sampling put into computer chips along with key sensors underneath each key to sense the key moment so a sound can be reproduced depending on where the key is located as it is going up & down, along with tonal and volume dynamics and how the sound moves from mellow to bright and soft to loud as the key is being struck and played fast to slow. The piano sound is supposed to have "expression": and the ability to change tonal color when playing the keys at different velocities or finger pressure. The piano sound should also be relatively the same tone in brightness or mellowness when moving from one key to the next along with natural and even volume changes. The Symphony grand fails badly in these areas of sound and this is true for all of the Symphony pianos I have recently played. It's true that there are a number of different piano sounds available in the Symphony, but each of those sounds should fall under the same standards of consistency, which they don't. The piano sound is highly inconsistent when playing from one key to the next with one key being quieter and the next key being noticeably louder when playing with the exact same finger pressure. This is NOT what anyone wants and is especially bad for piano students who are trying to learn proper dynamics and finger pressure on the keys. Also when moving from one key to the next, occasionally one note might be quite mellow and the next note quite bright and noticeably different than the notes around it. This is NOT what a real piano does nor is it anything you would ever want any piano to do...and yet it happens frequently on a number of keys/notes of the Williams Grand. So don't be fooled by the pretty grand piano picture in the color display screen...the Williams digital grand does not sound like a real grand piano at all...at least none that I have ever played.

The dynamic tonal range of real pianos allows each key/note to be mellower (softer in tone) when you are gently playing the key and then that note (string inside a real piano) starts to brighten up as you play the key a bit harder with more finger strength and the tone continues to be more expressive and gets brighter & brighter as you play the key harder and harder. You are NOT supposed to hear big, noticeable jumps in piano tonal dynamics but instead you are supposed to hear subtle and smooth changes in the piano tone when playing a key at different velocities and finger pressure. Well, guess what? this is yet another area where the Williams piano sound/key action fails. First of all, the dynamic tonal range in the Williams Grand is quite compressed and small without a lot of change from mellow to bright piano sound when playing a key, and this causes poor musical  expression. To make matters worse, when the tone does change while playing a key at different velocities (speeds), the tonal changes you hear are noticeably abrupt and not even or smooth and that issue also makes it more difficult to be naturally expressive in your music. There are also some strange anomalies in the key action/sound when you are playing the keys with more force or aggressiveness when the song calls for that kind of playing. Finally, while I played more advanced music on the Williams Grand, when playing with faster key repetition occasionally some of the notes did not trigger (being heard) the piano sound and this is likely due to poor quality key contacts under the keys based on my previous experience with these things.

Basically there are soooo many negative issues with the piano key action and piano sound that anything else the piano does well is of little value to me including the physical beauty of the piano itself. For people who are beginners, are not taking lessons, or who are not experienced with how real pianos actually play and behave, then maybe you won't notice these issues and will be happy with this model...and that's entirely possible. But, in my opinion, there really is little excuse for ignorance when spending this much money for a digital piano instrument and thinking you are getting something for nothing. The pedaling on this piano is also quite basic and there are 3 pedals and they do work OK, but there is no half-damper sustain control (or re-pedaling), and the sustain decay is relatively short. Piano pedaling features and abilities are a more difficult area of piano fundamentals to understand, although they are important, All of the top name brand digital pianos have much more authentic and improved pedal functions and abilities in this price range. However, those models are all vertical upright style and not in a mini grand cabinet. It's almost always a choice between beauty and function when it comes to this price range and certainly the Williams Symphony has the beauty but it definitely does not have the function for what really counts.

OK, OK...I know many of you will say "Tim is being overly negative about this piano and it cannot be that bad? Well...you would be wrong if you said that. I have nothing against the Williams brand or their pianos, but when it comes to the musical satisfaction of piano students and players to properly (at minimum) play a song and have it come out right and actually sound and respond like a piano, I am quite concerned about that and not concerned about how "pretty" the cabinet is (yes it is), or what a low price the piano has, or all of the "fun features" you can get on the piano. You absolutely have to start off with a new digital piano that will be a "good piano" in terms of playing any kind of piano music in a way that sounds great and allows for realistic expression from one key to the next and within each note, good dynamic tone & volume change, and overall playability. This is what is important to me and if it's is important to you then in my opinion you should pass on this model and either spend the same or less money on a vertical/upright style digital piano from the major brands, or spend more money on a better digital grand piano.

Now...on to the digital features. The Williams Symphony Grand micro digital piano has an impressive color LCD screen with lots of information on it. The control panel itself has a blue back-lit dial controller on it which allows for easier control of the sounds, rhythms, and other digital features and it works quite well in accessing the features. In terms of instrument sounds, the Williams Grand has 174 of them including pianos, electric pianos, organs, strings, brass, woodwinds, guitars, special sound effects, and a variety of other instrument tones. Some of the instrument sounds are realistic and others are not. The piano sampled sounds overall are good although they are a little thin sounding, but they suffer from the many inconsistencies and issues I have previously mentioned. The control panel buttons and LCD screen displays actual pictures of instrument categories so that you can see the type of instrument you are selecting within that category. The screen is actually pretty cool to look at and a better digital display screen than many other digital pianos in this price range. So when it comes to using the functions and accessing instrument sounds, it's pretty easy to do and everything is right in front of you...although some people prefer their digital grands to be a bit more understated and minimalistic with the buttons, knobs, wheels, and sliders on the control panel. It just depends on what is important to you.

As for auto accompaniment features, this piano has a lot of them. There are 120 different rhythm accompaniment patterns which allows you to play along with different drum rhythms including rock, jazz, Latin, country, swing, waltz, country and many other music styles. Auto-accompaniments add the music backgrounds to these rhythm patterns that allow you to play a left-hand chord and have a one man band playing along while you just play chord progressions or arrangements. So whether yo are a beginner or a pro, playing along with ensemble auto-accompaniments is fun and it makes you sound better than you are. The downside of this feature on the Williams Grand is that many of the rhythm arrangements are pretty bad. Yes, there are some auto-accompaniments that sound musically correct and are fun to play along with. But there are many others including the drum fill-ins and variations that have noticeable hesitations when they play and are out of sync with the musical arrangements and they just sound like a kid's toy. I have heard much better rhythms and musical arrangements in cheap priced new keyboards under $200 by Yamaha & Casio. In other words, even though this Williams piano has these features, overall they just aren't very good ad at the very least they are nothing special. The result is that on some of these styles they just don't play evenly, are noticeably clunky and out of step with the tempo, and there are things that just shouldn't be happening when the arrangements styles are playing. I would call it poor electronics or poor software and I would hope that Williams would try to get this upgraded and fixed because it shows just how little quality control went into this part of the piano.

Other features on this piano include the ability to layer two sounds together at one time, splitting two instrument sounds with one on the left hand and one on the right hand, a digital metronome for use when learning a new song and needing help with keeping the proper rhythm and timing, a 4-track digital MIDI recorder to record what you are playing and then play it back later, and a transpose feature so that you can play in any key when you digital change that key with by modulating or transposing it electronically. So the Williams Symphony is certainly not lacking in digital features.

The Symphony grand can also play back General MIDI song files off a USB flash drive which is nice to have and can make it fun to learn songs but there are limitations to this feature that other General MIDI systems don't have. The piano has an audio input jack so that you can run an external audio device through the piano speaker system to hear songs and play along with them. There are also audio output jacks so that you can connect this piano to an external audio speaker system which is nice. A Bluetooth MIDI feature is built in to allow for connecting external USB/MIDI devices such as iPad to the piano with the need for cable connections. Bluetooth is definitely the way to go but connectivity isn't always guaranteed because of the wireless component of the connectivity which can drop out from time to time based on my experience with it. Regardless, you can always connect a USB cable if you need to do that and then it connects well.

The piano cabinet comes in a shiny polished ebony and measures about 30" from front to back and is considered a "micro" digital grand piano in size and form. The inside of the cabinet under the lid is wood tone so it contrasts nicely with the polished ebony finish. The cabinet also has a nice music rack to support the music and a sliding key cover that closes over the keys. It has a lid that props up into place which looks good, 3 piano legs with brass trim at the bottom of the legs, a full 3-pedal lyre, and the piano comes with a matching bench. There are 6 speakers built into the piano and the overall piano volume is sufficient and loud enough for most applications. So when it comes to cabinet design, cabinet function, color, and internal sound system, Williams has done a good job but unfortunately this model only has a 1 year parts and labor warranty for repair or replacement. Although no one anticipates problems with digital pianos, 1 year is certainly not very long and I would have preferred to see at least 3 years or more, especially given the poorly designed key action and the possibility of it having problems down the road based on my prior experience with poorly built key actions.

The bottom line is...you normally get what you pay for and this is definitely true with the Williams Symphony Grand digital piano. For a selling price of $1499, it seems like a great deal for what it appears you will be getting, but is it really? What you actually have here is an attractive fun music toy and not much more than that. For the uninitiated and easy-to-please crowd, the Symphony may be the perfect piano for you if this is what you are looking for and are not a discriminating person when wanting an instrument which plays like a real piano, because this model just doesn't cut it in that way. If I could, I would rather pull the electronics and key action out of the Symphony cabinet and replace it with a new 88-key top name portable digital piano for about $800 like a Casio CGP700, and then stick that keyboard into the Williams Symphony...then you would be getting a very realistic piano playing experience that you would expect to have along with even better digital features. But unfortunately, this is not something which can be done. The Williams Symphony is what it is...a PSO...Piano Shaped Object that has bells & whistles" all over it but the piano playing experience is poorly executed in my opinion and some the other digital instrument and rhythm features are quite archaic at best and not even up to what you can get in some new $200-$300 keyboards. That's why I do not recommend it.

If you like the new Williams Symphony, regardless of what I have said, then buy it...it's your money and it may indeed make you happy particularly if you are a beginner and don't don't what a piano is supposed to play or sound like. One of the big things I have noticed when it comes to deciding on which piano to buy is that sometimes there will be some great piano player doing a video/YouTube of these pianos and those piano players make these pianos sound really good. That's actually pretty easy to do because a person who plays really well can make ANY piano sound good, no matter how bad that acoustic or digital piano may be otherwise. I can do it too and know what it's like. So if you see any video demos of this piano or similar digital pianos where there is someone playing really well on these instruments and making them sound good...don't get sucked into believing that what you hear is "reality" because in some cases it is not. When a good piano is played, anyone who has real piano playing experience can tell right away if the digital piano plays good (properly with good expression, dynamics, etc) or not.

There is a reason why other high quality smaller digital mini grand pianos cost approx $2500US and up at discount price. Even the lowest price Yamaha digital 3'9" digital mini-grand costs approx $5000US discount price and that's the least expensive one they have. The 2'11" Samick digital mini grand costs about $3000US at discount price. They both use much higher quality key actions, have much better dynamic range of tone and everything just sounds more realistic as compared to what you get in a digital grand for under $2000. So when it comes to getting a good playing piano, the Williams Symphony micro grand is not $1499US for no reason. When you sacrifice quality and realism to arrive at a low price, then the buyer needs to know what they are losing for spending less money. In my opinion, on the Symphony Grand, you would be losing way too much while gaining an attractive cabinet and a few fun features with a nice color display screen. If you are buying an instrument for a piano student then in my opinion you are sacrificing their ability to play the piano correctly and learn properly just to get a low priced good looking cabinet that fits in a nice corner of the home. It's up to you as to what's most important in making the right buying decision that will accommodate your musical needs and desires. Do your homework & research and then contact me for more info or questions.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* I recommend eMedia educational software. If you decide to make a purchase after clicking on link below, I have arranged a big discount for you direct with eMedia for their educational software and that discount price is displayed through this link only! I want to see everyone learn to play and enjoy piano!

REVIEW - Yamaha Arius YDP143 & Yamaha YDP163 - Recommended - Yamaha has been producing the Arius series of digital pianos for many years and these models are very popular. The latest models which recently came out are called the YDP143 ($1099US internet discount price and the YDP163 ($1499US internet discount price). As with all new models, the previous models (YDP142 & YDP162) are discontinued but still may be for sale at various Yamaha dealers. As with all digital piano manufacturers, when they come out with a "new & improved" model, those improvements may be large along with many new additional features, or the improvements could be very subtle with only a few improvements. In case of the new Arius models, the changes are a bit subtle overall (with one exception), but they are certainly good changes.

The Yamaha Piano company has been making acoustic & digital pianos for decades and are one of the most recognizable piano brands in the world. They make a huge line of digital pianos, acoustic pianos, keyboards, and hundreds of other music products including violins, flutes, clarinets, guitars (I own a couple of Yamaha guitars), amplifiers, synthesizers, drums...you name it and they probably make it. I have personally owned a number of Yamaha pianos and keyboards throughout the years and still have a few in my studio including some of their guitars. My kids grew up with Yamaha band instruments and other musicians in my family own and use their products. So when it comes to music it doesn't get much better than Yamaha. But just because a company has a great reputation does not necessarily mean they make the best product in the specific price range you may be looking in. This true for all the major digital piano brands so when shopping around, definitely compare one to another to be sure you are getting the most for your money.

I have personally played and examined a variety of Arius models for many, many years and essentially the new Arius models don't really appear to be different than previous models, and they also don't sound any different to me either. The YDP143 and YDP163 both use the sound technology of the previous models which Yamaha calls "Pure CF Sound Engine" and that piano sound is a sampled sound from a Yamaha acoustic grand piano. It's a very good sound but when I have played it many times on these Arius pianos I noticed the tone of the piano was more compressed than it should have been. In other words, there was less dynamics and expression as compared to the other brands of cabinet pianos like Kawai, Roland, and Casio in the price range of approx $1000US-$1500US. If you don't play acoustic piano or are not familiar with how those instruments really sound, you might very very satisfied with the piano tonal dynamics of the YDP143 and YDP163. After all, these pianos are great at what they do especially as compared to a number of other brands. But in reality, the piano sound (I used their best default grand piano sound on the YDP's) has its limits and unfortunately it comes at the expense of expression and dynamics, in my opinion, as compared to a real piano. Will this limitation become an issue for a piano student or player?...only if you are expecting more from the Arius piano than you are getting. The piano sound is smooth and transitions seamlessly from soft to loud with no unusual bumps or jumps in velocity and tone. But for me, not only do I know what real acoustic pianos are supposed to sound like, but I have played other digital pianos in this price range that are far more impressive with regard to tonal dynamics and overall musical expression from the piano sound itself including the Casio AP460, Kawai KDP90, and Roland RP401R.

Aside from tonal and dynamic expression, the initial piano tone itself is very pleasant and realistic and I do like it. Yamaha did increase the polyphony processing power of these two pianos to 192-note polyphony...which is up from the previous 128-note polyphony. Although this is not a critical improvement in these new models it is nevertheless a very good one and offers additional room for playing more advanced pieces or when using two independent instrument sounds together at the same time. The maximum polyphony processing power in this price range under $1500US internet selling price is 256-note polyphony and only the Casio company has been able to offer that so far.

The pedals work quite well too and as with the previous models, the piano pedals offer the same response and movement along with half-damper sustain with the right pedal and pedal resonance when using the damper/sustain pedal which simulates natural piano reverberation especially when playing more staccato notes with the resonance being heard more distinctly in the higher octaves which regular acoustic pianos do. With the half-damper effect/feature, there are different levels of sustain and decay of the piano sound when using the right pedal as opposed to some other brands (secondary or off brands) that only offer on/off pedaling with no additional levels of sustain. The pedals felt fairly natural to me along with the half-damper response and Yamaha did a good job with these features as they have done before. The pedals themselves are full size, have a pedalboard height adjustment wheel, look to be very durable, and can even activate other features in the piano.

The key action movement of these two pianos is, as I have mentioned many times throughout my blog, the most important thing to look for in any digital piano. This is where "the rubber meets the road" in terms of getting (or not getting) a good piano playing experience. Yamaha did not make any changes in terms of the way their key action feels when it moves. The YDP143 is still using (what Yamaha calls) the GHS key action and the YDP163 is still using the GH key action with the simulated ivory-feel white keys and the satin mat black keys which feel great to the touch in terms of the keytop feel. However, for the first time ever under $2000US selling price, Yamaha is offering a 3rd key sensor under each key on the YDP163 which is called the GH3 key action and that action is also available in the higher priced Yamaha Clavinova CLP525 and CLP535. The YDP143 remains the same as before with 2 key sensors under each key. Yamaha has finally joined the other major brands under $2000 with offering the additional sensor which allows for faster key repetition recognition, so the faster the

GH ivory-feel keys

note plays, the better the piano is sensing where the key is and responding correctly with regard to the piano sound you hear. Two key sensors is fine for many people, especially beginners through intermediate. But if you play at a higher skill level you may notice a better repetition response in terms of the key position when playing the keys and how the piano sound reacts to that key speed and position. More sensors means better repetition response recognition and the YDP163 finally has this feature whereas the YDP162 did not have it. I like this key sensor upgrade at this price point and give credit to Yamaha for finally including it in an Arius YDP piano. Other digital pianos at around $1500 which have the triple sensor action are the Casio AP460 and Roland RP401R.

Aside from the additional key sensor in the YDP163, I will say something that a lot of people may find surprising, especially given that I like Yamaha music products so much...and that is, I do not personally enjoy playing the YDP163 GH3 key action with regard to the weight of the keys going down...otherwise called "down-weight" or "touch-weight." In other words, the keys (both white & black) are too stiff and hard to press down as compared to most other good digital pianos in this price range and as compared to many good grand & upright acoustic pianos. OK...some people may call me too critical on this issue but when I try to play a slow and soft musical passage on the keys, it takes more finger force to press the keys on the YDP163 than I like...and this can lead to not only finger/hand fatigue, but also to not being able to have a flowing, easy to play song. I have commented about the GH/GH3 key action for years in this way and still nothing has changed in the Arius or Clavinova pianos that use the GH/GH3 key action. For other people, this key action issue may not bother you at all and you may even prefer it. But for me, I am not very fond of it and would recommend other new digital pianos in this price range with regard to the key action. What's interesting is that Yamaha does make some "better" key actions in their more expensive digital pianos such as the digital piano CLP585 which has "counter-weighted keys." Although the CLP585 (approx $5000US selling price) uses a GH3(X) key action, the counter weights in each key make it far more enjoyable to play in the way I mentioned with keys that are not near as hard/resistant to press down. So there are ways to make this better but Yamaha has not chosen to do it on the new YDP163 or the previous YDP162. Nevertheless, the key action itself is constructed very well, is sturdy, and the keys are quiet when moving up & down...and all these things are very good to have.

The YDP143 still uses the lower cost GHS (Graded Hammer Standard), which I actually like better than the more expensive GH3 key action in terms of key movement and down-weight. It moves a bit quicker and is a bit lighter in certain ways and the action itself is the same action that is in the less expensive Yamaha P45 and P115 portable digital pianos which is the 2 key-sensor, non-ivory feel, and is not as quiet as the GH3 key action. So the YDP143 key action does have its own downsides but overall I like it and the construction and durability of this GHS key action is quite good and has been for many years. The piano sound and pedaling on the YDP143 is the same as the YDP163 which is good but still lacks in the dynamic tonal range for piano sound that I have mentioned. Either way, the Yamaha key actions are much, much better than any of the off brands out there so don't be fooled by significantly less expensive off-brands such as Williams, Artesia, Suzuki, etc...Yamaha wins "hands down" every time.

YDP143 control panel

The overall digital features of both pianos are like other digital piano brands in this price range, but they are certainly acceptable. However, there are a few newer features on these models which are especially impressive to me. Both YDP's have 10 instrument sounds each including 3 grand pianos, 2 electric pianos, harpsichord, vibraphone, pipe organ, jazz/pop organ, and strings. All of the instrument sound are good and I enjoy playing them and you should like them a lot too. Ten sounds is definitely not much, especially compared to other digital pianos in this price range ($1000US to $1500US internet price) but for people looking more a piano that just has the basics with regard to instrument sounds, then the YDP's would work well in this way. Although I like all of the sounds on these pianos, I am not impressed with the strings sound (which was also on the previous model), and I am a big fan (lover) of good string symphony sounds. The other major brands in this price range offer much more realism of the symphony strings in my opinion, especially the newer Casio's such as the PX860 and AP460 which are excellent with symphony strings realism.

Any of the instrument sounds on the YDP's can be combined as a layered (Dual) sound when playing a song and that layered sound can be heard on each key. However, on the layered (Dual) sound such as piano/strings, the sustained tone of the strings fades out along with the piano when combined, and I have never liked that aspect to the Yamaha layered sounds. When real strings are playing along with piano, those string sounds do not decay (fade out) like piano sounds do...they continually sustain as long as you desire and play them. The other brands such as Roland, Kawai, and Casio all are able to recreate sustained layers in the preferable way while holding down the damper pedal whereas the Yamaha Arius pianos cannot do this with normal damper pedal playing. Will you or anyone else care??...maybe, maybe not...it's not a deal-breaker but for someone who loves to layer non-piano instrument sounds incl strings, choir, organs, etc, and knows what it should be like using the damper pedal, this could be a let down, but in the big picture probably won't make a difference to most people. There is no type of "split" function on these pianos so you cannot put one sound on the left hand and a different sound on the right hand like other digital pianos can do in this price range.The YDP's offer the Duo setting where two people (siblings, parent-child, etc) can practice at the same time with the same song and both sides of the keyboards are set with the same octaves...one person playing on the left side and the other person on the right side. This is an effective feature when needing something like this, but if you will be playing or practicing on your own, then this Duo feature is completely unnecessary.

Like the previous models and most other brands of digital pianos, both the YDP143 & YDP163 have other features such as 3 levels of touch response which is where you can make the piano sound come in more or less quickly when playing the keys, 4 types of reverb effects which adds a reverb/echo sound and gives the overall piano sound more depth, an adjustable digital metronome for rhythm/timing which is important to have, a 2-track MIDI recorder which allows for recording both hands, one at a time, and then play along with one recorded hand or playback both recorded parts and play along with the same or a different live sound. This is fun to do and helpful with practicing a new song or just "jamming" along with yourself:). You can adjust the playback speed of the recorded song although you can only save 1 song at a time. However you can load in up to 10 (basic) MIDI songs from the internet into the piano memory but you need to connect to a computer with a cable so it's not entirely user friendly or intuitive and there is no USB flashdrive on either model to accommodate easier transfer and storage of songs.

YDP163 control panel

The control panel on both of these models is very simplistic and minimalist in look and operation which is both good and bad. The bad part is that like other digital pianos which use this type of interface, there is no user LED/LCD display to easily see what's going on when you choose a sound or function and you need to refer to the owners manual all the time to use the functions and know what's actually going on, even using some of the basics...which can be a big pain in the...:). On some digital pianos the control panel has more buttons, is located in a different place, and/or has markings or feature names above the keys indicating which key to press when you want to access or change a function or feature. So there are digital pianos which are much more intuitive to use than the YDP models, even without a display screen. Once again, the Casio PX860 or AP460 digital pianos would be more intuitive to use than the Arius models in that way.

However, for the 1st time ever in the Arius models, Yamaha has designed a free iOS app (iPhone/iPod touch/iPad) specifically designed to control many of the YDP functions from your external device through this innovative and very easy to use app. This means that the limitations of the minimalist control panel on the left side of the keyboard just got a whole lot better because this app on your iOS device makes using and selecting the instrument sounds and many of the functions a breeze to do. I tried it and it works great, super easy to figure out, the app graphics look great, and makes the interaction with the piano functions a lot more fun. Congratulations to Yamaha for getting this done and making it available on the new YDP143 and YDP163 which the previous models did not have. If for no other reason, this app makes the new models vastly superior to the previous ones, so even if you see a previous model for a lower price because it's discontinued, if you have an Apple iOS device, then these new Yamaha models are the way to go as compared to the previous ones. This controller app is not available for Android, so if you have that kind of device then you are out of luck when it comes to this controller app. It's also good to know that other USB/MIDI apps from the iOS app store also work with the new YDP's and allow you to access other fun things including piano lessons, music sight reading lessons, music games, and all kinds of other music/piano related content that you can control from the piano. The other brands of digital Pianos that offer USB/MIDI connection can do all the 3rd party apps too so Yamaha is not exclusive on that content.

A few of the cool things the app can do is allow for access to all 10 of the instruments sounds as well as being able to layer an two of them together. This is done from large visual pictures of the instruments and you just touch the instrument and you get it on the piano...simple. You can select changes in the reverb effects, transpose the key you are in, select the Duo function and easily change some of its parameters, you can easily use the digital metronome as well as song recording and play features. You can also access the pedal damper resonance control, touch sensitivity level changes, and even change the tuning of the piano...all from the verylimited and not something I recommend as being user friendly. In terms of controlling the features of the piano, Yamaha is the clear winner in that race...as long as you have an iOS device which is the "key" in this case. Just so you know, the Yamaha app does not make the new pianos sound any better, they just function better. Roland also has an iOS app for their RP401R digital piano ($1599US internet price) and although it's very good, in some ways it does not measure up to this new Yamaha app. Neither Casio or Kawai has an iPad app in this price range (yet) although the Casio digital pianos are easy to use on their own without an app and in some ways that's better than absolutely having to rely on an iOS app. Regardless, apps are cool and I look forward to Kawai and Casio joining the app race soon:).

Back of YDP143 - speakers inside

As for other things that are important to know about these models, the speaker systems in both the YDP143 and YDP163 remain the same as in the previous models. The YDP143 both have 2 main speakers each but the amplifier power in the YDP143 is just 12 watts total (2 x 6 watts stereo) whereas the amplifier power in the YDP163 is a beefier 40 watts total power (2 x 20 watts each stereo) so the depth and bass response on the YDP163 is noticeably upgraded over the YDP143. Both models are plenty loud, but it's the fullness of the sound through the internal speaker system that lacks somewhat on the YDP143 as compared to other digital pianos in the price range. As a beginner you may not notice this at all but if you have played for awhile then you'll want a more powerful speaker system. Yamaha slightly reduced the power consumption of these new models over the previous ones which already had low consumption, which is a good thing, but not by much.

When you don't want the piano sound to be heard and want to play in privacy, these new models have a new headphone feature called "Stereophonic Optimizer." Simply put, this feature optimizes the headphone sound (any good pair of headphones will do) so that the sound itself seems to coming out from a slight distance within the headphones (to simulate a real room experience) rather than sound like it is coming directly into your ears. A similar feature is also available on Roland digital pianos and it's a pretty cool concept and a welcome addition to these models. However, the sound is still quite good through good quality headphones without that feature, and this is true for the other digital piano brands. Besides being able to plug in headphones, you can also connect to a laptop computer or smart device with a USB/MIDI output by way of a USB cable. This is a very good feature and was also on the previous models. However, there is no external audio outputs or inputs which is something I was hoping to see on these models. Yamaha probably did not think it was that important to have those connectors but I can tell you that I, for one, would like to have seen them, including a stereo audio input mini-jack to connect external device audio...a feature lacking in some of these lower priced digital pianos.

But in the final analysis, the new Yamaha YDP143 and YDP163 would be Yamaha's "bread & butter" digital cabinet pianos. They are in that popular $1000-$1500 price range and have a very nice cabinet pedestal design, but I would have preferred to see front support legs on the cabinet, especially on the higher price YDP163 like the Yamaha CLP525 has, but it would have no doubt cost more money to produce. Both models are offered in 2 colors; an attractive satin black and satin rosewood cabinet along with a built-in sliding key cover and a matching standard height padded bench. Both models come with a 3 year parts & labor factory warranty which is quite good and based on my personal experience I have found that the major brands such as Yamaha have very few service issues with their digital pianos because they are built so well. However the Yamaha 3 year warranty does not include "in-home" service unless you are willing to pay the service technician's travel charge to the home which can be $100 or more in some cases. Also, if there is no service tech anywhere around your area who is willing to drive to your home, then you would be responsible for boxing up the piano properly and shipping it back to a Yamaha service department and you would be responsible for the cost of that shipping going out. However, Yamaha will pay the shipping cost coming back to you. Either way, the warranty is not "all inclusive," but hopefully you'll never need to use it. Just be sure you keep your original piano box or you may have issues when it comes to shipping the piano if that needs to be done.

I believe most people will be quite happy with either of these new Yamaha Arius models but there are other digital piano choices out there too. As far as for me personally, as I mentioned earlier, the key action moment and key weight along with the piano sound dynamics is what interests me most in digital pianos and is what helps steer my buying decisions. I play real pianos and do it often enough to know the differences and be able to easily sense when a digital piano meets my expectations as far as my own personal playing enjoyment. The new YDP's have not changed in the basic ways from the previous models when it comes to piano tonal dynamics...especially when playing with more forceful expression (fortissimo) and needing a higher degree of tonal change. With the YDP143 having the same key action as before (which is certainly OK but not anywhere close in realism to Kawai, Roland, and Casio in my opinion in that same price range, along with the same heavier key action (in terms of down-weight) in the YDP163, this is where their pianos are lacking for me. But for most other people who may not have my expectations, they will likely be perfectly happy with these new models and enjoy them very much. The overall piano tone itself is quite enjoyable and much more like a piano sound than other digital pianos. However, all the "bells & whistles" including iOS apps cannot take the place of having a great key action, realistic and dynamic piano sound, and smooth pedaling and those fundamentals should come first over anything else, regardless of the piano brand and model. I do recommend these new Yamaha digital pianos models and they should be wonderful instruments to own for many years. Do your homework and research and then contact me before you make any buying decisions as I will be happy to personally help you.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

Kawai CP1

UPDATED REVIEW- April 15, 2016 -Digital Grand Pianos...What to know when shopping for one - Digital Baby Grand Pianos from Yamaha, Roland, Kawai, Samick, Suzuki, and others can be lots of fun to own! I receive inquiries from people who are looking for a good digital Baby Grand piano along with useful built-in digital technology. In this Digital Grand Piano buyer guide, I try to help educate people on "how" to purchase a good digital Baby Grand Piano and what is available with regard to various brands and price ranges. The sizes of these pianos can be the small mini sizes which are 2.5 feet deep on up to 5'3" deep. Price is not necessarily an indicator of cabinet size so you need to decide what size piano will be best for your needs as well as what features seem most important for long term ownership. Digital Grand pianos can add beauty and elegance to any living space and they are low or no maintenance instruments which can last for many, many years.

Yamaha CVP705

The functions many people ask for in full featured pianos are a large & good variety of higher quality instrument sounds including good acoustic pianos, strings, brass (a variety of horns), woodwinds, reeds, flutes, synthesizers, guitars, world instruments, and others. People also ask for other features such as drum rhythm patterns, ensemble style chord backing tracks, educational play features, a bigger user interface screen, a mic input for singalong/karaoke, multitrack recording & song playback options, an authentic acoustic piano feel, and a full sounding speaker system. Polyphony note memory can be anywhere from 64 notes to 256 notes on these various pianos, and more polyphony can be important if you are a more advanced player with a much higher skill level or are doing extensive recording or multiple layering with accompaniments. However for normal use in most families who just play for fun and are not skilled players, 64 notes of polyphony will likely be sufficient, but 128 or higher would be better. In addition to all this, it seems everyone wants the best looking Baby Grand piano they can get with the most authenticity in cabinet design and function and they want it all for generally around $5000 or less. That's where the most popular range is, and although there are people who can and are willing to spend more money to get what they want, they are in the distinct minority of buyers.

Roland V-Grand

The problem with wanting to get a good digital baby grand piano is that you will normally need to make many sacrifices to get what you want in the lower price range. Yamaha, Roland, & Kawai which are all great digital piano manufacturers with fun digital technology along with great on-board educational features for students, do produce some exciting and impressive full featured  ensemble type digital Grand Pianos in small & larger sizes. You can be very happy with any of them as they are all great. However, they are NOT in the $5000 or less price range. In fact those models which include the Yamaha CVP709GP (which replaced the 609GP) & CGP1000, the Roland V-Grand, and the Kawai CP1 are all normally priced at around $20,000 retail price, so they're not inexpensive:). Another example of a high price digital grand is the Yamaha AvantGrand N3 (picture near bottom of page). This model is traditional in its approach to features focusing on getting the best key action, piano sound, and pedaling experience in a digital grand piano. I believe it can safely be said that the N3 is the best traditional digital grand piano produced by any company under $20,000 in terms of the key action, piano sounds, and pedal function.

Samick SG450 4'1" w/Fatar action

The digital piano brands that currently offer a full featured ensemble Baby Grand at around $5000 or less include Adagio, Suzuki, Williams, Artesia, Dynatone, Samick (left pic), Viscount/Galileo, Omega (above left pic), Sejung (not available in most states), Cameron & Sons (private label), and a couple of others. Typically when you spend less money on a digital Baby Grand you get less quality and reliability. If you see them selling for around $1500-$2000 or so, they are almost always very poor in key action and sound and those are the main features I recommend people look for 1st, and then the fun ensemble & digital features should come after that. The lower priced digital pianos typically measure anywhere from about 3 feet deep (mini or micro size) to a larger 4' deep size and are some look better & more authentic than others with regard to the cabinet style, construction, finish quality, lid, bench, legs, pedal assembly, etc. One of the digital baby grand pianos under $5000 that I like is the Samick SG450 (above left pic) which has a surprising and impressive key action along with good piano sound, beautiful cabinet, and lots of useful educational & fun features. Go to the following link to read my Samick SG450 review: Samick SG450 review

Adagio

As far as the digital technology & quality of the brands I do not recommendunder $5000 (based on years of personal experience), there are a number of them that have poor piano tone, key response, key action, tonal dynamics, key velocity realism, and other digital features. I refer to those piano and brands simply as GPSO's..."Grand Piano Shaped Objects" and little more than that:) They don't play good, sound good, function well, or hold up good over time. I have been around most of these brands and various models my entire music career and there are just certain ones that have not improved much (or at all) and still are on my "not recommended" list. Those brands include, Suzuki, Adagio, Williams, Artesia, Sejung, and a small variety of "house or private label brands." A house brand is one that is sold by a piano or music store and they buy a pre-made digital piano from a Chinese manufacturer and have their own name put on the piano so that they can have an "exclusive" name that no one else has. It makes marketing and promotional sense for the music store to do that, but it certainly does not mean it's a good piano. In fact, is likely not a good piano. Cameron & Sons is one of those "house brands" as is Williams, Adagio, Artesia, & Suzuki. Not all house brands are bad (some are good because they have control over the quality or technology used) but it is not common. Sejung is an actual Chinese brand you made not have heard of before but I have actually played them and was definitely not happy with tone, key action, or construction and these are the main ingredients that need to be good in a digital piano, and that's probably why most piano stores won't carry them. Sometimes you do get what you pay for:). 

Suzuki MG350

It's great to have lots of cool functions in a digital ensemble Baby Grand piano and they are fun to use, and many of these low quality baby grands have those functions. So on paper they might seem to be good pianos to consider. But if you cannot get a quality piano that plays and responds well as a piano, then I don't believe it really matters what else is in the piano and what it does. And in the lower quality pianos, even those extra functions are generally not so good much of the time. As for Suzuki, Adagio, Williams, and Artesia, just because they are sold primarily by Costco or big music store chains does not mean they are good. Adagio & Williams are really not brands (as far as having their own manufacturing facility) and there are no parts in the piano that come from North America or Europe (all Chinese). Suzuki and Artesia are also not a brand in the traditional sense and they do not build their own pianos (all are pre-made in China as far as I know). The Suzuki piano also brand has nothing to do with any other Suzuki products made either including motorcycles, cars, violins, lessons, or anything else connected with their name. I done a number of reviews on Suzuki & Adagio, and Artesia pianos and have been very disappointed with all of them especially for their key action, velocity response, tone dynamics, and quality, and I have personally played many of these models.

Yamaha AvantGrand N3

It's important to know that just because a piano is completely or partially made in China does not mean it's bad, and I don't want people to think that. There are some very good piano manufacturing facilities in China now, and even Yamaha & Kawai get a number of their acoustic pianos made there these days. Whether we like it or not, we all live in a world economy and China is a big part of it. As long as the piano is produced with good oversight, good construction, and reliable technology with up to date musical features, that's what really counts and the brand name is not the always the issue.

When it comes to digital pianos, generally speaking, you can get more piano quality and features for the money ($5000 or less) if you do not get a Baby Grand cabinet and instead get a regular vertical upright style furniture cabinet. You will pay a premium for a nice digital baby grand furniture style cabinet, especially the larger cabinets in the higher priced models. But the look and sound of those instruments are certainly impressive and if you plan to own it for a long time and you have the "disposable income," go for it and enjoy. Contact me BEFORE you buy anything and I will give you some personal advice that will help you.

If you want more info on these and other pianos and lower prices than internet or store discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864 

REVIEW - Casio MZ-X500 Digital Keyboard Work-station and piano - Recommended - I rarely talk about new digital "keyboards," especially those that have unweighted keys and are less than 88 note instruments. This is because my focus is exclusively on 88-weighted key digital pianos, and not unweighted key 61 or 76 keyboards. Smaller keyboards are not good long-term instruments for learning to play piano so I do not normally recommend them unless they are under $200 and you are on a tight budget. I have and do play many different types of digital keyboards and have done so for many years. I have literally played hundreds of different models from a variety of manufacturers and price ranges...so I am definitely not a stranger to these kinds of musical instruments. However, this time I felt it was necessary to do a review on a brand new higher priced (for Casio) 61-key model called the MZ-X500 ($1099US internet discount price) from the Casio company that was released this year. The MZ-X500 is apparently Casio's answer to the higher priced multi-tasking "one-man-band" keyboards that Yamaha (and Korg) has been producing for many years. When it comes to these types of "all-in-one" instruments (most with 61-key unweighted key actions) that have 100's of interactive rhythm/chord styles, lots of instrument sounds, multi-track recording, larger built-in display screens, and a variety of interactive functions, Casio has finally come out with this competitive model in the $1000US+ price range that is built for pro musicians, home hobbyists, arrangers & composers, and for all kinds of people people who want a powerful instrument in a small, lightweight package. It is because of these things that, even though overall I prefer to play on an 88-key piano keyboard, I felt it was time for me to do a review of this impressive new 61-key keyboard especially since I have had people asking me about it, and personally I am hooked on it too after playing it. I will also briefly discuss the lower priced MZ-X300 (internet discount price $899US) later in the this review. *By the way, I am currently editing this review and adding more info and lots of new pics, so please come back for updates soon.

Part of the MZ-X500 keyboard concept by Casio is a direct result of the previously released (late last year) Casio Privia PX560 pro 88-key digital piano priced at $1199US internet discount price. The PX560 has the a similar design with regard to cabinet color, display screen, and control panel and also has the many of the sounds and functions that you would see and hear in the new MZ-X500. So what Casio really did was borrow some design and functions of the PX560, refined them and added many new impressive features, and put them into a lightweight but super powerful sounding 61-key unweighted key keyboard (that actually feels great as keyboards go) that will make you sound way better than you are...most of the time:). I have played this new MZ-X500 many times and for those people who love music technology coupled with the "one-man-band" ensemble style concept along with a very impressive selection of pianos, instrument sounds, special effects, user defined and sampled quick play samples using built-in pro touch pads, and a full recreation of the famous Hammond B3 organ tonebars with B3 percussion and simulated Leslie rotary speaker effect using actual slider bars and buttons, I believe you will love the MZ-X500 as much as I do. Take a look at the MZ-X500 demo videos below to see this amazing keyboard in action!

The first thing a keyboard needs to have is a good acoustic piano sound in it that will actually sound like a piano and have realistic dynamic range and be expressive. Even though a piano sound is much easier to reproduce on a weighted key action, this Casio X500 (as I refer to it) is impressive given the fact the keys are unweighted and there are only 61 (5 octaves) of them. One of the things that really helps this keyboard sound like a big, rich piano is the fact that you can lower all notes on the piano keyboard by an entire octave so that the bass notes line up with the lowest notes on an 88-key acoustic grand piano. When you do that the full rich bass tones present on a real piano are also heard on this 6-key keyboard. It's like physically stretching out the left side of the keyboard so that you get big, low bass notes that resonate like a big grand. Essentially this new model is like having a real piano in a super compact model that you can take anywhere. Even without all of the extra fun features on this keyboard, the piano sound really is amazing, especially coming through its very powerful internal speaker system...it's pretty hard to believe how big and full the piano sound is while being dynamically responsive and allowing for musical expression that is unusual to find in a 61-key keyboard under $2000. The piano sound alone is a good reason to own this keyboard based on all my playing time on it.

The X500 offers 100 preset Hex layer preset combinations which include acoustic piano layers, electric piano layers, string layers, brass layers, movie synthesizer layers, environmental sound layers, and many more including mixing 6 of your own together such as percussion, strings, brass, choir, woodwinds, and synth. When you come up with a great 6-layer combination, then you can save up to 100 of your personal creations in memory slots accessible on the color touch screen. Each sound within the 6-layer combination actsindependently in the way you hear it and how each sound behaves, and when you play a note or chord, each of the six sounds in the Hex layer can be heard distinctly and each sound can be triggered to be heard at different times depending on how hard you strike the key. This feature is called adjustable sound trigger points and can be modified to your own desires for each sound in the 6 layer combinations. All parameters are adjustable independently including effects, key velocity, panning, and many other customizable ways of changing the sound. You can even substitute any instrument sound in the piano for any of the 6 layered sounds in a preset Hex layer to create your own custom Hex layers. There really is no limit to what you can do with these features. The cool thing is that all of the sound layer and editable features are selectable on a large 5.3" color touch screen which Casio also has on its lower priced X300 portable keyboard.

On top of having 100 preset 6-layer Hex sounds available at the touch of a virtual button, the Casio X500 allows a second Hex layer of your choice to be combined with the first Hex layer that you choose. In other words, you can combine up to four 6-layer Hex sounds together at one time giving you a whopping 24 sound layers per key at one time! This would be like combing up to 24 separate instrument sounds together at one time which no other self-contained digital keyboard can do in or near this price range. I tried doing this to a number of Hex sounds on the X500 and the outcome was very impressive and definitely fun to experiment with. Even twelve (Hex) sounds together is more than enough to make spectacular music when I just played one note, simple chords, or series of notes. It's like being in a movie theater hearing a huge movie sound track assuming you're playing the sounds through a good external sound system. It's important to note that the X500 has 96 memory registrations where you can store your own personal control panel setups for just about any feature(s) on the X500 including the Hex layers, so you don't have to recreate them every time you power up the piano. Saving your personal customized sound layers, splits, edited sound combinations, rhythm accompaniments, effects, and other controls into the memories is very intuitive and easy and then accessing them later on is equally easy...because it's all done from the front panel buttons. It's one thing to be able to make changes and do things on a digital piano, but it's an entirely different thing to easily be able to save and access them quickly...so I was impressed with how this model was able to function in this way.

In my opinion the best way to hear all of the sound nuances of the hex layers and the other full and complex tones in the piano is through a good sound system, as I just mentioned. Although the X500 has an impressive built-in bass reflex internal speaker system with 4 quality speakers going through 40 watts of total power in stereo and does sound pretty good and actually very loud for its compact size and weight, using a great pair of stereo headphones or a good pair of external (powered) monitors gives you even more of an impressive sonic experience listening to these full Hex layers. The fullness of sound along with bigger bass response using external sound devices is improved in this way. But this would be true of most any portable keyboard with internal speakers so it's good to be aware that you can definitely get that humongous stereo sound when connected to a pair of good external speakers or to stereo headphones. In fact when you connect to external speakers you can hear both the internal and external speakers at the same time, or you have the option of shutting off the internal speakers and only hearing the external speakers, so there is a lot of flexibility in hearing the sounds coming from the X500.

Now that I have pointed out a few of the distinctive features of the new PX560 that sets it apart from all other Casio pianos and all other brands and models in this price range, it's time to talk about some impressive fundamental features of this model. One of the most obvious new features is the 5.3" full color touch screen using proprietary Casio touch software with instant feature recognition. I really should not get overly excited about this technology because many consumer products from educational kids electronic toys to family electronics have color touch screens now and instant feature recognition with swipeable screens, so having this technology in a digital piano should be no big deal...right? Well...actually it is a big deal because, at least for new digital keyboards in the lower price range under $2000, these piano companies are way behind consumer and commercial electronics when it comes to user interfaces and built-in color touch screens in the lower price range. There are some digital piano manufacturers who are writing their own proprietary apps to use on iPad and Android tablets so you can control a limited number of functions on your piano from your tablet connected by WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB cable connection. That's good but it only covers a relatively small portion of what those pianos can do and the screen is the external tablet and not a touch screen in the piano. It is also important to point out that the new Casio color touch screen is not set into the piano control panel completely flat. The screen is slightly raised and slanted for a better viewing experience. So I do appreciate that extra "touch" of usability.

Casio has also has some helpful buttons on the control panel itself which will take you directly to the most popular functions of the piano in the color screen including instrument sounds, rhythms, recording, transpose up & down, and many other functions. In other words, let's say you want to transpose the key you are in which is a very popular feature on digital pianos. Rather than go into the color screen and look for the transpose function which you can also access that way, you can just press the transpose button on the control panel and instantly it will transpose the key up or down a 1/2 step at a time. There's no guess work as to where the transpose feature will be in the color touch screen or where to find it because the transpose button on the control panel accesses that feature instantly. You can also adjust the transpose function in the touch screen by touching the appropriate selection and using the data wheel or up/down buttons to select the key. Then once you get to that function you wanted, via the buttons, you can then use the color touch screen to continue your search and/or use the data wheel to speed up your selection. There's just so many intuitive ways to access features on theses pianos that it makes using these two new models lots of fun...and if it's fun & easy, you'll enjoy it more and get more use out of it too.

As I mentioned earlier, a good realistic piano sound is also obviously important, especially to those who will be primarily interested in using the piano sound as their main instrument, although many of the other instrument sounds are definitely enjoyable as well. The stereo acoustic piano sound authenticity is as good as it gets in this price range in my opinion with its ability to be expressive with a large dynamic tonal range, have good organic piano sound elements like virtual vibrating strings, resonance, accurate legato and staccato piano sound, smooth key sensitivity volume and fast repetition sound reproduction, which is something you want to look for. These things are not easy to get in this price range but Casio has done a very good job of it. There are some "off-brands," as I call them which do a very poor job of reproducing a good piano sound and response and I don't recommend them at all when it comes to piano sound. All of the organic piano sound elements and functions in the X500 make for a more enjoyable piano playing experience and is necessary to have in a good digital piano if you want to really express yourself musically. Dynamic tonal range means the range of tone from mellow to bright as you play the keys softly and then push the keys harder and quicker. Key sensitivity volume is when you press softly and get a low volume and then as you press the keys harder you get a louder volume. You are not supposed to notice any hesitation or jumpiness in volume and the volume range is supposed to be smooth and large and the X500 performs very well in these ways. The X500 piano sound itself is recorded/sampled in stereo from a real acoustic grand piano (I believe they sampled a Steinway Grand) and really is pretty impressive. Is it the best I have ever heard in a portable digital piano?...no. But I have pretty high standards when it comes to the piano sound and even so, I really do enjoy playing piano on the X500, it's quite expressive...however it will not be replacing an actual Steinway grand piano anytime soon:). But again, it's what you are getting in this price range along with everything else in this model. There's a huge total of 29 acoustic piano sounds and piano sound layers in the X500 which gives the player a large variety of acoustic piano choices. Beyond all the piano preset choices, there are 3 infinity controller knobs on the control panel just below the display screen and this is a very cool feature because the knobs can default to a 4-band parametric EQ to control separate low, low-mid, medium, and high frequencies, especially useful for the piano sound. Not only can you add to and customize the overall piano sound this way, but it also adds more volume and fullness at the same time. The knobs also control many other features and parameters of the X500 including making changes to the features in the color touch screen by turning the  1st knob which is called a "value controller.". Once you make changes, then you can save them and recall them later. The controller knobs can also be assigned to other functions in the piano to be manually changed in real time such as other feature volumes and functions and you can quickly modify all knob functions in the color display screen which makes it all very easy to use. I really like the 3 panel knobs and it gives you a sense of old time analog control over many aspects of the piano. This is a feature that no other portable all-in-one name brand digital keyboard has in this price range and I personally find it incredibly useful for beginners through advanced players and especially for live play. By the way, one of the things that Casio did not include on the control panel is what I call a "panic button" or a Grand Piano default setting. A button like this is particularly useful in resetting a digital keyboard to just having a piano sound and nothing else. When you have a lot of sounds and features be used all at one time, it's quick and easy to have a dedicated button that will reset the keyboard to play only piano like some other keyboards have. However, a "work-around" to the lack of this button on the X500 is to simply save your favorite piano sound into memory button #1 on the control panel and when you want the keyboard to revert to that sound, you just touch that button and the X500 resets itself. It's really the same thing as a dedicated piano button only you have to do it, but once you put the piano sound (or any other sound) into the memory, then it's there for good.

The X500 has a huge library of 1,100 built-in instrument tones (including the Hex layers) and 330 built-in rhythms & ensemble chord arrangements with 4 ensemble variations. So when it comes to having a variety of enjoyable instrument sounds and rhythm patterns along with musical arrangements (aka:one man band), it's difficult to need more than that. Casio has increased and advancedthe realism of many instrument sounds from previous models as well as the musicality and voicing of the rhythms & arrangements. The increase in realism on some of these selections was quite noticeable to me and made for a more expressive playing experience with all styles of music including classical, jazz, rock, big band, oldies, Latin, country, modern, world music, and everything in-between, and most of them sound great considering how little these pianos cost. The intros and endings as well as drumfill-ins and accompaniment patterns were surprisingly good and far better than on previous models. All of it was expressive and musically realistic for this price range, and variety is plentiful. Casio also inserted some very cool, very realistic musical ritardandos, crescendos, decrescendos, and syncopation into the intros and endings making the music sound more natural instead of digital and robotic, and it's done in full stereo with stereo panning as well. The Casio sound and accompaniment designers/programmers really have done an outstanding job upgrading these particular features as compared to past models, although there are a few auto accompaniment styles that do sound toy-like and amateurish, so they are not all great...but I  expected that. When using the auto-accompaniment feature you can play simple 1-finger left hand chords, 3-finger chords, or full professional chording playing both left and right hand together with multiple fingers over the accompaniment and the accompaniment will follow you.

As far as the solo instruments go, many (but certainly not all) do sound noticeably more authentic than in previous Casio models and include velocity triggers which adds additional organic nuances to that sound as you press the key harder and quicker. This feature helps in the overall realism of that sound and is a nice thing to have. Beyond offering a variety of acoustic piano sounds, these instrument sounds would include much better electric pianos, brass, organs, woodwinds, strings, etc, and the variety of tones has substantially increased from the previous previous models to the 1,100 musical sound library it has now with the updated selections, as I previously mentioned. A few of the instrument sounds from previous models such as trumpet and flutes are mostly just average and not as convincing as I had hoped for in these new models. But they are still fun to have and are certainly better than other digital keyboards I have played in this price range under $1500, and if you are not too critical, you may like them just fine. All instrument sounds are quickly accessible through the color touch screen and there are picture icons for each sound group so you just touch it and that group of sounds or rhythms instantly comes up. It really is a pleasure using the color touch screen to quickly see & access all 1,100 sounds...it's a breeze to do it and definitely makes it fun to use this piano to achieve the musical sounds of your choice. Also, unlike any of the other Casio digital pianos, you can create and save 650 of your own personal user tones so that if you don't like one of the preset tones on the piano, you can modify that instrument tone to your liking and then save up to 650 of them in the user memories accessed easily by the color touch screen. That's a crazy huge amount of potential instrument/sound choices...but hey, it's just one more way of expanding beyond the preset sound library that Casio includes...and that's always a good thing.

Speaking of achieving musical sounds, another exclusive and impressive feature of  the X500 is its ability to visually edit individual parameters of each instrument sound using what is called sound editing "envelopes." These are specific parameters that were and still are used on professional synthesizer keyboards to modify and create new sounds from existing tones on the keyboard. In the X500 as an example, there are three sound editing parameters called pitch, filter, and amp. You can select any of these three functions and then enter into an envelope editing mode to adjust different parts of those sound parameters which include initial level, attack time, attack level, decay time, decay level, release time, release level, and envelope time. There are also additional editing parameters for portamentos (sliding/gliding tones), panning, and LFO's among other things so adjustments and the things you can adjust are almost endless. These adjustments or parameters can be useful to pro musicians looking make slight adjustments to the internal tones, studio musicians wanting to create new sounds altogether, or just music enthusiasts who want more digital "stuff" to play around with:). I have used these kinds of features before in pro keyboards but typically editing parameters were overall difficult to figure out, difficult to use, difficult to save when you did create something that you liked, and just not very accessible. However within the X500, using these editing envelopes (not for mailing a letter:) are readily accessible from the color touch screen, visually easy to find, easy to use, and are displayed in a color graphic layout which allows the editing to be visually pleasing and naturally intuitive as well. Even if you know nothing about this kind of editing or "programming," you can pretend that you do because it's that easy to use and changing the amount (up or down) of that editing parameter is done by turning the alpha dial either left or right and watching the color screen as changes are made. You can certainly make some pretty strange sounds if you want to do that which might be useful as video game tones or Halloween special effects and I know some young kids who might like to do that! But even if you have no desire to do these things and you never use these filters and envelopes to create or adjust new and preset sounds, this should not scare you into thinking the X500 is not the right portable instrument for you. The best way to explain it would be to say that with all these many, many features offered on this model that no other keyboard I know of under $2000 can do, there is something for everyone and it allows this instrument to be not only offer a very enjoyable piano playing experience, but it goes so much further for those people who want to take advantage of this creative technology. If you don't like the "extra stuff" then that is fine because you never need to use or touch those features and then you'll never know they are there:).

For beginners, amateurs, or even pro players, the X500 can also make you sound better than you actually are, and that can be a good thing depending on what you want out of your music. Casio has a very cool feature called "Auto-Harmonize" which does what it suggests...it allows the automatic harmony to come in when you play a single melody note. One of the goals of any student or musician is to play a song so it sounds as full as possible with multiple notes being played by both the left and right hand. Most of the time students and recreational players know how to play accompaniment chords with their left hand, but playing multiple note chords simultaneously with your right hand takes many years oflearning and practice to accomplish this. Some people get to that point but most people do not. They can play chords with their left hand with a one (or maybe 2) note melody with their right hand. So wouldn't it be special if you could play one note melodies with your right hand as your left hand is playing the full 3 or 4 finger chords and have your right hand one note melody sound like 3 or 4 notes playing correctly every time you play one key on the right hand? Well...that's what the "auto-harmonize" feature does for you. It automatically harmonizes the right hand single note melody with your left hand chords and makes it sound like you are playing multiple notes on your right hand even though you are only playing one key! The harmonize function also works when playing simple 1-finger chords on the left hand so that a complete beginner can sound like they have been playing for years:). The right hand harmonize feature includes 12 harmonizer variations for your melody accessible from the touch screen and it really does make your right hand sound like you've been playing multiple fingers for years...even though you're just playing one key at a time. This feature can be selected on or off when you want it directly from the master main screen in the touch display so it's easy to use. Whatever chord your left hand is playing and whatever song style you are playing in, the auto-harmonizer automatically adjusts the right hand melody to sound big and full in any number of musical styles while using the accompaniment section. OK...I know that some people will call this harmonizer feature a waste of time and an unnecessary toy. But when you try it, it will definitely bring a smile to your face because it makes your music sound fantastic, and if you don't play well, then I say that you should use all the help you can get:). It's great to learn how to play properly and traditionally...but as a long time piano teacher I always encourage my students to have fun and do whatever it takes to keep playing and enjoy the music....and that's what this feature does.

Most (but not all) digital keyboards offer fundamental features which include being able to change the touch sensitivity from soft to medium to hard, layer two instrument sounds together at one time to play the sounds simultaneously, split two sounds at a time with one on the left and right side of the keyboard, have special effects added to the sounds including reverb/echo, chorus, delay, adjusting EQ/brilliance, and using special DPS digital processing effects for further sound enhancement. The previous model Casio's had 4 levels of reverb, 4 levels of chorus effect, and 3 levels of brilliance control. These new    models have 4 times as many selections and variations so that's a huge jump in instrument sound control. Also, when it comes to the 128-note polyphonic stereo acoustic piano sounds which is the large amount of polyphony, the X500 offers the user full control over the natural piano sound elements within the piano sound including 16 adjustable levels of damper resonance, 8 levels of adjustable hammer response, and 16 levels of adjustable string resonance (sympathetic vibrations) and they are all easily selectable in the color touch screen along with using the data wheel if you prefer to scroll through the various option that way. No other digital piano in this range offers anything like that so as far as customizing the acoustic piano sound to your tastes, there is virtually no limit to what you can do. Once you make those personal changes you can then easily save that change into memories and access them again later.

Other notable features I really like is the ability to quickly adjust the individual volume, panning, and actual instrument sounds of each of the 16 MIDI recording & playback tracks as well as mute any of those recorded sounds during playback. This is normally referred to as the "mixer" section. On many digital pianos that have recording and playback in this price range or less, they are limited to normally 2-5 tracks of song recording and playback and many of those pianos also have little control over the individual aspects of the song that you're hearing. In the X500 there are numerous ways to adjust and change the song that is being recorded or played back so that you can do some nice editing of that song even after you have recorded it. Once again because of the easy to use color touch screen, these song editing features are much easier to find and to use compared to digital pianos without large color touch screens. The individual track adjustments will also work with the auto arranger chord music styles so that you can mute, pan, adjust volume, or change actual instrument sounds of any of the one-man-band accompaniment backing tracks. So even though there are many preset styles of auto arranger accompaniments, you have a lot of flexibility in what you can do with them through the real-time mixer, just like it would be in a real band or orchestra.

You can also change the piano tuning of the entire X500 using different preset tuning temperaments along with piano stretch tuning just like real pianos tuners do. It is true that many people may not initially understand what all these things mean or how they would affect the overall sound, but that's OK because you can just play around with them and see what they do because they will not permanently change anything unless you want to save what you did. Another very useful feature is a "operation lock" function which you can choose at any time to freeze the setups you have on the X500 so that no one can push buttons or touch the screen and change your settings. This is great for people playing in a live setting such as a pro gig, outside event, church, school, etc where there are lots of people near your piano and you don't want them inadvertently changing something on the piano. If you have kids running around your house touching stuff all the time, the operation lock setting prevents them from accidentally changing your setups. I use this feature all the time when young kids are in my studio:). You can easily change the octave of any instrument sound up or down whether playing solo or combining (layering) with another sound with the octave change feature in the touch screen. This allows any instrument sound to be played in a higher or lower octave regardless of what keyboard octave you are actually playing and extends the 61 keys to 88 notes of sound depending on what type of music would go well with the extended octaves.. For professionals or recreational players wanting more authenticity out of the non-piano sounds, the X500 has both modulation and a pitch bend wheels on the left side of the piano keyboard which allows for more realistic effects such as bending the note when (as an example) you use a clarinet or steel guitar sound or adding variable vibrato modulation when (as an example) using a violin or trombone tone. Violin players move there fingers to get vibrato out of the note and clarinet players bend their notes as they glide up from one pitch to the next. This can all be down independently with the two built-in wheels to the left of the keyboard. It's fun and actually pretty easy to do and many people enjoy making the instrument sounds as realistic as possible. The modulation wheel can also be assigned to many functions within the piano such as real-time speed (fast/slow) control for a Leslie type digital rotary speaker. You just simply move the modulation wheel up or down to control rotary speed or any number of other adjustments. This is done through the color touch screen and is easy to set up and is a great feature for controlling and replicating a Hammond B3 type organ sound. There are just so many features and functions on the X500 that you will probably not use them all...but it's nice to know they are there in case you need or want it...and this new model definitely has more features that I ever expected. Casio even put in a digital/virtual typing keyboard as a touch screen software feature so you can enter data by typing characters (as you would on your cell phone for texting, etc) to locate and save songs and retrieve other internal song and function data you need to find.

One thing that I personally like to be able to do quickly on a digital piano is to adjust my individual volumes of the various features so they balance out and blend together the way I want them to. This would include overall master volume, both right hand sounds 1 & 2, left hand sounds 1 & 2, accompaniments (drums, bass, rhythmic sounds, etc) audio recorder, MIDI recorder, audio inputs, audio output to external devices, metronome volume, and other volume controls. Without being able to quickly and easily adjust volumes among the various instruments and rhythms, then your song will not not good and one or more parts may overpower the other parts. Casio makes this a very simple process by going to their X500 volume balance icon on the main menu page and then touching it on the color touch screen which then displays all of the volume controls for each selection. You can then quickly and easily make the volume adjustments you want with the wheel dial and lock those volumes in to their specific number and instantly save them. The color control icons on the piano such as the balance control make it so intuitive even a 3 year old can figure it out. This is definitely not the case with most other digital pianos where you either need to dig deep into the owners manual to figure it all out (if you ever do) or for a few keyboards/digital pianos that have it, you can connect an iPad to the piano and see the piano controls on the iPad touch screen which obviously makes it much easier and more fun to use. However you need to dedicate an iPad to your piano and not many people can or will do that. So the importance of built-in color touch screen on the X500 cannot be overstated with regard to allowing the user to quickly get at the controls that are important to you to help create a useful intuitive environment so you can make good music instead of needing to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to use the piano!

The X500 also has a feature rich built-in recording studio system including a full 16-track (16 instrument multi-track) MIDI recorder and playback system along with a 1-track wav file (CD quality) audio recorder and playback control with 100 song recording and playback capacity. The length of time of recording for the MIDI recorder is 50,000 notes and the CD quality audio recorder time per song is a huge 74 minutes long. So when it comes to a vast array of recording and playback features in this lower price range, nothing beats or comes close to these two new models. I really like the fact that you can access the MIDI and audio wav recorders directly from    the control panel buttons so that you can quickly use it without needing to change the touch screen. Within the recording system there's a number of recording editing features that allows the process to become more detailed than just a simple digital recorder would offer. But what really sets the recording system apart from all other new digital keyboards under $1500 is the user interface controls in the color touch screen. Typically, recorders in digital pianos are not very easy to use, especially multi-track recorders such as what's in this new pianos. So...when features are more difficult to use, then people may not use them very often or at all, especially some of the more complex features like these recorders. The recording functions are nicely laid out in the color touch screen and are easy to access and you can even get into the recorder screen from a button on the control panel which makes it quick and easy to record. When you touch a recorder function on the color touch screen, then you can access a variety of features in that screen without too much guess work. Rather than go into all the recorder functions and features, you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that creating, making, and playing your own music in the X500 is super fun and allows you to express yourself in ways that many digital keyboards cannot do.

Speaking of MIDI recording & playback, the X500 can playback General MIDI song files off a USB flash drive which allows you to hear and play along with your favorite songs which you can download off the internet on a variety of sites, assuming you don't already have your own MIDI song files. Also, two of the most popular lesson curriculum's available today and used by piano teachers all over the US and the world are by Alfred and Faber & Faber. Both of those lesson book series have optional General MIDI songs which you can purchase and then play back in these Casio keyboards through a formatted USB flash drive. This function with available songs allows you to hear the lesson song in the book you're using and get a better for the rhythm & timing of that song along with being able to slow down the song to any tempo while learning that piece. There are literally thousands of General MIDI songs available on the internet and through these two publishers which makes the learning and practice experience at home much more fun and enjoyable. I have been using the MIDI song play-along method for years and find it to be very stimulating because it's like playing along with the orchestra or band. So regardless of your playing skill level whether it be beginner or very advanced, you can definitely have a lot of fun taking advantage of what this piano can do with regard to playing back General MIDI songs files...and the fact is, they make you sound better than you already are and if you don't play at all, then it just makes learning a more enjoyable experience. However, when it comes to actually learning how to play piano, you probably would be better off with the 88-key Casio PX560 digital piano to get the real feel of a piano keyboard. If you have questions about the General MIDI format, how to use it, and what it can actually do for you on these pianos, just ask me.

The X500 has an interesting and fun feature for both beginners and pros called Music Presets which is a library of left hand chord progressions & arrangements from famous songs and instructional books. Specifically what this function does is play a well known portion (aka:chord progression) of a famous song from a variety of songs in the Casio Music Presets song library and then loops that part of the song so it will play that chord rhythmic arrangement over and over without stopping. When you select a song and start it up, the color touch display screen shows you the name of the tune and displays the actual chord symbols in the color screen of the left hand chords of that chord progression loop. The idea is for you to be able to "jam"along (at any tempo you choose) with the chord progressions using your right hand and play melody notes along with the playback of the left hand chords. Basically it's like playing the piano along with the band only this band just plays a famous portion of a song (not the whole song) and does it over and over until you want to stop. This system allows you to learn to play by ear, to improvise, and to have fun while you do it all the while looking at the chord symbols in the display screen (just like guitar chords) so you know what notes to play depending on the chord playback progression. The more you hear the chord progression loop and the more you see the chord symbols in the display screen, the easier it will be for you to follow along, "jam out," improvise, and feel like you are in the middle of the band or orchestra. Also, the Music Preset system automatically selects a compatible right hand instrument sound for you so that it corresponds well with the song style progression being played so you don't need to guess what to select. However, you can play full piano sound with both left and right hand during the playback of the Music Presets library if you choose to do that with any of the 305 different Music Preset chord selections. You can also create your own personal custom music presets creating any repeating (looped) chord progression you want to with any music style you like and save up to 100 of them in memories. You can edit chords and their sequence, edit intros and endings, and really create your own Music Preset chord progression for jamming. If you are more of a beginner player then the editing features will likely not be of importance to you. But if you are a player and like the "tech stuff" when it comes to digital pianos, then you will like making your own Music Presets. I used this feature many times on the X500 and it's definitely lots of fun and quite musically stimulating and something that few other digital pianos have at any price.

When a person is musically and technically advanced enough to play very well, you will often hear them include arpeggios in their music. An arpeggio is a group of notes which are played one after the other, added either going up or going down. Playing an arpeggio requires the player to play the sounds of a chord individually to differentiate the notes. The notes all belong to one chord and the chord may be a simple chord with the 1st, (major or minor) 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale in it. An arpeggio in the key of C major going up two octaves would be the notes (C, E, G, C, E, G, C). An arpeggio really is just a type of broken chord. Other types of broken chords play notes of chords out of sequence or more than one note but less than the full chord simultaneously. Arpeggios can rise or fall for more than one octave and typically you see pianists play across the keyboard from left to right starting with lower notes in the bass section and going all the way up to higher notes in the treble section without stopping. Arpeggios add beauty and warmth to the song as well as giving it extra musical flare and excitement. Playing arpeggios well takes time and practice and in my personal experience, even though the concept of playing arpeggios is simple, they are not necessarily easy to execute. So Casio has done something about this for the person who would love to play them but is not good enough to do so. Casio has included a super cool and fun auto-arpeggiator feature in the X500 which instantly and automatically plays arpeggios for you while you hold down a simple (or complex) chord. The notes of that chord are played automatically up and down the keyboard without you having to do it. Whatever 2, 3, 4, or 5 finger chord you choose to play and hold down, the arpeggios will be heard playing just like you would have been doing it yourself after many years of practice! Arpeggios will work with any instrument sound and in fact you can have the arpeggiator play an acoustic piano sound in an arpeggio pattern while being layered with another sound (such as strings) which will maintain a constant sustained tone underneath the piano arpeggio. The musical outcome of this sound is super impressive and all you need to do is play simple chords to get it. There are 9 virtual pages totaling 100 different and unique arpeggio patterns quickly and easily accessed by the color touch screen. These arpeggios can be assigned to both the right hand sounds and the left hand sounds all at the same time in combinations or independently. You can use any of the 650 instrument sounds in the piano for any of the four arpeggio sound parts and you can even select a play and hold feature which allow you to play the chord to get the arpeggio started and then let go of the keys and the arpeggio will keep playing so that you can create music within the arpeggio pattern. The tempo of arpeggio pattern can be changed to any speed by using the tempo button on the piano control panel and the arpeggio will respond to sustain pedal as well as transpose key, effects, etc. The arpeggio pattern will even sync up to any rhythm pattern to be used within a rhythmic song accompaniment pattern. I can tell you from personal experience that using an arpeggio feature will make you sound like you have been playing all your life even if you cannot play at all:)...or it make allow the pro player to add special flare and excitement to their music while playing full traditional piano and having the arpeggios playing patterns using another instrument on top of that piano music. With literally millions of pattern and sound combinations at your fingertips, you could spend days and weeks just playing with the auto-arpeggiator and have great musical fun and enjoyment. For some people this feature is just a musical toy, but I have always loved to play musical toys and if it allows me to make music in a way that I could not do otherwise on my own, then I am all for it!

As for the piano connectivity, the X500 has a variety of connectivity for other devices with of the inclusion of 2 mini stereo headphone jacks in front, on the back of the piano two 1/4" audio output jacks to connect to external speakers if you should be playing in a large room or venue where you need extra sound, an audio-in stereo mini jack with separate volume control (for iPods, iPads, mics, and other devices), and a damper pedal jack using an included plastic sustain pedal which is small, but basically OK (at least Casio includes it for free rather than it being an extra cost). The X500 also provides for an additional  assignable pedal input so that the performer can use a volume pedal or trigger pedal along with having the sustain pedal. The piano has a high speed USB output to computer or tablet device with is "plug & play" class compliant connectivity. There is an input for a USB flash drive on the front of the piano to load audio and MIDI song files as well as save them from the piano after you have created your own song. The X500 also has two full size 1/4" line input jacks and the internal piano effects such as reverb, brilliance, etc will apply to the    connected devices (mics, etc) going through those input jacks...and that's a very useful feature and not something that Casio has ever offered before. For some people, having standard MIDI cable connections for both MIDI in and out ports is important because there's still a need for some people who have MIDI products without USB connection) (sound modules, keyboards, etc) to have MIDI connections and not USB. So the built-in MIDI connectors on the X500 is a very big thing for some people and many digital pianos in this price range don't have this feature. Whether or not you will use all of these connectivity options one way or the other simply depends on your musical needs and desires but it's definitely good to have them.

So why would someone want to buy a Casio MZ-X500 over other new digital keyboards under $2000? There are really a number of reasons why a person would want this unique instrument, and one of them is because of its huge sound through the powerful 40 watt, 4 speaker bass reflex sound system and the lightweight 18 lb cabinet and small compact dimensions. It's easy to carry and keep in small spaces and can also be placed on any portable style stand. The next reason someone may want this piano is because of its very attractive elegant two-tone satin royal blue color with black trim. Actually I am somewhat kidding about the blue color being important, but in a way I am being serious. This is definitely one of the coolest looking high quality pro type digital keyboards in a lower price range that I have ever seen. The lines, the design detail, the buttons, the slant and placement of the control panel and color display screen make this keyboard very classy looking but yet very contemporary and compact all at the same time. Casio did an outstanding job in designing the X500 cabinet and I like it a lot. Even if you don't play very well it makes you look like you do...and if you do play well and you want to play out somewhere, it makes you look even cooler and like you might actually know what you are doing...and that's always a good thing for people to think:). Easy to carry, easy to operate, and great looking which can be important in making that buying decision. However when you add on everything this instrument is capable of doing, the X500 becomes a real monster in terms of running over just about every other portable digital piano in its path as far as a complete package in a lower price range under $1500. I will say that there are other digital pianos where you may be able to get even better acoustic piano sounds, better electric piano sounds, better instrument sounds, more authentic accompaniment arrangements, better special effects, better pedaling realism, a bigger fuller internal speaker system, and a more realistic piano key action as there are some experienced players who are very "picky" about key actions. However, you would probably need to spend a lot more money to get something better or give up many of the X500 features to focus on just a few things that may be more to your liking.

I have played all of the new portable digital pianos under $1500 and I would absolutely pick the new Casio X500 at $1099US internet price as my favorite because I am the type of player who likes to make and create a variety of music and music styles and the X500 lets me do this easily and quickly and I really enjoy playing it. You can call this instrument many things including a home keyboard, a home digital piano, a pro digital piano, a pro keyboard, a stage piano, a studio recording music creation instrument, a synthesizer, a music workstation, a special effects machine, a fun machine, a one-man-band, or you can just call it a serious digital piano that does other stuff. However the X500 may or may not be the perfect or right digital piano for you, so you need to do your research and homework to be as sure as possible that it will allow you to achieve your musical goals and satisfy your musical needs in your price range. Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Kurzweil, and a few other brands make some nice digital keyboard product but none of those companies have anything close to what the X500 can do overall in this price range...and if you add a good pair of powered speakers (approx $300 or less) to the X500, then it sounds even more amazing and impressive. I definitely enjoy playing other brands and models of portable digital keyboards but in this price range I am pretty sold on all that the X500 can do for me as a complete musical and creative experience:). Do yourself a favor, before you make any buying decision at all, please contact me and I can give you some personal advice.

*Take a look at the MZ500 demo video below by Ralph Maten, internationally known pro studio musican, to see this amazing keyboard in action with a contemporary musical rendition of Star Wars! Make sure you listen to this video through good stereo speakers or headphones. (pay attention to all the X500 features being used at the same time (in real time) including user samples on touch pads, stereo string symphony tones with solo cello/violin tones, stereo brass, synth tones, drum rhythm patterns and percussion, auto arpeggios, movie sound track voices, and all the other things you'll see and hear if you pay attention. This guy did an awesome job and he's entertaining too:)



*The X500 video below is an overall general demo (by Ralph Maten) of some of the instrument, synth, and Hex tones, along with a few solo sounds, rhythm patterns, and effects. Pretty impressive...



* Another X500 video (below) showing off a variety of user sound and effects registrations.


If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* I recommend eMedia educational software. If you decide to make a purchase after clicking on link below, I have arranged a big discount for you direct with eMedia for their educational software and that discount price is displayed through this link only! I want to see everyone learn to play and enjoy piano!

One of the reasons for difficulty in knowing if a particular used piano is a good choice is because defects in pianos can be hidden or intermittent (it only occurs occasionally which is usually difficult to detect), or you just don't have enough personal experience to know what's good and what is bad. Both digital and acoustic pianos are very complex instruments and when you subject them to a hot, dry climate like we have here in Arizona, that can create even more problems as anyone here can tell you. Too much humidity in acoustic pianos over a period of time can also create bad, on-going issues.
As an example, when you want to buy a used acoustic piano, do you know the humidity content in the piano or the lack of it? Are there any small, hard to see cracks in the soundboard or pinblock (the block of wood that the tuning pins are in) that can lead to expensive repairs down the line? Do any of the keys stick from time to time when played or are the dampers worn out or improperly seated and adjusted so each note plays cleanly and properly? Do you know if the piano can stay in tune for a reasonable period of time or will it need constant attention in that area due to the fact the piano has loose tuning pins you may not be aware of?
As for a digital piano, those instruments are electronic and the older the piano is, the more problems the piano might have. Perhaps certain functions don't work but you may not discover that until you have taken it home, and then it's too late. Also, older electronic pianos obviously use old technology and in many cases, are not compatible with today's digital music world. For instance, a digital piano using a 3 1/2" floppy disk drive is obsolete because of that technology and reduces the value of that digital piano in a big way. Music midi files are now saved to USB flash drives and SD cards, and for good reason so you definitely want to use that technology whenever possible. Some of the keyboard actions used in older digital pianos wear out quickly or don't perform properly because improved technology and construction was not available in those days. Perhaps an important circuit board is ready to fail but there are no more to be had from the manufacturer and then your piano is likely worthless! But these things may be hard for you to determine if you don't know what you are looking at when it comes to used digital pianos. Just because the acoustic or digital piano may be a popular brand name such as Yamaha, Roland, Kawai, Steinway, Korg, Technics, Casio, Kurzweil, Suzuki, Samick, Young Chang, or other popular piano names, that doesn't mean they don't have known problems in some of their models over the years.
It can be VERY expensive to repair a piano depending on if you can still get parts for it or if it will need constant service due to cracks or flaws in workmanship or electronics that you couldn't originally detect. Just because the piano has been sitting in someone's home or store for a while without much use doesn't mean that it will work right or sound good over time Some repairs can be minor without need to worry about it or some can be major, but unless you have someone evaluate that piano for you who you trust, you could be "opening a can of worms" that that you cannot put away, and could cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to repair depending on exactly what it is.
So the bottom line is, BE CAREFUL! Extra dry weather, extra humid climates, unknown factory defects that are no longer covered because the used piano has no warranty are all reasons a used piano can come back to bite you in the end. That doesn't mean however there aren't good used pianos being sold, it just means "buyer beware." Also, just because a person buys a NEW piano doesn't mean there won't be problems with the new piano because some of them are just designed and built poorly in the first place. But if you are buying from a reputable piano dealer, a trusted private party, knowledgeable piano technician, or you just know what you're doing, then you should be able to find a good used piano for a reasonable price. However, before you buy any piano anywhere, contact me first and I can give you helpful free advice and also show you how you can save even more money on your purchase.
*No matter where you live in the US or if you happen to live here in Arizona in the "valley of the sun" including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Glendale, Cave Creek, Carefree, Anthem, Tempe, Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Laveen, Goodyear, Ahwatukee, Avondale, Litchfield Park, Buckeye, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria, Wickenburg, and other valley locations... 
please contact me for more info at tim@azpianowholesale.com or if you are anywhere in the US then you can also call me at 602-571-1864 during my posted studio hours.

UPDATE: WARNING TO DIGITAL PIANO SHOPPERS! BEWARE!...WHO CAN YOU TRUST WHEN IT COMES TO SPENDING YOUR MONEY AND MAKING THE RIGHT BUYING DECISION??


Let's get one thing straight right away... many music store salespeople and most all independent on-line so-called review sites have almost no idea what they are talking about when it comes to 88-key digital pianos. I have personally found that many of them purposely mislead & misinform people, steal my content, and/or have never actually played the instruments they are talking about based on all my experience with them. How do I know that?...I have read those so-called reviews, been into multiple music stores 100's of times over the years, and the info they have is so wrong at times, it's laughable...but in reality it's sad because you might believe it, and many people do! These so-called "independent reviewers, Amazon linked rfeviewers, and "salespeople" only want your money to make a commission and probably know very little about the products they talk about or represent. Some of these on-line review sites can't even write with good, proper English let alone have every played what they talk about as I mentioned earlier, which makes it more confusing to decipher and understand. If these people (especially on-line "review sites") had actually played the instruments they talk about, they would have never said the things that they say because their comments are so easy for you to check out and verify. If you don't believe me just ask me because I can site lots of current examples.

On Sale, Best Price, 80% off, buy here, go here, internet reviews that eventually take you to Amazon.com or other similar sites...there is ALWAYS some sort of sale going on in music stores and web sites.When shopping for a digital piano at on-line or local digital piano & music stores, it's difficult to know who and what to trust. By definition, a music or piano store is normally there to sell you something. Whether it's an acoustic piano, digital piano, keyboard, guitar, band & orchestral instrument, percussion, or other music related product, they sell you something...and that's OK. After all, they have business overhead to worry about such as paying for their store, paying for their inventory, paying for their salespeople, paying for their taxes, their utilities, and other expenses. When it comes to the products and brands a store (local or internet) sells, it's likely that store will not say bad things about their product. In most cases a store will only say positive things about the product they sell, otherwise why would they be a dealer for that product? So by definition, if a store needs to make money (and they all do), then they cannot possibly be unbiased towards the products they carry vs products they donot carry. Even these accessory bundles or packages you see on-line or in stores can be deficient in many cases because they may include the cheapest low quality accessories just to keep the price down and make it look like you are getting something for nothing...but you really aren't! Before you buy any package of bundle deal, contact me first and I'll tell you if it is really good or not because I know a lot about accessories (I use them in my studio) and the best ones to get at low prices.

Whatever a store sells is always going to be better than a product which that store does not sell (according to the salespeople there)...does that make sense? In other words, you'll rarely hear a store tell you "go and buy my competitors piano because it's better than what I have." This just does not happen (haha). But in reality that store is in business to sell product...right? For stores and some internet sites, it's "about selling" and not about really helping you, although there are some very good places that still do care about you...and you are welcome to ask me who they are with regard to US companies. With that in mind, when it comes to digital pianos, the stores need to make a profit on that sale and the bigger the profit on a particular brand and model of digital piano, the more likely that store and its salespeople will tell you that you need that piano and nothing else will do. However, that piano may not be a good one for you but you may never know that because you don't understand the way a piano key action really needs to feel and work so that it plays music correctly, or how the pedal(s) should operate, or how the dynamic sound needs to respond.

Then there are so-called piano "review" sites that are really stores or private people using Amazon links to make money. When you see someone reviewing pianos and everything they review is linked to Amazon, they just want you to buy that product from Amazon so they can make money off of you regardless of how poor or wrong that product may actually be for you. It costs nothing for a so-called reviewer to link their site to Amazon or other internet selling sites so that you can buy that product off their link. I would suggest you run away as fast as you can if you see a web site or review site that links everything they have to Amazon, eBay or similar sites. I have seen false and misleading info given on these selling and review sites just so you'll buy the product. Can you really trust these places (sites) to give you good reliable info?...I for one do not trust them because I have seen positive recommendations for bad or inferior pianos from store web sites or so-called review sites that seem to not care about what they say as long as it gets you to buy something. STAY AWAY from these places and do not trust them if you want reliable info!

There are definitely music & piano stores and salespeople in the US and around the world who can be trusted and those companies have usually been there for many years and have earned their reputation with a lot of history to show for it. Always ask how long that store has been in business and how long that salesperson has worked there. It can be a good indicator of what you should & should not believe about what they tell you. A new local music store with little or no history may be a good place to shop, but you may also be better off going to an established dealer in the community (or on-line) because they may be able to offer better service and better pricing. This is also true with on-line sites and so-called reviewers as far as them having experience and knowing what they are talking about.

A salesperson is by definition, a salesperson. He or she may know something about the product they sell, but he or she is there to SELL you something and the more profit that is in a particular brand or model (assuming they have a variety of brands & models), the more incentive that salesperson has to push that product on you regardless of whether that item is good for your musical needs or not. A salesperson who also teaches music in a music store, or a teacher who is also a salesperson in a music store cannot (by default) be neutral because they are usually required by that store to say only good things about the products that particular store sells...even though that "teacher" may not like that piano very much. They are normally required and compelled into saying good things only. On the other hand, there are some fabulous pianos in music stores where music lessons take place and those teachers really do love those instruments because those products are really good:). But who can you trust and how do you really know?

Based on all my years of teaching, shopping, and piano buying experience (which is much more than most people), as I mentioned earlier, you are likely just a "commission" for many salespeople at music stores and amazon linked sites and they may have little regard for your long-term musical goals & needs. Also, just because a particular brand of digital piano may be famous or popular does not automatically make one of their models worth owning as compared to other brands & models. I have seen popular brands in past years like Yamaha, Roland, Kurzweil, and others, produce models that were not as good as other piano brands or models in a similar price range. In fact, there are some (popular) digital piano brands right now that build models which have noticeable and important deficiencies which can inhibit a person's ability to learn & play piano properly. But yet there are on-line & local piano & music stores in the US who say nothing but good things about these deficient pianos when in reality those pianos have problems with poor key action movement, bad piano sound, small dynamic range, low polyphony, poor functionality, or a track record of poor reliability. But you'll never know or get this info from stores that sell those brands because they will not tell you the truth. These particular stores are only worried about their "bottom line," their "profit margin," and reaching sales quotas that manufacturers give them.

A good digital piano should give you years of enjoyment as long as it does the fundamentals correctly. Some store dealers will go to the trouble of producing their own product videos which can be helpful, but unfortunately when it comes to the key action, which is the #1 most important thing to look for in a digital piano, you obviously cannot feel it or play it from a video. It is very easy for a salesperson/demonstrator to make any key action seem good in a video but you cannot really trust what you see when it comes to physically moving key actions and I can tell you that from much experience. As an example, there are certain brands and models of digital pianos that have stiff key actions when playing more delicate music and pressing the keys lightly. If you were to push a key on a regular good acoustic piano and then push a key on one of these digital pianos, you would immediately notice a huge difference. A piano key action is of the utmost importance and I talk about key actions a lot in my reviews and will let you know when a key action is bad and when it is good based on fundamentals of moving piano keys as compared to a real acoustic piano.

I am a long time experienced digital piano pro musician & piano teacher and have played all of the latest brands and models now and throughout my long 45 year music career (I started very young as a musician - piano, organ, guitar - and originally as a young guitar teacher).  I do not have a local store or warehouse, I don't have an on-line shopping cart, I don't link to PayPal to make commissions, I do not need to sell pianos to pay for overhead because I don't have a store and don't need the money. I don't need to reach sales goals or achieve high profit margins, or to say good things about bad pianos (and there are some as I mentioned before). I do like to help people get good new digital pianos at low prices because I have always been able to do that for myself and I know how, and that would include all brands and models.  I will tell you what is good, what to stay away from, and how much you should be spending on a particular brand and model of new digital piano. I am also an expert on older digital pianos in the US (I have played nearly all of them) and can tell you whether a used one is a good investment or not.

When someone at a music store or so-called (pretend) review site tells you they are unbiased about digital piano brands but they are working for or in an actual music store or linked to Amazon shopping cart ads, that statement is a "red flag" when it comes to whether you can actually trust what they tell you. When they make claims such as a specific piano having "perfect sound & key action-touch," then they are simply being untruthful in my opinion because the only"perfect piano sound & key action" is in a regular acoustic piano. Many of the newer digital pianos are getting very close to real acoustic pianos in the way they sound & play and are indeed very enjoyable pianos to own for many years.

For most families and piano buyers, a good new digital piano will be an enjoyable playing and listening experience as long as you understand what they are supposed to do and any limitations or truly helpful features they may have. Once you understand that then you will become a better shopper and seek out more info from other stores and on-line sources and not spend any more money than you have to.  I will be happy to help and give you FREE piano buying and price advice because as a long time piano, keyboard, organ, and guitar teacher, and pro musician, I want the very best for all piano students and people who enjoy playing the piano! That's what it's all about for me:)

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* I recommend eMedia educational software. If you decide to make a purchase after clicking on link below, I have arranged a big discount for you direct with eMedia for their educational software and that discount price is displayed through this link only! I want to see everyone learn to play and enjoy piano!

DP603 polished ebony

REVIEW - Roland DP603 Digital Piano - Recommended - The Roland corporation is known for producing some great musical instruments including digital pianos, synthesizers, guitar products, percussion, recording & audio equipment, and the list goes on. Many pro players as well as institutions own Roland digital pianos and Roland produces some good ones. Just like any manufacturer, not every product they make is a "home run" but the new Roland DP603 cabinet digital piano ($1999US internet price in satin black finish only - no bench) or the DP603 portable digital piano ($2799US internet price in polished ebony or white finish including matching duet bench) are competitively priced and definitely offer a very satisfying piano playing experience with new technology and key action in a lower price range. Roland has had the DP line of pianos for many years but this is by far the best one yet. So for the Roland company I would call this one a "home run" for them.

HP603 upgraded piano store model

So what makes this new DP603 piano model so good? There are many things that I can point out that should give Roland a good reason to be proud of their accomplishment in creating this instrument and my review here is quite long and comprehensive which I believe is important so that people can make an informed decision. Before I go on further, I want to point out that Roland has had a new line of home style digital pianos out for awhile (nearly 1 year) with the exact same digital technology, functions, key action, and pedaling as is in the new DP603. In fact the DP603 is really just a less expensive version of the Roland HP603 home cabinet digital piano which is only found in local US Roland piano dealers and not for sale on-line in the US. The HP603 sells for closer to $3000 in the Roland piano dealer stores but they come in a more formal, authentic piano cabinet with a very nice duet bench, have a different, much longer warranty, and the home pianos include an extensive accessory package at no charge. Otherwise the the new DP603 is virtually the same as the HP603 model, with the exception of cabinet design & structure and one Bluetooth feature.

What is the difference between this new Roland model over the previous Roland models as well as compared to their their competition from Yamaha and Kawai? To start off, for the first time Roland has created a hybrid key action unlike anything they have done before. Each key consists of a combination of wood and plastic (instead of all plastic in the previous Roland models) and Roland claims this gives the key movement more authenticity and natural weight as well as eliminates maintenance of the all-wood key actions. Roland's claim is that these new keys give the key structure more durability and more rigidity (with the addition of an inner stabilizer pin which also reduces lateral key movement) while allowing the action to feel more authentic with the wood in the keys to vibrate a bit from the sound waves when the "digital strings" are vibrating, as a key would normally do in a real acoustic piano. In other words, the key is not all plastic and not all wood as you would normally find in the other popular digital piano brands and Roland would claim this is the best way to produce a key in a digital piano. I personally don't know if it's the best way to make a key and I doubt that the small amount of wood in the key does too much other than look nice, but as long as the keys move smoothly, are balanced well, and are graded weighted in a satisfying way, then that's what I look for, and I believe this new key action called the PHA50 does all that. It is an upgrade to the previous key actions called the "Premium Action" which Roland had in their previous DP90e. Although I always felt that the Premium Key Action was very good and enjoyable to play, this new PHA50 action is even more so and I did notice some upgraded advantages.

It is definitely worth mentioning that the new top-of-the-line PHA-50 key action is on all of the new Roland models in the higher price ranges as well as these 2 models here. This is not the case with Kawai and Yamaha digital pianos where they reserve their best upgraded key actions for their more expensive models. In fact, Yamaha's best (CLP) digital piano key action is exclusively in their most expensive Clavinova piano called the CLP585 which retails for $6299US. So price alone in a digital piano does not necessarily determine quality or realism when compared to a real acoustic piano. Acoustic piano key actions vary from one piano to another, one brand to another, and there are differences between grand piano key actions and upright piano key actions. So when it comes to digital pianos key actions, the new PHA50 composite action (plastic + wood) in the DP603 is without question and upgrade to what was previously available in this price range before with regard to Roland digital pianos. This allows Roland to be more competitive with the other brands in this price range although the other major brands still have very good key actions. But as far as Roland goes, it does not matter which new furniture cabinet model you get at this point starting with the DP603 and going up from there...they all have the identical key action and well as the same digital features.

The new Roland key action also has the "escapement feature" which simulates the movement of grand piano keys when you press them down slowly and easily and you feel them slightly hesitate or have a notch or bump that occurs as you press the key down. This type of feeling is a natural occurrence on a real grand piano and helps with key control when playing music legato and slowly. You can actually distinctly feel this "escapement" key action feature in the Roland pianos. However in all of the newer Yamaha digital pianos in this price range, they do not have the escapement simulation feature. Kawai does have the escapement feature which they call "let-off" and that key action is in the new Kawai ES8 and all of their other digital pianos in this price range. Yamaha does offer the escapement key action feature but only in their full size cabinet pianos starting at around $2500US. But just because the feature (escapement) may be there doesn't mean it's working well, and in my opinion the Roland escapement feature is more authentic but is still a simulation and not the real thing. Kawai also uses the escapement feature, which they call "let-off" (just another name for the same thing) and the Kawai feature is more pronounced and more similar to Roland in that way.

Another thing I noticed about the new Roland key action was how much more quiet it was as compared with their previous models when the keys are moving up and down. By nature, regular acoustic piano key actions do make some noise when the keys are moving, but because those pianos are always so loud and they don't have a volume control or headphone jack like digital pianos do, you cannot hear the key action noise when playing the piano. However in a digital piano, when you have the volume somewhere between low to medium level or when you are using headphones, then you can definitely hear the key action moving and noise is more of a concern. I can say for sure that the key action noise level on these new Roland pianos is the lowest that it's been on any Roland digital piano and has surpassed the previous models for an even lower key movement noise reduction level. The previous models were already pretty good and more most people were satisfied with the fairly low ambient noise level of the moving keys. But the new PHA50 key action has definitely surpassed this and has become quieter and smoother in key movement and this is something that I think many people will appreciate, especially if you play at a higher skill level or you use headphones a lot. Gone are the days on older model Roland key actions when all you could really hear were the "thump" of the keys going down. When you combine this new Roland hybrid key with the quieter, smoother graded-weight (quick response) key movement along with good key action "down weight"& "up weight" return (measured by actual weights - left pic), you really feel like you can express yourself in a more authentic musically correct way as compared with previous models, at least that's the way that I felt about it when playing this new key action. Then you add the nice escapement feature in the key action that I talked about along with Roland proprietary synthetic ivory & ebony feel keys (they do feel good), and the Roland company has really stepped up to the plate in a big way by improving upon what they already had in the previous models. This key action is not a major breakthrough in my opinion compared to previous models, but I believe that beginners through advanced players will appreciate it very much. The new PHA50 key action is available in all of the new Roland piano models rather than just in selected higher priced models such as what other brands offer.

When it comes to piano sound and getting as close to approximating or matching a real acoustic piano, there is no digital piano that can exactly reproduce a real acoustic grand piano sound regardless of what anyone else may say. It simply has never been done and no digital piano brand can rightly claim that they have done it. So the next best thing is "how close can a digital piano get to a real acoustic piano sound playing experience?" If you knew how complex a real acoustic piano sound actually is and what is actually happening in a good grand piano when it comes to the piano sound itself  (what it does and how you hear it), you would probably drop your jaw open and think it would be impossible to recreate digitally because there are certain piano sound elements that happen in "real time" that are always changing depending on how fast or slow you play the keys, how hard or soft you hit (play) the keys, the type of wood the piano is made of, how much soundboard space you have in the real piano, the types of hammers and key felt that is part of the key action, the vibrations and overtones of the 230 strings (give or take) in a real grand piano and how they all interact with each other including the random vibrations, sympathetic noises, frequency changes, tonal dynamics, string thickness, string windings and materials, the scale design, the piano iron frame, dampers and their affect on the sound, decay and sustain time of the sustained strings, volume, duration of the tone and changes in velocity, among other things. Even the the style of music you play such as chording, voicing of chords, staccato and legato of the notes, and the interaction of the string vibrations on the body of the piano all contribute to the final outcome of the sound. Not only are the key action elements quite complex in a real acoustic piano, but in a lot of ways the piano sound is even more complex and trying to get that "perfect" reproduction which people are looking for in a digital piano is very difficult given the current technology that most digital piano companies are using.
Physical Modeling sound is not recorded from an acoustic piano but is created through non sampling computer mathematical algorithms. I am definitely not  a mathematician so the best explanation I found on the subject which I believe is important to understand (at some level) so that you can appreciate this new piano sound technology, is as follows: "In sound synthesis, physical modeling synthesis refers to methods in which the waveform of the sound to be generated is computed by using a mathematical model or formula, being a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound, usually a musical instrument. Such a model consists of laws of physics that govern the sound production, and will typically have several parameters, some of which are constants that describe the physical materials and dimensions of the instrument, while others are time-dependent functions that describe the player's interaction with it, such as plucking a string, or covering toneholes. For example, to model the sound of a drum, there would be a formula for how striking the drumhead injects energy into a two dimensional membrane. Thereafter the properties of the membrane (mass density, stiffness, etc.), its coupling with the resonance of the cylindrical body of the drum, and the conditions at its boundaries (a rigid termination to the drum's body) would describe its movement over time and thus its generation of sound." That's the explanation I found that best suits the technology.

In piano sound physical modeling, that technology is dealing with things such as the energy/force you put into the playing the keys, the interaction of the tonal dynamics, piano hammers, felt movement on the hammers, string movement over time, overtones that excite other moving and non-moving parts of the strings and wood cabinet, and many more physical aspects of a real acoustic piano.,..and all of these physical properties in a real piano are recreated by computer computations. It's like a powerful computer that draws a "virtual picture" of every aspect of the best  acoustic grand piano possible and then that "virtual picture" instantly comes to life as that actual acoustic piano played instantly in micro seconds with no repetition or sameness. This gives you the feeling that the piano sound which you're hearing coming through the speaker system is being generated from an real acoustic piano, when in fact is is all done in the virtual technology world. Instead of audio recordings that cannot recreate some of the acoustic organic tendencies and variations that real acoustic pianos can project, the physical modeled piano incorporates things like the actual individual staples in each of the felt hammers, the weight of each felt hammer, the speed in micro seconds at which keys move, the vibration rate of each of the 230 piano strings at different key stroke velocities, the wood action parts and the glue, leather, felt, suede, carbon fiber and other material that may be used in real pianos to make things happen. There is no limit to sound recreation using physical modelling technology, but there are limits using the standard sampling technology. Imagine trying to record the vibration sound rates of each string at over 20 velocities across the entire keyboard of strings...it is impossible in the real physical world to do, but it is something that can be done in the virtual world of physical modelling. You could (if this feature was included, but it is not) even change the material in the strings from copper, to silver, to rubber bands if you really wanted to along with the tonal characteristics of those materials:). I would not want to hear what 230 different sized rubber bands sound like with piano hammers hitting them, but it could be done with virtual physical modelling.. By the way, Roland is using complete physical modeling technology for the piano sounds and all aspects of the sound whereas Yamaha, who also makes some nice digital pianos and uses some physical modeling, has it to generate the reverb resonance feature only but the piano sounds are sampled. Polyphony is limited to 256 notes (which is really not a problem and more than enough for most players) and the reverb physical modeling is limited to their two top models only. Roland has complete (100%) actual physical modeling coming for the entire sound (there is no sampling).

Roland has tried to emulate the Steinway Concert grand piano sound over the years and that's what they have done here with these new digital pianos in trying to get them to behave much the same way as the real thing does. Having this kind of technology gives the player an approximation of Steinway grand sound characteristics without the large size and expense of that acoustic piano. In fact, it could be said that the new Roland digital piano sound is so lifelike and organic that it sounds like there are no speakers in the digital piano itself and that the sound is naturally occurring within the cabinet and not coming through speakers...but obviously there are speakers and to a trained ear like mine, there is still a noticeable difference between the "real thing" acoustic piano and these Roland digital pianos...but I expected that. An example of the new Roland sound is when you press any one key on the Roland piano without having any additional reverb or sound effects on, that one note will also trigger natural occurring "overtones" for that specific note that you would normally and naturally hear in a real piano. Just take my word for it, it really does do that and no other major digital piano brand has that capability at the moment. Also, just when a person thought that 256-note polyphony processing power for the piano sound was a lot, the new Roland physical modelling technology has jumped that polyphony number up to...infinity and beyond:)...in other words...unlimited polyphony. There is no limit because of the way the sound is generated in the virtual physical world. However, the 256-note polyphony in other name brand pianos is way more than enough to power even some of the most complex piano music that a person can play. The unlimited polyphony on the Roland pianos is for the acoustic piano sounds only but not for the non-acoustic piano instruments such as electric pianos, strings, organs, choirs, brass, etc...it's 384-note polyphony which is also more than the other brands do, but once again, not something that you'll actually notice when playing these instrumental sounds. Also, polyphony power has nothing to do with the actual instrument sound samples and the authenticity of those tones. However, when you combine that polyphony power along with a 3-sensor key action, the musical expression and dynamic tonal & volume range you get in these new pianos is very impressive. From very soft pianissimo to extra loud Forte volume. these new pianos go beyond what a person might otherwise expect out of a digital piano, particularly a Roland digital piano.

Physical Modeling Virtual Technology

A lot of people say to me "I don't want or need a lot of extra instrument sounds, so if the piano just has some great piano tones, key action, and pedaling, then that's my main focus." As a piano teacher and pro musician I totally understand and agree with that, to a point, but there are some good reasons to have all of those extra instrument sounds on the piano such as being able to make a multitrack, multi-instrument recording or using what is called "General MIDI" song playback. All Roland piano models can play back General MIDI song files from a USB flashdrive which is a great feature and one I use quite often in my studio for song learning and teaching. The General MIDI/GS song format allows you to play your piano parts live along "with the band or orchestra" in prerecorded MIDI songs and to interact with multiple instruments (up to 16 tracks) at one time using well known piano lesson books including thousands of popular songs off the internet from a variety of music styles and eras such as Jazz, Latin, Country, Rock, Gospel, Christian, movie themes, classical orchestra, pop, and much more which can be found on the Internet. Some of this music is free and some costs money. For more info on the General MIDI format go here: General MIDI and Playing Piano. The MIDI song titles (and page numbers depending on the files) can be accessed and seen from the LCD user display screen on the piano which makes using it easier to know what song your flashdrive is playing as compared to only having LED display screens or none at all. With Yamaha Clavinova CLP digital pianos for example, the only model that has the General MIDI song format is the top of the line CLP585 which is priced at $5000 and up. With Kawai digital pianos the only cabinet model with General MIDI playback format is priced at about $2500US which is good. However, all of the new Roland cabinet pianos have this helpful and entertaining songplay and lesson learning format starting with this DP603, so their models cover all the price ranges and cabinet styles. I will say that using the MIDI song playback feature is definitely not intuitive in this piano or any of the other Roland models above this one. There is no clear instruction in the owners manual on how to do it correctly and trying to figure it out on your own can be frustrating. It even took me awhile to get the hang of it (and I have lots of experience with these things) so Roland could have done a much better job with implementing a USB flashdrive "plug & play" feature instead of what they have now when accessing MIDI folders off a USB flashdrive. It's very disappointing when wanting to get to things quickly and efficiently. Roland has a number of other ways its pianos can record music and play back songs for music education & learning that are quite useful and can be important when trying to learn music whether you are a beginner or professional. This special recording and play back can be done as a 1-track audio WAV file which allows you to have an actual CD quality song that can be played on other devices such as your computer or converted to a MP3 audio file to play on an iPad, iPod, or iPhone. The pianos can also record 3-track MIDI so you can have separate right-hand, left-hand, and accompaniment tracks recorded individually and then played back as one song...it's simple and fun to do. Typically most people only need or use 3 tracks of recording because you may want to hear your left hand piano part, your right hand piano part, and an orchestral accompaniment part. Some digital piano brands (like Yamaha) offer more than 3 tracks of recording in their models and up to 16-tracks of non General MIDI recording....which is nice to have but I find the extra recording tracks are seldom used by most people. The General MIDI 16-track playback format is more important for music enjoyment and learning in my opinion because most MIDI music on the internet has been recorded using this format. Roland has been building professional recording & music learning devices for musicians, teachers, and students for years who use them in their home or studio (as I do) for more effective practice sessions. If you want to know more about this you are welcome to contact me.

All of the new Roland pianos offer the standard functions of layering two sounds together, splitting two sounds with one on the right hand and the other sound on the left hand, being able to play in a duet "twin piano" mode where two people can play at the same time by having 44-notes each playing the same octaves, and being able to transpose your live and/or recorded music to any key with a dedicated transpose button. The duet mode is good for teacher-student practice or for two family members practicing the same song at the same time...and you can do this all in privacy using headphones. One of the brand new features on the Roland pianos that Roland has never had on previous models is called registration memories and there is a control panel direct access button to access this function. In the past if you made some editing changes on the piano or set up some layers and split sounds, or wanted to change sounds within a song as you play it, you could not save them in memory for later recall. Saving them in "digital memory" would be especially useful for people who play in real time for events, for church, etc where you would likely be playing a variety of song sand want to set up each song a bit differently for sounds and features. rather than having to do these different setups "live" each time you played that song. The new registration memories allow you to pre-set these "registrations" or memories with the exact instrument sounds and functions you want to have and save them for later instant recall. This is a very useful feature and I certainly would be using it because I like to make changes to the sounds and functions (such as reverb amount, key touch, or instrument sounds) when I play different songs or even within the same song. With the new registration memories, of which there are 25 of them, this is now possible and I am very happy to see this new feature. You can even offload those setups to a USB flashdrive and store them in the flashdrive or on your computer if you feel these setups are important so they don't get lost. This process would also allow to save more than 25 setup memories because you can offload as many as you want to. It is important to note that the registration memories do not save all features and functions on the piano, but they do save the primary features that most people would care about.

A lot of people use headphones when they are playing a digital piano for private practice so that other people in the room/house are not disturbed. This is obviously something you cannot do with a standard acoustic piano and therefore is a very big reason why people buy digital pianos...to play in privacy. Let's face it, when someone in the house wants to practice their lesson or just wants to play for pleasure and there are other people in the home who are talking or watching TV, etc, it can cause a conflict. So using headphones for piano playing allows for more time playing the piano and if that can happen then I am all for it! On the new Roland pianos there is a special "3D effect" built into the piano headphone circuitry that will go through stereo headphones which can make using headphones even more enjoyable. The 3D effect is supposed to give you the feeling the piano sound is all around you coming from different directions. Roland calls it "an immersive sound experience" which makes it seem like you're not actually wearing headphones at all...and that's really the point of this feature. I tried it out and found that overall, it had a natural effect and I believe most people will enjoy it. It actually did sound like I wasn't wearing headphones...although I was:). This is fairly new technology in digital pianos and it's a nice feature to have especially if you'll be using headphones often. The 3D headphone sound effect only works when the ambiance button on the piano control panel is selected and it can be turned on or off or controlled in incremental levels. Also, it's important to have/own good sounding stereo headphones for private playing because you want to capture all the nuances of the new enhanced Roland piano sound dynamics and tonal qualities and many low priced headphones don't do that. You don't need specific headphones to have that 3D effect but I can give you some good recommendations for quality stereo headphones if you don't already have some.

The speaker/audio system in each model is very impressive because Roland is using newer audio technology not previously available on their pianos before. The best way for me to explain this is by referring to light bulbs. Most people know that saving electric energy and consuming less is the best way to go. The recent changes to light bulb technology now allows for a powerful bright light bulb which uses far less energy because of the new LED technology. So basically this means that instead of using 60 watts of power (per hour) to get 60 watts of light bulb brightness, the new LED bulbs use approx 14 watts of power to get 60 watts of brightness...and those new light bulbs last much longer because they are not using as much power as before. So when it comes to sound technology, it's mostly all about wattage efficiency while offering good powerful volume (aka:decibel level) going through quality speakers and amplifiers that disperse the piano sound correctly and in a way that is most natural. Although having a lot of wattage power is not a bad thing in terms of achieving volume and sound fullness, that type of power method is using "old school" components at this point which are typically less efficient, more costly, and not as effective overall in some cases. It seems like many people want to go "green" these days so using less power and not having to replace components as often is a very good thing. The actual audio power of the DP603 is a total of 60 watts output in stereo, otherwise shown as 2 amplifiers at 30 watts each going into two 4.75" speakers while only consuming 9 watts of power (per hour). 60 watts of total power is a lot of internal power in this price range, but I have heard this audio system before and it's a bit weak in putting out a good bass response overall, but that's true of other portable or compact pianos like this one. The Roland HP603 home cabinet model has the exact same audio and speaker specification as the DP603 so there is no difference in that way.

Another new technology now being put into these new Roland pianos is Bluetooth device connectivity. Bluetooth in digital pianos is relatively new and encompasses a number of separate features. So when you hear the word "Bluetooth" in digital pianos, it doesn't mean they all do the same thing or can do everything associated with the Bluetooth technology. The Roland Bluetooth abilities include BT audio streaming so that you can hear the music from your Bluetooth capable external device (tablet, cell phone, computer, etc) such as iTunes come through the piano speaker system. Another Bluetooth feature is MIDI streaming connectivity so that you can interact with Bluetooth capable apps or programs such as Garage Band for iPad which is a great MIDI music and recording app. It is very popular for music education and lots of fun to use. So not only will the app respond to your Bluetooth input from the piano as you play the keys, but you can also hear the music audio coming from that app through the piano speakers. A third Bluetooth function is "pedal Air page tuning. This BT feature allows you to open up sheet music on your tablet with apps that have this "Air Page Turn feature so that you can download and read sheet music from your tablet and instantly turn the virtual pages by pressing a foot pedal on your piano exactly when you need to. One of those sheet music/page turning apps is called piaScore. With piaScore you can play thousands of songs from a free sheet music library through your tablet and turn the pages with Bluetooth page turner, and I previously mentioned. You can also import your own sheet music into the piaScore app so that you can have a custom library of songs that you can read directly from the app on your tablet device and be able to turn the sheet music pages with your Roland foot pedal page turner. So when it comes to Bluetooth and using that technology, there are still many apps that have not set up Bluetooth MIDI and/or Bluetooth audio or page turning yet. But as time moves along more and more of these app developers will do that to their music apps. In the meantime if you find some good iPad/Android music apps in the app store that respond to MIDI and audio but don't have Bluetooth implementation yet, you can still connect the Roland piano to your tablet with the use of a USB connecting cable along with an audio cable which will do the same thing as Bluetooth audio and MIDI with the exception that it will not be wireless. But for many people that is just fine and the fact is you'll still be properly connected with your Roland piano. Last but not least, Roland has developed a new Piano Partner 2 Bluetooth app that allows wireless BT connection so that you can access the sheet music to songs built into the DP603 as well as some educational note/sight reading digital flashcards in the app. Also, there are some interactive auto-accompaniment features such as drum rhythm patterns and one-man band chord arrangement styles which you control by playing chords on the piano and hearing that accompaniment come through your piano as you play a melody and chords. It's fun and engaging and can make you sound better than you are:).

Speaking of connectivity, the DP603 (just like the home cabinet models above it) have good connectivity to external devices with outputs and inputs including dual headphone jacks, stereo mini input audio jack to connect tablets, computers, iPod, etc to hear audio through the piano, two 1/4" audio output jacks for stereo connectivity with external sound systems, USB flashdrive input, and USB output to device. This kind of connectivity is generally sufficient to meet most needs although all the jacks themselves are located under the left front of the pianos. This is fine for some connections but I would have much preferred to see the audio input and output jacks along with the USB output located on the back of the piano like most of the other brands do. It would be the more practical position for those connector jacks in my opinion, but perhaps Roland had a reason for locating all of them up front underneath the piano...maybe it was less money for them to do it that way...but I don't like it near as much as on the back for those specific connectors. If you want to run an external device such as an iPad or computer to your piano then the audio cable needs to be routed to the front of the piano and same is true of a USB connected. Cables and connectors, especially audio output cables, should not be seen or get in the way of the player, but they do on the new Roland pianos and that would have been easy to do differently such as on past Roland models. It's definitely not a "deal breaker" for me but it is an annoyance.

I do like the compact nature, size, and design of the DP603 and the cabinet color options are quite nice. But aside from the cabinet colors and finishes and the fact that the DP603 polished ebony or white comes with a nice full size matching bench, all DP603's are the same otherwise. The dimensions of the DP603 are 55"x 15"x 39" high (with the lid opened). With the lid closed flat the piano is only 31" high. The weight of the DP603 is somewhere between 102 lbs and 106 lbs depending on the finish, so it's fairly light but heavy enough that you would not want to move it too often. One important thing to know about the DP90 is that it is not considered a portable digital piano because the piano cannot be played without the furniture stand & pedals that come with it. So if you need something that you can take with you easily, the DP603 would not be a good choice in my opinion.

In the final analysis I believe Roland has finally hit the "sweet spot" in its quest for a compact digital piano in a good price range (depending on cabinet color & finish) by producing an instrument that focuses on recreating a more authentic piano playing experience along with incorporating this new technology in a smaller, nicely designed and well built cabinet at price a point that is affordable for many people, especially compared to some other digital piano brands and regular new acoustic pianos. Even though the DP603 has some very nice digital functions and lots of extra instrument sounds along with some fun
and educational features, this new model seems to mostly focus on the all important piano playing experience...and for me that's what it's all about, especially in this price range under $2000US, unless you want the premium polished ebony or white finish for $800 more, but those special finishes do include an impressive polished finish Roland duet bench with music storage compartment which has a value of about $250. The regular satin finish DP603 does not have any Roland bench with it. Be aware that this new Roland has no built-in drum patterns/beats, no auto-accompaniment interactive chords, no large color touch display screens, and no digital voice commands. But as I said, many of those "extras" are available on a tablet (iOS/Android) app if you want those things, when connected to the piano. This model is mainly for people wanting to play piano along with access to lots of non-piano sounds (some of which I like and some I don't like so much), recording and other digital features The DP603 is an internet product in the US and can also be found at selected music & Roland piano stores. Based on the fact that the DP603 is a unique specialized model with regard to cabinet type and price point, I am guessing that you may have a difficult time finding one in person in your local area at this point. However since it is virtually the same piano as the higher priced HP603, you may be able to find that model in Roland piano stores more easily which would then allow you to know exactly what the DP603 is like in terms of a piano playing experience. The DP603 has a 5yr parts and 2yrs labor warranty with in-home service, assuming you live close enough to a repair tech who can come to your home, which is not always the case...but this would be true for most name brands with factory warranties if a tech was not available to drive to your home. The DP603 is supposed to be available sometime in mid to late October, and before you purchase a new DP603 from anyone, be sure to contact me first as I can tell you how would be able to get one for even less money than the normal internet US discount prices

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

Kawai CP1 5'3" digital baby Grand

UPDATED REVIEW - September 5, 2016 - Digital Grand Pianos - What to know in buying one - Digital Baby Grand Pianos including full featured ensemble & music functions are lots of fun to own! I receive many inquiries from people who are looking for a good digital Baby Grand piano but don't want to sacrifice quality for a low price. In this Digital Grand Piano buying review, my goal is to help educate people on good digital Baby Grand Pianos and what is available with regard to various brands and price ranges.The sizes of these pianos can be the small mini sizes which are less than 3 feet deep on up to 5'3" deep (front to back). Price is not necessarily an indicator of cabinet size so you need to decide what size piano will be best for you. However typically the larger the piano, the bigger and fuller the sound will likely be. The new Kawai CP1 digital baby grand is the ultimate example these days of a digital piano in a large 5'3" baby grand cabinet with authentic furniture design and construction along with impressive digital electronics and features.

*BEWARE: If a new digital grand piano you are seeing is on a Craigs List ad or linked to an Amazon ad, then that piano is likely low quality in a number of ways and I recommend you ask me first before you buy! Many of these so called "good digital grand pianos," regardless of how good they look on the outside and regardless of what the piano maker/seller has to say about it (they always say glowing things), are likely just PSO's (piano shaped objects) with little similarity to what a real piano does or how it actually plays. So don't be fooled by "looks" or flowery statements made by the manufacturer or the salesperson trying to sell it...they just want their Amazon affiliate payment or commission. If the piano does not have a good key action, piano sound chip, pedaling system, and good name known throughout the piano industry, then personally I would avoid it. You normally don't get "something for nothing" regardless of what that ad or seller might say. BE CAREFUL out there and contact me 1st before you buy!
 
The features many people ask for in digital grand pianos are a good variety of higher quality instrument sounds including good acoustic pianos, strings, brass (a variety of horns), woodwinds, reeds, flutes, synthesizers, guitars, world instruments, and others. Some people also ask for a good helping of drum rhythm patterns, ensemble style chord backing tracks, easy play features, a bigger user interface screen, a mic input for singalong/karaoke, extensive recording & song playback options, an authentic acoustic piano feel, and a full sounding speaker system. Polyphony note memory/processing power can be anywhere from 64 notes to 256 notes, and more polyphony is important, especially if you are a more advanced player with a much higher skill level or are doing extensive recording or multiple layering. However for normal use in most families, 64-128 notes of polyphony should be sufficient. In addition to all this, it seems everyone wants the most attractive digital Baby Grand piano they can get with the realistic authenticity in cabinet design and function and they want it all for generally around $5000 or less, although there are people who can and are willing to spend more money to get what they want but they are in the distinct minority of buyers.

The problem with wanting to get a good digital baby grand piano is that you will usually need to make some sacrifices to get what you want in the lower price range. Yamaha, Roland, & Kawai are all great digital piano manufacturers and do produce some exciting and impressive digital Grand Pianos in small & larger sizes, but they are generally not in the $5000 or less price range. In fact those models which include the Yamaha CLP565GP, CVP709GP, AvantGrand N3, Roland RG3F, Roland V-Piano Grand, and the Kawai CP1, are all normally priced at well over $5000 and on up to approx $22,000...so they're not cheap. Casio also produces many popular digital pianos but does not produce one in a digital grand cabinet. So what does that leave you if you cannot get a Kawai, Roland, or Casio for less than $5000 which are the more well known and higher quality digital piano companies that make a good product? It generally leaves you with either "no-name" cheaper quality digital pianos which are not very good, the Yamaha CLP565GP basic mini grand for around $5500-$6000 depending on the dealer (this one is quite nice), the Kurzweil MPG200 at $6000 which looks nice but has some negative issues and is overpriced, or the Samick digital grands for about $3500-$4500 which are very nice for the money.

Samick 4' SG450

The no-name or poor quality digital piano brands that currently Baby Grand cabinets at around $5000 or less include Adagio, Suzuki, Artesia, Williams, Viscount, Omega, Sejung (not available in most states), Cameron & Sons (private label), and a couple of others. Typically when you spend less money on a digital Baby Grand you get less quality. If you see them selling for around $1000-$2000 or so, they will likely be very poor in key action and sound and those are the main features I recommend to people to look at 1st, and then the fun digital features should come after that. The lower priced digital pianos are typically measure anywhere from about 2.5 feet deep (micro size hybrid cabinets) to a larger 4' deep size (mini baby grand size) which are normally more authentic in cabinet design features,  construction, finish quality, lid, bench, legs, pedal assembly, etc. A full size real authentic acoustic grand cabinet is approximately 5 feet deep and considerably more money just for the cabinet, and Kawai, Yamaha, and Roland do have those sizes.

There are some digital pianos brands I do not recommendunder $5000 (based on years of personal experience) and this is because they have noticeably poor piano tone, key response, key action, tonal dynamics, key velocity realism, and other digital features. I refer to them simply as GPSO's..."Grand Piano Shaped Objects" and little more than that:) They don't play good, sound good, function well, or hold up good over time based on my experience with them. I have been around most of these brands and various models my entire music career and there are just certain ones that have not improved much and still are on my "not recommended" list. Those brands include Suzuki (most of them), Adagio, Williams, Sejung, and a small variety of "house or private label brands." A house brand is one that is sold by a piano or music store and they buy a pre-made digital piano from Chinese manufacturers and have their own name put on the piano so that they can have an "exclusive" name that no one else has. It makes marketing and promotional sense for the music store to do that, but it certainly does not mean it's a good piano and it tends to be confusing in trying to find out what these things really are and who actually makes them.

Cameron & Sons is one of those "house brands" as is Williams, Adagio, & Suzuki. I have seen Cameron & Sons occasionally on the internet (never played one yet because they are not a real piano company) but that brand does not say where the piano is manufactured (there is no Cameron & Sons factory) and the specs in the digital pianos highly suggest they are one of the inferior brands that are similar in nature to Suzuki which I advise everyone to stay away from. If you don't know where the piano is built, who builds it, or what is really in it, then the words and descriptions mean little or nothing... I have seen it all before.  Not all house or private label brands are bad (some are good because they have control over the quality or technology used and have it built by reputable manufacturers) but it is not common. Sejung is an actual Chinese brand you made not have heard of before that builds there own digital pianos in China, but I have actually played them and was definitely not impressed with tone, key action, or construction and these are the main ingredients that need to be good in a digital piano. I would definitely stay away. They all have noisy key actions, little or no dynamics in piano sound, and low quality, uneven velocity sensitivity. 

From time to time I do see some positive on-line consumer reviews on some of these brands or models that I do not recommend. But I look at these consumer reviews knowing that those people cannot possibly have ever played a real acoustic piano (either upright or grand) at any skill level at all.  If they had, they wouldn't be giving positive reviews of these low quality digital pianos (in my professional opinion). You just can't believe everything you hear or see...especially from uneducated consumers who think they have something good, when in fact they just don't know how bad it really is!

As far as digital Baby Grand features go, it's great to have lots of exciting functions and they can be fun to use, and many of these low quality baby grands may even have some of them. But if you cannot get a quality piano as far as the piano sound & necessary elements, & key action elements go, then I don't believe it really matters what else is in the piano. In the lower quality pianos, even those extra functions are generally not so good much of the time. As for Suzuki & Adagio, just because they are sold primarily by Costco does not mean they are necessarily good either. Artesia is really not a brand (as far as having their own manufacturing facility) and in some cases there are no parts in the piano that come from North America (all Chinese). Suzuki is also not a brand in the traditional sense and they do not build their own pianos since they are pre-built in China by another company incorporating cheaper electronics and cheaper key actions. The Suzuki piano also brand has nothing to do with any most other Suzuki products made either including motorcycles, cars, violins, lessons, and other things connected with their name. I've done a number of reviews on Suzuki & Adagio pianos have been very disappointed with all of them especially for there key action, velocity response, tone dynamics, and quality (as I mentioned earlier), and I have personally played many of them.

It is also important to know that just because a piano is completely or partially made in China does not mean it's bad, and I don't want people to think that. There are some very good piano manufacturing facilities in China now and even Yamaha & Kawai get a number of their pianos made there these days. Whether we like it or not, we all live in a world economy and China is a big part of it. As long as the piano is produced with good oversight, good construction, professional design, and reliable technology with up to date musical features, that's what really counts and the brand name is not the always the issue.

When it comes to digital pianos, generally speaking, you can get more piano realism and features for the money ($5000 or less) if you no not get a Baby Grand cabinet and instead get a regular vertical upright style furniture cabinet. You do pay a premium for a digital Baby Grand furniture style cabinet but the look and sound of those instruments are certainly impressive and if you plan to own it for a long time and you have the "disposable income," go for it and enjoy...I would recommend it. 

*As I mentioned earlier, I do recommend the Samick brand of digital grand pianos in the "under $5000 price range" as a good choice including the 4' deep full featured Samick SG450 and the smaller 3' deep Samick SG110. The SG110 and SG450 models have a resonsive hammer weighted responsive key action made in Europe by the Fatar piano action company along with many useful digital educational & fun features all housed in an attractive authentic style grand cabinet with upgraded cabinet features and appointments. Although the Samick piano certainly cannot compete against the much higher priced Kawai, Roland, and Yamaha digital grand pianos, they are not meant to do so. But in that "under $5000US price range they are actually very good and many people have reported to me that they like these models very much.

Samick SG450 Piano

UPDATE: The top of the line Samick 4' deep SG450 digital baby grand has an unadvertised private factory sale going on direct to the public for shipment anywhere in the lower 48 US states until current stock runs out. The Samick company US headquarters in Nashville, TN is offering a low price for this model and I do recommend it for many people looking for this kind of piano because of its upgraded key action and piano/instrument sound chip. Please contact me for more info and price. For other brands and prices, please contact me before you make any decision as I would be happy to help you with info on any brand & model.  Go to the following link for a review on the Samick digital grand pianos: Samick SG450 Review. As with all new digital pianos, I can tell you how to buy them for even less money than internet and store discount prices if you contact me. But before you purchase anything, do your research and your homework because you definitely want to make the right decision.


If you want more info on these and other pianos and lower prices than internet or store discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864 

REVIEW - Yamaha YDP103 Digital Piano - Recommended - The new entry level Yamaha Arius YDP103 is the new lowest price digital piano in the Yamaha Arius series. With the addition of the Yamaha YDP103 at $899US internet discount price, the Arius series now consists of  6 models.  With 6 pianos in the Arius series, the choice would be based on your budget (of course), your playing skill level as well as how many features & functions you would like on a digital piano.

To make matters more interesting, Yamaha makes an entry level portable digital piano called the P45. I have done a review of the P45 here on my blog and it's a nice model, especially for its low price of $449. Rather the totally reinvent the wheel, what Yamaha actually did is take their P45 portable digital piano and simply put it in a basic, more traditional cabinet with built pedals and sliding key cover and called it a new model...YDP103. If you look at the Yamaha specifications on their web site for both models you will see the features are identical. This is nothing new as Yamaha has done this before along with other digital piano manufacturers who have done it to add a new model and save money doing it that way. Using previous technology in a lower priced model and just changing the cabinet and calling it a new model saves them money and gives shoppers more choices which can be a good thing.

At $899 this new model does give Yamaha a slight advantage over the other major brands in that the YDP103 is the lowest priced digital piano in a traditional looking cabinet, although it is certainly more basic in technology than the others. The YDP103 has 64 notes of polyphony processing power instead of 128 or 192. More polyphony is better when playing more complex pieces or layering 2 or more sounds together. The YDP103 is also using an older and less realistic piano sound chip called AWM instead of their newer "Pure CF" piano sampling sound chip found in their portable model P115 as well as in other Arius models including the new YDP143 ($1099 internet price). So when priced is reduced...so are features. You usually don't get something for nothing and that's the case here. In fact if you look at pictures of the YDP103 compared to the YDP143, the YDP143 has a fuller/larger privacy panel backboard as compared to the YDP103 which some people may or may not like. But at $899 it's hard to complain.

Although the YDP103 is a bit more basic in features, has no built in recorder, no audio inputs or outputs, it does have the ability to connect with Yamaha's new "controller iPad app" which allows an iPad to control many of the internal functions of the YDP103 from the iPad touch screen. It's a cool app, looks great, and is intuitive to use. This is something that the portable P45 cannot do as far as I know and this app really does a nice job in making the user experience on the YDP103 a much better one, assuming you have an iPad and can dedicate it to the YDP103 or have use of it when you are playing the piano. The app also works on the YDP143 and YDP163 and a couple of other models including the lower price (and much better) P115 portable digital piano.

Please read my previous review of the P45 & P115 review and then you'll know all about the new new YDP103 in terms of specs and my personal experience playing those pianos. Go to the following link at: Yamaha P45-P115 Review. If it were me, I would instead purchase the Yamaha P115 ($599US price) with optional stand and 3-pedal unit because you'll get way more for the money in terms of piano chip sound quality, features, internal speaker system, and ease of us. The P115 with stand & triple pedal unit would come in at about $150 less than the YDP103, and the P115 is the much better instrument.

Yamaha YDP143

The new YDP103 is available only in darker rosewood along with small matching bench, which is attractive. But many people prefer a satin black color and as far as I know, the satin black is not available in the YDP103 but is available in the YDP143. The built-in speaker system is just OK at 12 watts total power (2x6 watts stereo), and the sound is a but thin but that's expected with weak power amps as compared to other slightly higher priced digital pianos at 16-24 watts of total power. The new YDP103 is a nice piano and I like it, but it only has one function button on it (piano) and everything else is driven by needing to go into the owners manual to see where the hidden features are located on a key map and then then pressing the function button and a specific key to access the function-features. If you are just basically going to play piano then that's fine. But if you're going to be doing more than that, then having an iPad and using the Yamaha iPad app is essential to the best possible user experience in operating the piano. If you do that then there is no problem and I recommend it. Arius models are reliable, generally will hold up for many years, and have a good 3-year warranty covering parts & labor.

Casio PX760 brown satin walnut

I would also recommend you consider the newer Casio Privia PX760 digital piano at $699US internet discount price. At $200 less, the Casio offers more built-in upgraded technology than the YDP103 including an upgraded piano sound chip with 128-note polyphony, a wider dynamic range of expression when playing from soft to loud, synthetic ivory & ebony keytops, a built-in 2-track MIDI recorder, more piano and instrumental sounds, direct access buttons to many features and more intuitive controls, a louder/fuller 16-watt internal speaker system, 3-senor key action for better key repetition recognition instead of 2-senor such as what is in the YDP103, and the piano comes in a satin black finish, brown walnut finish, and satin white finish, so there are more cabinet finish options too. The model still has the direct USB output, dual headphone jacks on the front, and a built-in siding key cover.

Casio PX860 satin black

This Casio PX760 piano has a more contemporary appearance than the more traditional look of the YDP103, so you may prefer the Yamaha in some cases. But for overall features & functions for the $699 price, I believe the Casio PX760 offers a lot more and I personally like it better and it also comes with a 3-year factory parts & labor warranty with in-home service. However the Yamaha does have the iPad controller app (very nice) which the Casio does not, and the Yamaha comes with a bench which the Casio does not. But the Yamaha bench is very basic, small, basic padding, and does not open for music storage. Amazon.com has many high quality benches that are larger/longer duet size, better padded, and open up for music storage and those benches average about $50US to purchase separately. If you purchase one of those benches then you would have the Casio PX760 and a much better bench for only $749 which is $150 less than the Yamaha...definitely something you should consider. Go to the following link to read my review of the newer Casio PX760: Casio PX760 Review. Also, Casio makes a top-of-the-line PX860 model ($999 internet price) that is substantially upgraded over the new Yamaha YDP103 for just $100 more. Apart from the Yamaha iPad controller app, the new Yamaha does not come close to the Casio PX860 in terms of function, features, and piano playing authenticity in my opinion. I do like Yamaha, but they seem to be more competitive once you get up over $2000 in their piano lineup based on my experience with their tradtional cabinet pianos. Go to the following link for my review of the Casio PX860: Casio PX860 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at or call direct at 602-571-1864.

DP603 polished ebony

REVIEW - Roland DP603 Digital Piano - Recommended - The Roland corporation is known for producing some great musical instruments including digital pianos, synthesizers, guitar products, percussion, recording & audio equipment, and the list goes on. Many pro players as well as institutions own Roland digital pianos and Roland produces some good ones. Just like any manufacturer, not every product they make is a "home run" but the new Roland DP603 cabinet digital piano ($1999US internet price in satin black finish only - no bench) or the DP603 portable digital piano ($2799US internet price in polished ebony or white finish including matching duet bench) are competitively priced and definitely offer a very satisfying piano playing experience with new technology and key action in a lower price range. Roland has had the DP line of pianos for many years but this is by far the best one yet. So for the Roland company I would call this one a "home run" for them.

HP603 upgraded piano store model

So what makes this new DP603 piano model so good? There are many things that I can point out that should give Roland a good reason to be proud of their accomplishment in creating this instrument and my review here is quite long and comprehensive which I believe is important so that people can make an informed decision. Before I go on further, I want to point out that Roland has had a new line of home style digital pianos out for awhile (nearly 1 year) with the exact same digital technology, functions, key action, and pedaling as is in the new DP603. In fact the DP603 is really just a less expensive version of the Roland HP603 home cabinet digital piano which is only found in local US Roland piano dealers and not for sale on-line in the US. The HP603 sells for closer to $3000 in the Roland piano dealer stores but they come in a more formal, authentic piano cabinet with a very nice duet bench, have a different, much longer warranty, and the home pianos include an extensive accessory package at no charge. Otherwise the the new DP603 is virtually the same as the HP603 model, with the exception of cabinet design & structure and one Bluetooth feature.

What is the difference between this new Roland model over the previous Roland models as well as compared to their their competition from Yamaha and Kawai? To start off, for the first time Roland has created a hybrid key action unlike anything they have done before. Each key consists of a combination of wood and plastic (instead of all plastic in the previous Roland models) and Roland claims this gives the key movement more authenticity and natural weight as well as eliminates maintenance of the all-wood key actions. Roland's claim is that these new keys give the key structure more durability and more rigidity (with the addition of an inner stabilizer pin which also reduces lateral key movement) while allowing the action to feel more authentic with the wood in the keys to vibrate a bit from the sound waves when the "digital strings" are vibrating, as a key would normally do in a real acoustic piano. In other words, the key is not all plastic and not all wood as you would normally find in the other popular digital piano brands and Roland would claim this is the best way to produce a key in a digital piano. I personally don't know if it's the best way to make a key and I doubt that the small amount of wood in the key does too much other than look nice, but as long as the keys move smoothly, are balanced well, and are graded weighted in a satisfying way, then that's what I look for, and I believe this new key action called the PHA50 does all that. It is an upgrade to the previous key actions called the "Premium Action" which Roland had in their previous DP90e. Although I always felt that the Premium Key Action was very good and enjoyable to play, this new PHA50 action is even more so and I did notice some upgraded advantages.

It is definitely worth mentioning that the new top-of-the-line PHA-50 key action is on all of the new Roland models in the higher price ranges as well as this model here. This is not the case with Kawai and Yamaha digital pianos where they reserve their best upgraded key actions for their more expensive models. In fact, Yamaha's best (CLP) digital piano key action is exclusively in their most expensive Clavinova piano called the CLP585 which retails for $6299US. So price alone in a digital piano does not necessarily determine quality or realism when compared to a real acoustic piano. Acoustic piano key actions vary from one piano to another, one brand to another, and there are differences between grand piano key actions and upright piano key actions. So when it comes to digital pianos key actions, the new PHA50 composite action (plastic + wood) in the DP603 is without question an upgrade to what was previously available in this price range before with regard to Roland digital pianos. This allows Roland to be more competitive with the other brands in this price range although the other major brands still have very good key actions, especially the Kawai ES8 which is just a bit more than the DP603. But as far as Roland goes, it does not matter which new furniture cabinet model you get at this point starting with the DP603 and going up from there...they all have the identical key action as well as the same digital features.

The new Roland key action also has the "escapement feature" which more closely simulates the movement of grand piano keys when you press the keys down slowly and easily and you feel them slightly hesitate or have a notch or bump that occurs as you press the key down. This type of feeling is a natural occurrence on a real grand piano and helps with key control when playing music legato and slowly. You can actually distinctly feel this "escapement" key action feature in the Roland pianos. However many of the newer Yamaha digital pianos in this price range, they do not have the escapement simulation feature. Kawai does have the escapement feature which they call "let-off" and that key action is also n the Kawai ES8 and many of their other digital pianos in this price range. Yamaha does offer the escapement key action feature but only in their full size cabinet pianos starting at around $2500US. But just because the feature (escapement) may be there doesn't mean its simulates it well, and in my opinion the Roland escapement feature is more authentic but is still a simulation and not the real thing. Kawai also uses the escapement feature, which they call "let-off" (just another name for the same thing) and the Kawai feature is more pronounced and much more similar to Roland in that way.

Another thing I noticed about the new Roland key action was how much more quiet it was as compared with their previous models when the keys are moving up and down. By nature, regular acoustic piano key actions do make some noise when the keys are moving, but because those pianos are always so loud and they don't have a volume control or headphone jack like digital pianos do, you cannot hear the key action noise when playing the piano. However in a digital piano, when you have the volume somewhere between low to medium level or when you are using headphones, then you can definitely hear the key action moving and noise is more of a concern. I can say for sure that the key action noise level on these new Roland pianos is the lowest that it's been on any Roland digital piano and has surpassed the previous models for an even lower key movement noise reduction level. The previous models were already pretty good and more most people were satisfied with the fairly low ambient noise level of the moving keys. But the new PHA50 key action has definitely surpassed this and has become quieter and smoother in key movement and this is something that I think many people will appreciate, especially if you play at a higher skill level or you use headphones a lot. Gone are the days on older model Roland key actions when all you could really hear were the "thump" of the keys going down. When you combine this new Roland hybrid key with the quieter, smoother graded-weight (quick response) key movement along with good key action "down weight"& "up weight" return (measured by actual weights - left pic), you really feel like you can express yourself in a more authentic musically correct way as compared with previous models, at least that's the way that I felt about it when playing this new key action. Then you add the nice escapement feature in the key action that I talked about along with Roland proprietary synthetic ivory & ebony feel keys (they do feel good), and the Roland company has really stepped up to the plate in a big way by improving upon what they already had in the previous models. This key action is not a major breakthrough in my opinion compared to previous models, but I believe that beginners through advanced players will appreciate it very much. The new PHA50 key action is available in all of the new Roland piano models rather than just in selected higher priced models such as what other brands offer.

When it comes to piano sound and getting as close to approximating or matching a real acoustic piano, there is no digital piano that can exactly reproduce a real acoustic grand piano sound regardless of what anyone else may say. It simply has never been done and no digital piano brand can rightly claim that they have done it. So the next best thing is "how close can a digital piano get to a real acoustic piano sound playing experience?" If you knew how complex a real acoustic piano sound actually is and what is actually happening in a good grand piano when it comes to the piano sound itself  (what it does and how you hear it), you would probably drop your jaw open and think it would be impossible to recreate digitally because there are certain piano sound elements that happen in "real time" that are always changing depending on how fast or slow you play the keys, how hard or soft you hit (play) the keys, the type of wood the piano is made of, how much soundboard space you have in the real piano, the types of hammers and key felt that is part of the key action, the vibrations and overtones of the 230 strings (give or take) in a real grand piano and how they all interact with each other including the random vibrations, sympathetic noises, frequency changes, tonal dynamics, string thickness, string windings and materials, the scale design, the piano iron frame, dampers and their affect on the sound, decay and sustain time of the sustained strings, volume, duration of the tone and changes in velocity, among other things. Even the the style of music you play such as chording, voicing of chords, staccato and legato of the notes, and the interaction of the string vibrations on the body of the piano all contribute to the final outcome of the sound. Not only are the key action elements quite complex in a real acoustic piano, but in a lot of ways the piano sound is even more complex and trying to get that "perfect" reproduction which people are looking for in a digital piano is very difficult given the current technology that most digital piano companies are using.

I am a long time piano teacher and pro musician of 40 plus years having taught thousands of students as well as owning, playing on, and teaching acoustic guitar.When it comes to natural grand piano sound, to me that is what it's all about...beauty, soul, feeling, the piano sound being alive and not digital sounding, and feeling like when you play a song, you can play it may times and every time it comes out a bit differently because a real piano sound is "alive & breathing" and changes, and is not canned, digital, dead, plunky, or without taste or expression. I mention all of this so that you will better understand what I am about to share with you. Up until now, Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, and Casio, the four main digital piano companies out there, have been using "sample recording" technology to capture piano sound from a real piano and then put it into the digital micro-processor chip in the digital piano so that it comes out of the speakers and sounds as much like a real piano as possible using that sampling technology. The "samples" or recordings are of each piano note (not each string) on a particular brand and model of acoustic grand piano at different velocity levels when pressing the keys and those recordings, which are done by microphones inside and over the acoustic piano, are shorter samples of the sound due to digital memory constraints. This is true for all major brand digital pianos. Yamaha uses Yamaha acoustic grands, Kawai uses Kawai acoustic grands, and so on. The sample is then electronically "looped" into a continuous virtual circle/loop so that it will sound like it is continuous in real time linear playback. But when you play a real piano, the piano sound starts when you first touch the key and hear the sound and then it stops when you let go of the key and pedal. That acoustic piano sound is one straight continuous sound in real time. Sampled recording is actually taking a slice or piece of that original piano sound and then is looped in a virtual circle, as I just mentioned, so it plays over & over and is not actually changing in real time. Picture a hula-hoop going around & around. The hula-hoop is a circle fastened together at a starting & ending point much like a sample recording is done. This is the way piano sound is heard on a digital piano. Depending on how and where the loop is electronically fastened together, you may or may not hear a noticeable or slight anomaly (depending on how the loop was put together) or a slight anomaly tone when the loop starts over. In other words, the sound will end and then quickly start over while you are holding the piano key down. It just depends on your ears and how sensitive they are to a real piano sound and how good the sampling process was on the brand & model. Kawai, Yamaha, and the new Casio Hybrids all do a very good job with their sample looping and hearing the loop point is virtually impossible on some of those models, but the off-brands are where you notice problems in the sampling process.

previous model DP90e

For a large majority of people playing piano these days and regardless of skill level, the piano sampling technology has produced some very enjoyable piano sound in digital pianos and this technology has gotten better and more sophisticated with time, and the end result is some mighty impressive digital piano instruments that have recently come out from the other brands. Along with increasing sampling sophistication also has come increased polyphony in sampled digital pianos up to 256-notes. This means that when playing a digital piano, if you are at a higher skill level and play complex musical passages using a stereo piano sound, you won't run out of notes as you play your music using many keys and pedal sustain at one time along with doing glissando's, arpeggios, and or lots of chording. So when it comes to piano sound, the digital piano industry has come a long way in being able to reproduce it with sampled recording so that most people can be very happy with the results, depending on your budget and the brand of piano of course:)

However, Roland has now gone beyond the standard industry piano sound sampling technology by introducing a new sound technology for the DP603 called SuperNATURAL piano Modeling. Modeling (aka: modelling)is different from sampling in the way the sound is created and the way you hear it when the piano is being played. Along with this technology being implemented to create an all new piano sound not found in any other major brand, Roland is putting it in all of their new models instead of just a few at the top of the price range. This means that you can get this new technology of piano sound reproduction starting at around $3000 in their cabinet models. It is typical for digital piano companies to reserve their best features for the most expensive models to get you to spend more money but Roland did not do this, and that is impressive to me and I commend them for that. So exactly what is SuperNATURAL Modeling technology and what makes it different then all other digital pianos? In Sampling technology, the sound elements in a real piano need to be recorded with microphones, as I previously mentioned, and then those recordings need to be translated into computers and then saved in the digital piano sound chips on circuit boards. The recordings can be of a number of different things in a piano including the sound reproduction as you strike a key at different velocities and the noise the hammer makes when it moves, just to name a few. Sampled sounds take a larger amount of computer memory to do it correctly (or as close as can be done), and that may or may not drive up the cost of those instruments. But those sound element recordings never change and cannot "think" on their own such as what real acoustic pianos do in the natural physical world. The technology is also limited by the recording microphones and their ability to get a pure organic sound through the air.

Physical Modeling sound is not recorded from an acoustic piano but is created through non sampling computer mathematical algorithms. I am definitely not  a mathematician so the best explanation I found on the subject which I believe is important to understand (at some level) so that you can appreciate this new piano sound technology, is as follows: "In sound synthesis, physical modeling synthesis refers to methods in which the waveform of the sound to be generated is computed by using a mathematical model or formula, being a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound, usually a musical instrument. Such a model consists of laws of physics that govern the sound production, and will typically have several parameters, some of which are constants that describe the physical materials and dimensions of the instrument, while others are time-dependent functions that describe the player's interaction with it, such as plucking a string, or covering toneholes. For example, to model the sound of a drum, there would be a formula for how striking the drumhead injects energy into a two dimensional membrane. Thereafter the properties of the membrane (mass density, stiffness, etc.), its coupling with the resonance of the cylindrical body of the drum, and the conditions at its boundaries (a rigid termination to the drum's body) would describe its movement over time and thus its generation of sound." That's the explanation I found that best explains this technology although if you don't understand it...don't worry, a lot of other people don't either:).

In piano sound physical modeling, that technology is dealing with things such as the energy/force you put into the playing the keys, the interaction of the tonal dynamics, piano hammers, felt movement on the hammers, string movement over time, overtones that excite other moving and non-moving parts of the strings and wood cabinet, and many more physical aspects of a real acoustic piano.,..and all of these physical properties in a real piano are recreated by computer computations. It's like a powerful computer that draws a "virtual picture" of every aspect of the best  acoustic grand piano possible and then that "virtual picture" instantly comes to life as that actual acoustic piano played instantly in micro seconds with no repetition or sameness. This gives you the feeling that the piano sound which you're hearing is being generated from an real acoustic piano, when in fact is is all done in the virtual technology world.

Roland has tried to emulate the Steinway Concert grand piano sound over the years and that's what they have tried to do here in getting them (or trying to get them) to behave much the same way as the real thing does. Having this kind of technology gives the player an approximation of Steinway grand sound characteristics without the large size and expense of that acoustic piano. In fact, it could be said that the new Roland digital piano sound is so lifelike and organic that it sounds a bit like there are no speakers in the digital piano itself and that the sound is naturally occurring within the cabinet and not coming through speakers...but obviously there are speakers and to a trained ear like mine, there is still a noticeable difference between the "real thing" acoustic piano and these Roland digital pianos...but I expected that...and in fact the speaker technology still has a long way to go. An example of the new Roland sound is when you press any one key on the Roland piano without having any additional reverb or sound effects on, that one note will also trigger natural occurring "overtones" for that specific note that you would normally and naturally hear in a real piano. Just take my word for it, it really does do that and no other major digital piano brand has that capability at the moment. Also, just when a person thought that 256-note polyphony processing power for the piano sound was a lot, the new Roland physical modelling technology has jumped that polyphony number up to...infinity and beyond:)...in other words...unlimited polyphony. There is no limit because of the way the sound is generated in the virtual physical world. However, the 256-note polyphony in other name brand pianos is way more than enough to power even some of the most complex piano music that a person can play. The unlimited polyphony on the Roland pianos is for the acoustic piano sounds only but not for the non-acoustic piano instruments such as electric pianos, strings, organs, choirs, brass, etc. Those sounds offer 384-note polyphony which is also more than the other brands do, but once again, not something that you'll actually notice when playing these instrumental sounds. Also, polyphony power has nothing to do with the actual instrument sound samples and the authenticity of those tones and some of the extra instrument tones in the DP603 are very good and others not so much. However, when you combine that polyphony power along with a 3-sensor key action, the musical expression and dynamic tonal & volume range you get in this new piano is very impressive. From very soft pianissimo to extra loud forte volume. the DP603 goes beyond what a person might otherwise expect out of a digital piano, particularly a Roland digital piano.

Physical Modeling Virtual Technology

REVIEW - Lowrey EZP3Digital Piano - Recommended - The Lowrey Organ company has been around for decades and is a well known home organ company which produces a variety of digital organs for professional & home use and primary purchased these days by older and retired people for recreational purposes. The EZP3 is their only portable digital piano which currently has an internet price of $599US). I have played many Lowrey organs in years past and not only can I play the organ pretty well, I understand how to use their technology. It is not a well known fact that the Kawai piano company actually owns the Lowrey organ company and has been in control of that brand for nearly 30 years. So when it comes to digital pianos which the Lowrey company does not actually produce, how does Lowrey offer this model called the EZP3 when they don't actually make it? The answer is simple...it's an older repackaged Kawai portable digital piano that used to go under the model number of EP3. The new model number under the Lowrey name is called the EZP3, with the letter Z differentiating it from the older Kawai model number.

So exactly what is a Kawai EP3 (aka: Lowrey EZP3)? It's approx 6 year old Kawai model that originally sold for about $1000 regular discount price in its day. It was a very good piano and I did a review of it back in 2011 and said some very good things about it and you're welcome to read my review on this blog. The Kawai EP3 was a digital piano for people who wanted more of a portable piano to play and also wanted to be under $1000 price range. It had no"automatic arranger functions" which are features that allow someone to hold a one-finger chord or 3-finger chord on the left hand and have the chords play automatically just by holding any chord down with the appropriate keys and then playing a right hand melody along with the left hand auto-chord. That's the digital feature difference between the Kawai version and the Lowrey version and that's why Lowrey calls their model "EZ" which stands for "easy play." If you will not be using and have no interest in using a simple easy 1-finger auto-chord on the left hand and you're primarily interested in just playing/learning piano in the normal way along with having some other instrument sounds, a bit of recording and playback, and maybe a drum pattern feature to play along with drums which the Kawai ES100 has as well as the Lowrey, then the Kawai and Lowrey versions are identical.

Kawai ES100 with stand & pedals

Although Kawai is not making the EP3 any longer and has not done so for a few years, Kawai does have their newer ES100 portable digital piano which takes the place of that model in the under $1000 price range and sells for $699US internet price. The ES100 model has twice the piano sound chip quality as compared to the Lowrey EZP3, the same good piano key action, and better functions with a lighter weight cabinet all for $699. So why would someone buy the Lowrey with older piano sound and function technology over the new Kawai ES100, especially given the fact that the Lowrey name in digital pianos has little value in terms of resale as compared to the Kawai name? The Lowrey EZP3 does offer a more robust internal speaker system than the new ES100 with almost twice the audio power with more internal speakers and it also provides more and better connectivity to external devices. The EZP3 is heavier in weight by about 14 lbs or so, and it is also larger in size although it has a nice cabinet design with a 2-tone black & silver finish and...it has the EZ-Play feature which the new Kawai ES100 does not have.

The EZP3 has 21 total instrument tones, 96-note polyphony processing power, metronome, dual or layer, split, 4-hand mode, transpose, brilliance, voicing, reverb, MIDI ports, USB port, line-in, line-out, and the EZ-Play button and a few other nice features. But...it is approx 6 year old technology repackaged by adding an EZ-Play feature and changing the paint job and putting it under the Lowrey name. For $100 more at $699, you can also buy the new ES100 as I mentioned earlier that has a much more realistic piano sound chip or you can purchase a new Yamaha P115 for $599US internet price, or you can purchase a brand new Casio PX760 Privia digital piano with full stand and 3-pedal unit that looks more like a little piano along with built-in sliding key cover all for $699. If you want to keep the price way down then you can buy the very popular Casio PX160 with upgraded furniture stand together for an internet sale price of $549US, which for a portable digital piano is a better buy than the Lowrey in my opinion. The Casio also offers 3-sensor key action electronics while the Lowrey offers 2-sensors per key.

While I do like the Lowrey EZP3 and it is virtually the identical model to the old Kawai EP3, I would rather have the new piano technology found in the other models of digital pianos in this price range because ultimately that technology is much newer, the sound is much more authentic, and the other brand names have much better resale value on the used market should you ever want to sell it. Also most people I know of who play piano or are learning as a student (although there are exceptions) don't use the EZ-Play feature on the Lowrey. If you want more info on this model or want to get the lowest possible price on a new digital piano, please contact me before you do anything with anyone.

*By the way, if you are the kind of person who does want the easy play type features including 1-finger & 3-finger auto-chording and a myriad of accompaniments and rhythms that are much more extensive and authentic than the Lowrey EZP3, then I highly recommend the new Casio CGP700 digital piano at $799US internet price. It's an amazing piano and definitely worth the extra money in my opinion assuming you can bump up your budget. Please take a look at the following reviews of other piano options on my blog:

Kawai ES100 Review
Casio PX160 Review
Yamaha P115 Review
Casio CGP700 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Casio AP260 Digital Piano - Recommended - The Casio company is famous for producing a huge line of popular home and professional digital pianos & keyboards for many decades and the current model AP260 furniture cabinet digital piano ($1049 internet discount price) in one of them. Casio makes good, solid products at bargain prices for what you are getting. Casio has always been looked at as a company which makes high quality consumer electronics such as calculators, watches, cameras, and hundreds of other digital products owned by millions of people throughout the world. Their digital piano division is the fastest growing digital piano brand in the US with thousands upon thousands of sales and you can find many of their models for sale on the internet and in some pianos stores across the country.

The Casio AP260 is the lowest priced model in their Celviano line of digital pianos. The Celviano line is designated for their more traditional furniture cabinets with full size privacy back panel (as compared with 1/2 size in other brands), full size & full length brass pedals which is important, improved speaker sound over other brands & models, a long 5 year in-home parts & labor factory warranties which is much longer than any other brand in this price range, and the Celviano's have a matching bench included. Their is a total of 128-notes of polyphony processing power in the sound chip of this piano which is plenty of polyphony for most people who play the piano. Getting above 200 notes of polyphony would be useful if you are doing extensive multi-track recording or multi-layering of at least 4 instrument sounds together, both of which the AP260 cannot do.

The Casio AP260 offers what I consider to be to best overall digital piano in a traditional piano cabinet of all the major brands in this price range including Yamaha. My opinion is based on a number of things including the control panel and buttons of the AP260 is above the keyboard in front of the player for ease of use and more intuitive operation. Other pianos in this price range have a very basic control panel to the very left side of the keyboard so that the operation is more difficult and much less intuitive. The AP260 has Casio's best key action under $2000 with textured synthetic ebony and ivory keytops and 3-senor electronics under each key. No other new furniture cabinet digital piano under $1200 has these features and they are very good to have for a more authentic piano playing experience.

The AP260 has a lot of built-in digital features so that you can do more than just play piano. Some people just want a digital piano to mostly play piano and they just use the built-in acoustic piano sounds of which this model has five very good stereo acoustic piano reproductions including concert, mellow, bright, jazz, etc. However, for those people who want to do more than just play piano and may want to get into the "menu" to edit or use other functions, there is a big list of those features which can be accessed off the front panel and additionally by using a function button and pressing an assigned key on the keyboard at the same time time, which is pretty easy to do. These digital features include the following: 18 total instrument sounds including strings, harpsichord, organs, choirs, electric pianos, etc. The non-acoustic instrument sounds are definitely in a higher class of authenticity than other brands of digital pianos in this price range including Yamaha and Roland, in my opinion. Other features include Reverb Efx, Chorus, Brilliance, Layer balance, Duet pan, Bass damper effect, Damper noise, Music Library song select, Tempo, Beat, Metronome tempo, Metronome beat, Concert Play song, Play/Stop, Lesson Play, Concert Play, Concert Play volume, Music Library volume, Metronome volume, Temperament, Temperament Base note, Temperament select, Touch response, Transpose, Keyboard tuning, Octave shift, USB device mode, Local control, Send channel, Operation tone, Back up, and Operation lock.

Beyond the long list of functions that I just mentioned, the most popular and utilized features on a digital piano that people ask for (which is on the AP260) are being able to layer two different instrument sounds together at the same time (such as piano & strings), split two different sounds (one sound on left side, one sound on right such as piano and bass), be able to have two people (students) play the piano at the same time side by side playing the exact same part in the same octave (this feature is called, "duet"), and be able to record two separate tracks independently (left & right hand) and then play them back separately or at the same time and save that song. The 2-track MIDI recording (left and/or right hand or two independent sounds recorded on top of each other) is a great feature when trying to learn a new song or get a sense of how each hand sounds by itself when playing. The AP260 has all of these features which is very unusual in this price range and makes owning this piano more enjoyable.

The AP260 also has some good connectivity to headphones with two headphone jacks on the front of the piano for private playing and also a USB output connection for use with a tablet (iPad) or computer to extend the types of musical things you can do. There is a fairly powerful speaker system in this model which includes two speakers going through 16 watts of stereo power which does a good job filling a home or studio. There are no audio input or output connections which I would have preferred and they can be useful, but unfortunately the other major brands in this price range (Yamaha, Kawai) don't have them either. I do like the fact that the AP260 has 3 full size brass pedals for a realistic pedal movement experience which is important for players and for students who are progressing in their playing skill level.

However, the most important hings in a piano is key action and piano sound, and this is where the AP260 really shines in its price range. The Casio AP260 key action moves smoothly and is nicely balanced and weighted (not too heavy, not too light) for a fairly realistic piano playing experience. I like the key action much better than the competitive Yamaha YDP143 ($1099 internet price) as well as the fact that the Casio AP260 has a 3-sensor key action which helps with better key repetition recognition when playing the keys at a faster velocity. The piano sound dynamic tonal range is also much wider and more distinct on this model than many other piano brands I have played and that allows for greater tonal expression in the music you are playing. When you couple the responsive key action along with the acoustic piano sound reproduction and then you add the pedaling sustain and automatic damper resonance response and overall volume coming out of this piano, I believe most people will be quite impressed with the result.

One very cool feature that the AP260 offers which no other furniture cabinet piano does in this price range is the "Concert Play" feature. There is a library of fully orchestrated popular classical songs that play back as audio wav files (like a CD recording) so that you can listen and play along to completely authentic professional quality music that sounds like the orchestra is inside of your piano. This is super fun, sounds great, and also allows the player to play along in a mode called "lesson play." Obviously there is a lot this piano can do, and although there are digital pianos which can do even more, sound even bigger & better, and have an even more upgraded cabinet like the higher price Casio Celviano AP460 ($1499 internet price), those pianos cost more money. If you want to stay closer to $1000, the AP260 is probably more than enough piano for the average piano student or player.

I do recommend the Casio AP260 and it also has two attractive cabinet colors that are available which include satin brown walnut or satin black with nicely designed cabinet, full size music rack, built-in metal key cover, and includes matching piano style bench. The 5 year in-home service factory warranty on both parts and labor shows that the Casio company is serious about their instruments and should give a purchaser the confidence they need to buy this piano if it fits their needs. If you are looking for an instrument with a more traditional appearance that weighs a mere 87 lbs and measures approx 54" wide and 17" deep (from the wall) which is fairly compact, want an enjoyable piano sound and playing experience, some other useful and fun digital features, easy operation, and trying to stay around the $1000 price range, then you should definitely consider the Casio Celviano AP260 as a digital piano which may be a perfect fit for your musical needs.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Roland FP25 digital piano at Costco - Recommended - The Roland company has many models of digital pianos on the market which are popular and they go up in price to well over $10,000. A few of the lower priced models are carried at Costco US and they are the same as the mainstream Roland models in many ways, although they have different model numbers. The new FP25 ($799US incl stand & pedals & headphones) is actually a portable digital piano but Costco includes a Roland furniture style stand and triple pedal unit. The FP25 is the identical piano to the Roland FP30 ($699US without stand & pedals & headphones) which sells in the mainstream retail market and on Amazon. I have done a very detailed review of the FP30 which came out at the beginning of 2016. So everything you need to know about the FP25 at Costco is in my FP30 review. Please read this review at the following link after you are done reading my comments in this FP25 post: Roland FP30 Review. 

As I said, the new FP25 at Costco is identical to the FP30, but with one exception...the FP30 has a couple of Bluetooth wireless functions for connecting to iPad & Android devices, and the FP25 does not. You can connect from the FP25 to external devices but you would just use a USB cable and special connector for the device to connect with your piano, and then you can use many apps. But this is also true with most all digital pianos that allow you to connect to an external device with a USB/MIDI cable. Also the Roland FP25 includes the normally optional furniture style stand and triple pedal-bar whereas the FP30 does not. You would need to purchase those accessories at an extra cost which would bring the price of the FP30 with stand, pedals, & headphones (the headphones are basic cheap headphones) above $799. However, for nearly all states in the US you would also need to pay local/state sales tax on Costco purchases which would then bring the price back up to being the same as buying the FP30 on-line at a variety of Roland internet dealer stores.

Although I do like the new Roland FP25/FP30, you really are not saving money on the FP25 over buying the FP30 version on-line at a regular Roland internet store. Also, there are other very popular digital piano models in this price range that may even be a better purchase than the FP25 depending on your musical goals and what you would like out of a digital piano. Two of those pianos are the Kawai ES100 ($699US without stand & triple pedal) and the Casio CGP700 ($799 with stand but no triple pedal). Most people who play piano, especially beginners, do not need the triple pedal unit. A single sustain pedal is normally more than enough to play piano and single pedals do come with the other digital pianos at no charge. Take a look at my reviews of the Kawai ES100 and Casio CGP700, and FP30 at the following links:

Roland FP30 Review
Kawai ES100 Review
Casio CGP700 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Roland RP500 Digital Piano at Costco - Recommended - The Roland Music Company has been producing the RP series of digital pianos for many years. The new RP500 ($1499US Costco store price incl bench & headphones) is the latest incarnation of these lowered priced furniture cabinet style pianos and is only available at Costco in the US & Canada. The RP500 is the recent replacement of the discontinued RP400 which was also available at Costco and the two models are virtually the same with the exception of the RP500 having a couple of Bluetooth functions for connectivity to external devices such as iPad/Android tablets whereas the RP400 had WiFi connectivity instead. Also, the RP500 has slightly different speakers but the audio power of 24 watts going through 2 speakers, cabinet design, and all functions of the new RP500 are identical to the previous RP400. So in reality, unfortunately there wasn't much of a change and I would have preferred to see a few new changes in the operating system and functionality of the RP500 to make it easier to use. But overall it's still a very good piano for the money.

To make matters a bit confusing, Roland produces a mainstream version of the RP400/500 called the RP401R and RP501R. The RP501R ($1499 internet discount price incl bench) just replaced the previous RP401R and the differences between those 2 models are the same small differences as between the Costco versions RP500 and previous RP400 (Bluetooth & speakers). However the RP501R mainstream internet version has even more features on it as compared to the Costco RP500 version. Those differences are the built-in interactive rhythm accompaniments & music styles on the RP501 which the RP500 does not have. The interactive rhythm accompaniments and arrangements allow a person to play with any style of music background that they choose such as rock, country, Latin, Jazz, Blues, waltz, march, etc along with a one-man-band that can make you sound better than you really are:). This is a fun feature and one that can also help with rhythm and timing training. Some people may use this feature and others will not care about it based on how you want to play the piano. However on the RP500, Roland has an iPad app called Piano Partner 2 which allows connectivity between the RP500 and an iPad with the ability to produce a limited number of interactive styles as well as built-in digital sheet music accessed from the iPad app. But...you would need to have access to an iPad tablet to have these features available to use on the RP500.

The Bluetooth connectivity on the RP500 does not allow for or do audio streaming which is actually what most people want when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity, so you cannot run iTunes or or song libraries through the RP500 using Bluetooth. The Bluetooth functionality on the RP500 will connect to external device for selected "MIDI" apps and for specific sheet music apps that allow for instant Bluetooth "page-turning" so your foot can press a pedal and the page of a song will turn instantly on the iPad when you are ready to do that. For a detailed review on the RP500, please read my review of the prior RP401R at the following link: Roland RP401R Review. *Now remember, the only differences between the discontinued RP401R that you'll read about on my review and the new Costco Roland RP500 is that the RP500 has a couple of Bluetooth functions and the RP401 has the WiFi connectivity & built-in interactive rhythm accompaniment styles which the RP500 does not have. Otherwise, everything else is identical. There are a few downsides to the RP500 (same on RP401R) that you should pay attention to when you read my review.

Casio AP460

Overall the new Roland RP500 is a very nice piano and worth the money in my opinion. The Costco RP500 version only comes in satin black whereas the new mainstream Roland RP501R is available in either satin black or satin rosewood, and the rosewood is a very attractive finish for people who don't want a black color. As with all Costco purchases for states that have state sales tax, you would need to add tax to the selling price of the Costco Roland RP500 which does bring the price up a bit higher. If you would prefer the Roland RP501R ($1499 internet price), there is a way to get that new model for less money, no tax, better accessories, and free shipping...so just ask me about that. I also recommend another brand and model of digital piano furniture style that I feel has some features and upgraded cabinet in this lower price range that puts it above the Roland RP500/RP501R in its ability to offer an even more authentic piano playing experience without so many "bells & whistles" that many people think would distract students and recreational players from experiencing a pure and more expressive piano playing experience. That model is called the Casio CelvianoAP460 ($1499US internet price - above left pic) and as you can see from its picture, it has an upgraded furniture cabinet with front support legs for better stability and a full size privacy panel on the back instead of a 1/2 size like the Roland RP500. Even the top piano lid can be tilted up for front sound projection through its upgraded stereo sound system which includes 4 speakers going through 40 watts of power. It also comes with a height adjustable bench instead of a standard height bench and the factory warranty on the AP460 has 5 years of in-home labor vs 2 years on the Roland. I recommend you read my review of this model before you make any purchase anywhere. Casio AP460 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Casio AP700 Digital Piano - Recommended - The Casio company produces a line of digital pianos under $3000 called the Celviano Series traditional digital pianos. The top of the line in this series is called the AP700 ($2999US store retail price) and under this model is the AP650, AP460, and AP260. The AP700 is not available for sale on the internet in the US and only found in selected Casio piano store dealers. The AP700 is a "crossover" piano in the sense that the piano sound chip and digital features in this model are taken from their higher priced professional home series Grand Hybrid digital pianos and then combined with a few of the important features of their lower price AP650 Celviano piano. The features in the AP700 that are from the Ceviano AP650 include the triple sensor ivory & ebony key action, the identical upgraded satin black furniture cabinet with adjustable opening lid, the LCD display screen, control panel button placement, and adjustable matching bench. The internal speaker system in the AP700 is also the same as in the AP650 which is an excellent system for volume and depth and include 6 speakers going through a total of 60 watts of stereo power.

At $2999US retail price, the Casio AP700's biggest competitor is the Yamaha Clavinova CLP535 which also has a store retail price of $2999US and sells at discount for $2699 based on the Yamaha advertised web site price. The Yamaha company certainly has a great name in pianos as they are famous for acoustic upright and grand pianos as well as digital pianos. In fact, the Yamaha name would be more popular than Casio for that reason alone...that they make real pianos and have done so for years. However, Casio is also a famous company for the millions of high quality digital products that it makes including watches, calculators, cameras, professional and home keyboards, and large line of digital pianos which they've been producing for well over 30 years. So when it comes to digital pianos, Casio knows what they are doing and based on my experience with them, believe it or not, I believe they offer more overall "bang for the buck" in the their digital pianos in similar price ranges than does Yamaha and some of the other brands out there.

The Casio AP700 has a custom piano sound chip built in with over 12 different acoustic piano sounds including the same high quality sound samples from their expensive Grand Hybrid digital pianos. Those piano sounds come from 3 distinct grand pianos which include the German Steinway Hamberg Concert Grand Piano, the Bosendorfer Viennese Austrian concert grand Piano, and the Bechstein Berlin concert grand Piano. The Bechstein piano company in Germany in conjunction with the Casio company produced all of the new piano sound samples in the AP700.

The competitive Yamaha Clavinova CLP535 offers 2 distinct piano samples from the Japanese Yamaha Concert Grand and the Bosendorfer Austrian concert grand both of which are great pianos. Although I do like the Yamaha acoustic concert grand very much and have played them many times, I do not like the Bosendorfer sampled grand sound in the CLP535 very much at all. It just seems too muted, muffled, and indistinct to me and I have played the CLP535 many times. I have played real Bosendorfer concert grand pianos a lot in my music career and the Yamaha CLP535 sample of a Bosendorfer doesn't sound like any real Bosendorfer I have ever heard. However, the Casio Celviano AP700 Bosendorfer sample is much more pleasing and realistic to my ears and I like it quite a bit. The Steinway piano sample in the Casio AP700 is excellent and very expressive and my favorite piano sound. Yamaha does not use a Steinway sample and instead has their own Yamaha grand sampled sound which I like...but not nearly as much as Steinway Concert Grand. So when it comes to the ever important grand piano sound, I prefer what the AP700 has to offer over the Yamaha CLP535. It should be noted that Yamaha uses the same sounds that are in their CLP535 also in their higher priced CLP models as well. The unique piano sound samples in the AP700 are the same sound samples in the higher priced Grand Hybrid GP300 as opposed to the piano sounds in the lower priced Casio AP650.

The Casio AP700 has 256 notes of polyphony processing power as does the Yamaha CLP535, which is the most polyphony power offered in a sampled sound digital piano. the 256-note polyphony sound chip is more than enough to handle complex musical scores and passages and also allows the player to combine 2 sounds layered together such as piano &strings, etc for an even more beautiful piano playing sound experience. Other similarities between the Casio AP700 and Yamaha CVP535 include both having a 60 watt audio power sound system although Casio has 6 speakers and Yamaha has 4 speakers, power consumption under 30 watts for both models, both models have USB audio wav file recording and playback, both have USB flashdrive input for saving and playing songs, both have good connectivity with audio input, audio output, USB output to external device, dual headphone jacks, string resonance and damper resonance, and a few other features.

But one of the things that really separates the Casio AP700 from the Yamaha CLP535 and all other vertical cabinet style digital pianos in this price range is the adjustable open top lid. If you look closely at the pictures of the AP700, you'll notice that the lid can open and be propped up to allow the piano sound to also come up and out towards the player as opposed to the sound staying inside the piano like in the Yamaha CLP535. In fact, the Yamaha internal speaker system only has 2 speakers, although they are slightly larger than the main speakers in the AP700. But the AP700 has 6 total speakers (4 mains and 2 tweeters) along with the lid opening system like a little mini grand piano, so the sound disbursement in the AP700 is very impressive in its price range and I like it. If you do not want the top lid to be opened then it can remain flat like it would be regular digital pianos.

Key action is very important in a digital piano and in fact is the most important feature in any digital piano in my opinion, followed by piano sound and pedaling. The key action in the AP700 is the same key action that's in the lower priced AP650 which allows for a more natural piano playing experience with regard to key weight, resistance, response, and overall key movement. I like the AP700 key action very much and it has the synthetic ivory & ebony keytops which try to simulate the old grand piano key feel when the keys were made from real elephant ivory and real ebony wood many years ago before those materials were banned from being used on consumer products like pianos. Although the Yamaha key action is a bit quieter than the Casio key action in terms of noise when the keys move up and down (all piano actions have some mechanical noise), real acoustic piano key actions are fairly noisy when they move up and down except you just cannot hear the key noise because acoustic pianos are always so loud all the time and that volume covers up the key noise that you might otherwise hear. However, I like the key weight and key movement much better on the Casio AP700 as it takes less effort to press the keys down as compared to Yamaha CLP535 key action with the GH system. When I play the Yamaha CLP535 key action, it feels fatiguing to me after awhile and the down-weight (aka: static touch weight) of the keys is just too heavy and not realistic as compared to a good grand piano down-weight based on my experience playing these pianos. The Casio AP700 just feels better and allows for quick key action movement and more accurate repetition with Casio's triple sensor electronics under each key. The key action expression is very good, especially for a plastic key action, which most of these pianos have in this price range.

Piano pedaling is also an important aspect of any good piano and the Casio AP700 is no exception. The pedaling offers half-damper control for variable sustain amount and duration of time. The piano pedaling also triggers damper resonance which is when the dampers in a real piano are off the strings and there is natural resonation of the strings occurring along with the note that is played. Casio has recreated this experience in the Celviano AP460 and it certainly is nice to have for those that are used to a real piano. The middle sostenuto pedal and left soft pedal also work like a real piano and give people the added benefit of reproducing the functionality of those pedals as well, although the right damper sustain pedal is the primary pedal used more than 90% of the time for most recreational piano players.

The Casio company has its worldwide headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (left pic) and has been producing digital pianos for over 30 years. They also produce keyboards, pro synthesizers, as well as being famous for calculators, advanced digital cameras, sports & consumer watches, advanced digital technology for communication devices, and some very impressive new digital computer technology. Casio produces their own computer chips and proprietary micro technology and is able to do it at a fraction of the cost of some of it's biggest competitors and that is why Casio tends to have lower prices than many competitors. Some people equate lower prices with lower quality and think you need to spend a lot more money or get a "name brand" in pianos to get something really good. However, in my opinion, this latest model Casio AP700 is very impressive for its lower price and easily competes with the other popular digital piano brands including Yamaha (as I mentioned), Roland, and Kawai for features, cabinet construction & style, and overall piano playing experience realism.

Another impressive feature to me is the fact that Casio has included "wav file" audio recording in this model. What that means is that you can record yourself as an audio recording (CD quality) and save it to a USB flashdrive in the piano. Then you can take that recording in the flashdrive and plug it into your computer and email that song to your friends and relatives to let them hear it on their computer just as you played it! Beyond that, you can import that music into computer music programs for music education, composing, song arranging, etc for further musical interaction and even turn the wav file recording into an MP3 to play as an iTune on your iPad or iPod. The other major brands such as Roland, Kawai, or Yamaha does not have this feature in this price range. Another recording feature that is very useful and I use it in my teaching studio, is the ability to record right and left hand playing independently on 2 separate MIDI recording tracks and then play back both hands simultaneously. This feature is very helpful in allowing piano students to practice and record one hand and then play that recording back while they play the other hand "live" along with the recording. It's like having your teacher there playing along with you to give you help in understanding your rhythm and timing better and it's also more fun to practice this way. You can also save this recording and other song recordings you have done to a USB flashdrive for storage so you can come back later and work on and play along with those pieces again.

The Bechstein-Casio Grand Hybrid pianos are quite a bit more money and they start at $3999 with the GP300 model, but those pianos offer an actual wood grand piano hammer action with real moving hammers using a synthetic resin to construct the hammers. The AP700 offers the identical digital features as the higher priced GP300 with the exception of the GP300 having a larger display screen, more audio power, the wood key action (very expensive to produce) and a different cabinet. Speaking of LCD display screen, I personally like the control panel and display screen of the Casio AP700 over the Yamaha CLP535. If you notice the pictures, the Yamaha display screen is all the way over to the left side of the keyboard and is more difficult to use because of that. Even though the Yamaha CLP535 display screen is larger, it's not as intuitive and placed in a position that makes it much less easy to use. The AP700 control panel and display screen is above the keys in front of the player for easy use, easy to see position of the display screen, and intuitive buttons which better access the piano sounds and functions of the AP700.

A few other very cool features of the AP700 include a new music library that consists of 10 full orchestra classical songs (plus more you can download from an internet site) which you can play along with using the piano sounds in the piano. The 10 orchestral songs are in an audio wav format (recorded from live orchestra) and sounds just like a real recording of the instruments as you would find on a regular CD recording of an orchestra. These new songs are independent in their sounds and format (the piano itself does not have these sounds) but you can interact with them by playing along live with the music. The 10 songs are standard classical music and although they are fun to play along with and do sound good, you would need to be able to read music (or play by ear) and play along at the song skill level so that you could interact with the music properly. You can slow down the songs, mute either right or left hand playback sound for live playalong and do a few other things with the orchestra accompaniment which are all quite fun to do, sound great, and helpful for learning. It's a nice feature and certainly sounds good but they're all in the classical category which is certainly good, but I also like other styles of music too. At the very least, you can pretend that you know what you are doing and that's OK:).

It is important to note that the AP700 piano does not have built-in drum rhythms, automatic chords, music styles, hundreds of instrument sounds, multi-track General MIDI recording & composing, etc that can be useful to some people (such as is on the Casio AP650), but it was not designed to be that way. The AP700 is focused primarily on piano playing and is a very satisfying instrument for its price that can handle many playing skill levels. However, it does have some useful "fun features" that I like but if you want even more additional interactive fun and educational functions/features, then you can easily connect to an iPad and experience some very cool interactive piano technology which both adults and children will enjoy. I use many iPad music/piano educational apps in my music studio to teach from and enhance the piano learning experience for both kids and adults. But as far as piano playing goes, this digital piano has a big, loud, bold piano sound which can replace a regular upright piano along with enough digital features to make the learning and piano playing experience fun and gratifying for most people seeking a quality instrument in a lower price range under $3000.

Speaking of fun features, you can connect an external device directly like an iPad or laptop computer using the AP700 high speed class compliant USB MIDI connection which allows for instant connection with external computer devices without the need of downloading drivers or having to convert a MIDI signal to USB. Since kids are growing up in the "iPad world" I recommend to all piano students that they utilize the exciting Apps available for tablets (and iPad in particular) to enhance their playing and practice experience which will make them better students and better musicians overall. Besides that, it's super cool to do this and when you've experienced the interaction of the Casio AP700 with an iPad (or Android) tablet and what it can musically and educationally do for you and your family, you'll be amazed at all the possibilities!

Other features of the AP700 worth mentioning is more realistic instrument sounds (26 of them) which are taken from the higher priced Casio GP300 Hybrid digital piano including noticeably improved strings, harpsichord, organs, and electric pianos which can be split into two parts on the piano, layered together, and you can also use the "duet" function that allows 2 people to play piano at the same time. Another interesting feature is call Hall Simulation which gives the stereo acoustic piano sound a more spacious effect such as you would hear in a large concert hall or church where there is natural echo that occurs when playing an instrument. There are a variety of "hall" simulations and it adds to the sonic presence of the acoustic piano sounds and makes the piano more enjoyable to play depending on the kind of music you like. I have heard these kinds of effects before in other higher priced digital instruments and they can add to the realism of piano playing which is always a good thing.

The bottom line is...this top of the line Casio Celviano AP700 is a piano for people who want to focus on the piano playing experience in a medium price range (under $3000) without too many "bells & whistles to get in the way." With a very nice cabinet design that looks great and has a full back privacy panel, sounds big through its impressive internal speaker system, and uses a proprietary piano sound chip designed in part by the Bechstein grand piano company in Germany, the AP700 would be one of my top recommendations in its price range especially given the fact that it out performs many of its competitors in my opinion. Along with a big factory warranty of 5 years parts & labor with in-home service and a matching Casio height adjustable bench, it's a complete package that would be good for anyone looking for a more upgraded digital piano piano at a reasonable price.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

DP150e

Review - Artesia DP150e, AG30, AG50 Digital pianos- Semi Recommended (just barely) - The new Artesia digital pianos at Costco include the vertical upright style DP150e ($999US discount price) at 34" tall and 20" deep and 121 lbs, the 32" deep micro grand AG30 ($1499US discount price, and the 48" deep mini grand AG50 ($2399US discount price). These 3 specific Artesia digital pianos are only sold at Costco in the US and only available as an on-line purchase. The Artesia brand is part of the "Virgin Musical Instrument" company in the US and the pianos themselves are designed and made in China by a Chinese manufacturer...as are other piano brands. Artesia themselves is not a piano manufacturer, unlike Casio, Kawai, Roland, and Yamaha who are digital piano designers and manufacturers.

AG30

I have not been favorable to past Artesia digital pianos because simply put, they have not been good. The key actions, piano sound, and pedaling were a poor excuse for a piano. They suffered from toy-like sound, unrealistic, clunky key action, as well poor pedaling response. The secondary digital features and functions were OK but certainly no substitute for poor piano performance even at the beginning level. The good new about these new models of Artesia is that they have gotten better and are almost acceptable...almost! Again, when it comes to digital pianos, for me it's not what the outside cabinet looks like nor is it any of the extra "bells & whistles." It's all about the piano playing experience and whether or not a particular digital piano can replicate or come close to being like a real acoustic piano. Although these new models have definitely been improved in some ways, the DP150e, AG30, and AG50 are just not there yet, although the manufacturer who makes these pianos for Artesia is getting closer, so I do appreciate the fact they are trying to make that effort.

So where do these pianos fall short? Well it has to do with key action, key sensors under the keys which control the repetition response, piano sound realism and response, and pedaling. One of the first things I noticed was even though the weight of the piano keys was better and more realistic than past Artesia key actions, the physical action movement was a bit too light for me as compared to real pianos or better digital pianos, although it still is acceptable, especially compared to poor playing digital pianos such as the Williams brand. However the key action was a bit noisy when the black & white keys were moving, and if you are a better, more enthusiastic player and playing with some force in the fingers, the keys made a noticeable knocking sound when they went down and hit bottom, almost like there wasn't padding below the keys (in the key bed). Past models of Artesia pianos have had this issue and it is especially noticeable when playing at low volumes or when wearing headphones where other people in the room can hear the knocking sound when the keys go down. So that's an issue for me personally, but maybe you will be OK with it.

When it comes to the electronic key sensors under the keys and the piano sound generating electronics in general, these are things you cannot see but do make a big difference in the way the piano sound behaves. As an example, when you are playing a real piano or a good digital piano, when you press down a key it makes a piano sound and that sound sustains naturally until you let go of the key. As soon as you let go of the key the piano sound should immediately stop, assuming you are not using the sustain pedal. In other words, if you play a key quickly, when the key is coming back up the piano sound is supposed to immediately stop playing (being heard) on any key that is being played that way. This kind of piano playing is called "staccato" piano playing and it is very important that the piano can do this so you can replicate the music as it should be when you are playing. Unfortunately on these new Artesia models, the piano sound does not stop immediately when the key is let go and then coming back up, and the sound lingers on for about a second or so after the key is released. This is something that is not acceptable in my book and there is no way that I can find to change it on these pianos. This has nothing to do with reverb or any special effects because this happens by itself without any effects or sustain pedal. It is simply a problem with the piano and its inability to behave normally with regard to staccato playing. I don't think it is something any beginner would notice, but as you progress in your playing ability it will become an important aspect of your music.

Another piano sound issue for me on these models is when you play a key and it goes about half-way down, you can hear the piano sound come in softly which is not supposed to happen. In other words, the piano sound volume is triggered (although its at a low volume) when you press a key down half-way, whereas on a real piano and good digital pianos you should not hear any sound triggered at all until the key is all the way down and touches bottom. For a beginner this will likely not be an issue, but as you progress in your playing ability you'll want the piano sound to come in like it does in a real piano, and these Artesia models will not do that and there's no way to change it. Another thing I noticed about playing the keys was the dynamic volume and tonal response. What I mean by this is that is when the keys go up and down the tonal dynamics (piano sound) are mellow when pressing the key down softly and slowly and the piano sound is supposed to brighten up when you play the keys harder. The volume response also should work the same way at the same time with the tonal dynamic range with less volume when playing the keys lightly and more volume when playing the keys harder and it needs to be even and gradual for best response. On these Artesia pianos, the volume response and tonal control (expression) is noticeably uneven and jumpy to me going from one key (note) to the other. So while you are playing a song, there may be one key you are playing that has a much brighter piano sound and the next key over has a more mellow sound...or you may hear one key/note be louder and the key next to it may be quieter using the same finger pressure. Also, when playing one key softer to harder, the dynamics also tend to be a bit jumpy. These kind of piano sound anomalies generally do not happen on good acoustic and digital pianos because the tone ,volume, and overall dynamics (expression) are even from one key to the next up & down or on the same key whether playing softly or harder. This kind of uneven tone/volume and lack of tonal "color" out of the key action and cheaper quality key sensors is quite annoying to me and definitely does not inspire me to want to play on these pianos. But for beginners and non-players, it won't matter and they should be fine for awhile.

With regard to the piano sound itself, it definitely sounds mostly digital to me and not organic or natural, especially if you know what a real acoustic piano sounds like or a good digital piano with a more realistic piano sound chip. These Artesia's do sound more realistic than previous models so that is good, but in real pianos there are natural, organic, resonate elements of the piano sound that a person can hear and that kind of thing gives a piano its character and personality with many expressive "colors" of music. These new Artesia models have none of the natural, organic qualities of an acoustic piano other than some basic but uneven tonal dynamics which Artesia calls "3-layer and 3-D instrument sound samples." Yes there are definitely 3 layers of piano tone per note (mellow, medium, and bright per note when playing softer to harder) but as I said, that sound is very uneven & somewhat jumpy and not at all like a real piano. The so-called "3-D" sound samples are not really "3-D" as far as I am concerned. The definition of the phrase 3-D is "An object that has height, width and depth, like any object in the real world." The piano sound in the Artesias have no actual sonic height and no depth. It just has width because the piano sound uses stereo sound samples which is nice, but nothing out of the ordinary as far as digital pianos are concerned.

AG50

Sonically, for a lot of uninitiated people who don't play piano, the Artesia piano sound is OK and in fact, you may even like it and it is noticeably better than previous models of Artesia. But to equate it with a real acoustic piano or a good digital piano by famous brands such as Kawai, Yamaha, Casio, or Roland, is like saying a McDonalds hamburger tastes as good as a quality cut of prime rib...it's just not possible...and so it is with the Artesia DP150e, AG30, and AG50. They "look good & smell good" and they may even fill you up for a short time, but these pianos are definitely not "pianos" in the sense of playing and sounding like any high quality acoustic upright, grand, or digital piano I have ever played. When it comes to Artesia pianos, that company states the following in their advertisement for these pianos: "Its (their) advanced hammer action design offers excellent response and smooth playability that will satisfy even the most demanding teacher or performer." There is no way that I know of for a "demanding teacher or performer" (I am one of them) to be interested in playing these Artesia pianos to perform or teach on unless, for some reason, there are no other options available to them, which is unlikely. Most of these digital piano companies exaggerate the reality of their pianos (they almost all do that) so that you will buy it, and that is not unusual. So don't be sold on something just because the maker of the product says you should be, because it's all about sales for them. Just understand that you get what you pay for and that is true with these Artesia pianos.

As far as the pedaling goes, it is OK and just average, not great but acceptable. The pedals are full size and nice looking, but do make a noticeable amount of knocking noise each time when they come back up after pushing them down with your foot. That can be a somewhat annoying especially if you have played acoustic pianos or some good digital pianos with a quieter pedal movement. The pedals work appropriately and the sustain decay time is actually quite good so I do like that. However the piano sound when sustaining it with the damper pedal sounds very digital and does not any organic, natural character to it. This is due again to the fact that the piano sound elements of pedal and string resonance are not present in the piano sound chip so all that is heard is a linear digital type of piano sound when being sustained. But for the average person who knows little about piano sound and what it is really supposed to be like, they may not notice this issue. But for me, it is not at all something that I would personally enjoy and it just sounds like sustained noise to me. But hey, most of you out there are not at my skill level of piano playing nor have you likely been playing real pianos for any length of time, so again, you may not notice the sound being as unnatural as it is when using the damper sustain pedal.

OK...on to the fun stuff, and this piano has plenty of it! These pianos have lots of instrument sounds, interactive accompaniment styles, along with a variety of rhythm patterns. Rock, Latin, jazz, waltz, march, country, and so on. Electric pianos, harpsichords, strings, bells, brass, woodwinds, horns, reeds, special effect sounds, etc with some that sound good and some not very good. Some of these overall features are useful and some not very useful, but that is to be expected, especially in these price ranges for an Artesia piano. However overall the functions are plentiful, useful, and fun to use and I enjoyed them. There's no doubt that many families will also enjoy many of these features which includes 136 instrument sounds, 99 accompaniment patterns and drum rhythms with variation, intro, and ending on each one along with being able to easily control tempo faster/slower, and layer & split any two instrument sounds. There are adjustable special effects such as reverb & chorus for the piano and other instrument sounds along with a duet feature which digitally splits the 88 notes into two 44 note keyboards so that 2 people can play the same notes at the same time with the lower part of the keyboard being electronically converted to the same octave piano sound as the upper portion of the keyboard. useful for 2 people playing the same notes in the same music at the same time. I must admit that does not happen too often but it is useful when needed. Many other digital pianos have these fun and educational features as well so Artesia is not the only one.

It is important to note that there are only 2 acoustic piano type sound selections on these pianos with only the first one called "grand piano" and sounding more like an acoustic piano, although to me not a grand piano sound as claimed, even though they may have sampled the sound from a grand. The 2nd piano sound selection called "bright piano" is, in my opinion, a very poor sound sample which has some noticeably poor stretch tuning problems that causes the piano to be noticeably "out-of-tune" sometimes when using that piano sound and playing a variety of chords on the piano. There's also some noticeably poor tonal/volume dynamics as well and I would never use the bright piano sound because of these issues. What's interesting is that I don't hear any of the stretch tuning issues on the 1st piano sound like I do on the 2nd piano sound, although there are still erratic dynamic tonal and volume issues when playing the keys using either piano sound, as I have previously discussed. Many other digital pianos in this price range have more variety of acoustic piano sound samples which are noticeably better and also not out of tune. The piano sounds are the main reasons people buy pianos and everything else is secondary. So when it comes to acoustic piano variety and quality using preset buttons or through the menu on these pianos, there are only two of them and the 1st one is the only one worth playing at all when it comes to a piano sound. But some of the other non piano instrument sounds are nice and can be fun to play.

To access the many functions on these pianos there are direct access buttons on the control panel above the keyboard for the instrument sounds in groups and the instrument sounds in groups, as well as a small but useful LCD display screen to see what you're doing, which I like. There is also a small knob called a "data wheel" on the right side of the display screen, which you can turn to move through the selections at a quicker rate or you can move through them with +/- buttons one at a time, so when it comes to controlling the features such as accompaniment or keyboard volumes, etc, overall I do like what these pianos have to offer. There is also 3 large knobs on the left side of the control panel which give you instant access to the master volume of the piano including bass and treble control of the sound. All digital pianos have a master volume control but not necessarily treble and bass control knobs although they may have treble and bass adjustments in the functions of the display screen. So I do like the quick access knobs for these volume and frequency adjustments and they have been on past Artesia piano models and are useful to have to make the adjustments to master volume along with the bass & treble tone of the piano.

With regard to the digital features there are also other ones including adjustable digital metronome, 16 track recording & playback, transpose, octave shift, tuning, 36 registration memories to store your own favorite settings that you created, and many more. One of my favorite things to do on a digital piano is to be able to play General MIDI song files on the piano through a USB flash drive. These Artesia pianos can do that and some of the song data (title, etc) is displayed from the USB flash drive in the piano display screen. So when it comes to playing along with and listening to favorite songs, this piano can do that very well assuming you have the necessary MIDI song files that you like.

Underneath the left side of these Artesia pianos is a connector box which includes two 1/4" headphone jacks, a MIDI output, USB output to external device, stereo audio in and out RCA jacks, a volume knob to control line level volume, and a Bluetooth connector for a Bluetooth adapter provided with these pianos. Basically the connector box has everything you would need to connect just about anything you want including being able to stream audio files from your external Bluetooth device (phone, iPad, etc) through the piano speaker system.Most pianos in this price range do not have all those connectors so the Artesia pianos do a very good job in this area and I wish more companies would have this kind of connector variety.

The internal speaker system of these pianos are more than adequate with the vertical style DP150e having four speakers going through 80 watts of power, the DP150 micro grand having 6 speakers with a total of 120 watts of power, and the AG50 mini grand having 6 speakers at 150 watts of total power. So when it comes to volume in these pianos, there is plenty of that, however volume does not necessarily equate to quality tone and the speakers and amps in these pianos could be a little better in that way, especially on the DP150e. The sound on the DP150e is a bit muddy (dark) to me and makes the piano sound have a much more digital (fake) tone and not near as good as listening to it through a good set of stereo headphones. If the internal speaker/amp sound was as good as listening through a good pair of headphones, then that would be a lot better, but the frequency response and dynamic range of the internal speakers/amps have a lot to be desired, but for the average person they may be fine.

The best thing about these pianos is the way they look. There is no question that they are quite attractive in their polished ebony cabinets, sliding key covers, with matching benches, and that's something many people like to have. Speaking of the benches, although they are nice looking and comfortable, they definitely are not wide enough to be considered real "duet" size benches. Duet size benches are typically about 30" wide and the Artesia benches are 24" wide...definitely not enough room for 2 average size people or one adult and one child to sit on comfortably together so they are really single size benches. The factory warranty on the Artesia pianos is only one year whereas other digital piano brands in these price ranges are anywhere from 3 years to 5 years in length. So if you are wanting a good, long warranty, Artesia pianos don't have them like other brands do.

In the final analysis, these Artesia models DP150e, AG30, and AG50 are fun to play, look good, and have many fun features built in, but as pianos go they are just barely average (or below average) as far as piano playing authenticity goes compared to any of the more well known piano brands. You definitely do get what you pay for and with that in mind, I do semi-recommend these pianos ((just barely) because they are OK and better than previous models which I did not recommend at all, as well as looking good and doing a lot of fun things. If you are a beginner and don't know how real pianos play including the more authentic digital piano brands and how they behave musically, then you could likely be happy with your purchase of any one of these Artesia models because you just aren't at a skill or experience level to notice it yet....and that is really the issue...what is most important to you and how much money are you willing to invest to get it? Once you make a purchase you will likely be keeping it for a very long time so be sure you make the right decision because once the fun of the drums, automatic chords, recording, and song play start wearing off and getting a bit old, what you will have remaining is the piano and the way it acts and behaves as a piano, and I believe that is the most important thing to consider when spending your hard earned money:). There are other brands and models to consider and if you have questions about what else is available out there, please contact me for more info.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.