REVIEW - Digital Pianos Under $2000 for 2014 - Yamaha YDP181, Yamaha YDP162, Yamaha YDPC71, Roland RP301, Kawai KDP90, Kawai CE220, Casio PX850, Yamaha YDP142, Kurzweil MP10, Kawai CN24, Kawai ES7 - "Furniture Cabinet Style"

UPDATED REVIEW - November 1, 2014- BEST CABINET DIGITAL PIANOS Between $1000USto $2000US - I am an expert when it comes to playing, teaching on, and knowing about digital pianos. I have been working with all the brands and models for over 40 years and offer free consultations no matter where you live. Just email me with your questions and I'll be happy to get back to you (or you can call me if you are in the US). I do not have a store or warehouse, but I work out of a large music studio that I own, and I play & teach on acoustic & digital pianos, keyboards, synthesizer, organ, and a variety of guitars. I understand what digital pianos are supposed to do and which ones that will give you a realistic piano playing experience (based on my vast experience with acoustic pianos including concert grands as well as all the name brand digital pianos). There are many new model digital pianos being offered by the top piano manufacturers these days and sometimes it can be very confusing as to what the best digital piano is for a particular price range. So I have written this blog article (and others) to help out people looking for gooddigital pianos between $1000US - $2000US.  I also have done a review comparison of new digital pianos under $1000US which you can also read about on my blog at the following link: Digital Pianos under $1000US

I consider the top digital piano manufacturers to include Kawai, Casio, Yamaha, and Roland. In the $1000-$2000 price range, the Korg digital piano company makes one cabinet piano called the LP380 ($999 internet price) which is OK but not up to the quality of the top brands in my opinion. Go to the following link to read my review on that model:  Korg LP380 review. The Kurzweilpiano/keyboard company makes nice looking furniture style digital pianos and although they sound pretty good, in my opinion they are not very good when it comes to higher quality key actions and pedaling components and electronics in the under $2000US price range. I will be doing some detailed reviews on all the Kurzweil cabinet models soon but if you should have any questions in the meantime, please contact me.

Almost all other brands of digital pianos (with a couple of exceptions) that may be available in some piano stores, on-line web sites, or consumer store web sites (like Costco in the US) are what I consider to be off brands. I would not recommend these brands by such names as Artesia, Suzuki, Williams, Adams, Adagio, and a few others that I have seen. Stay away from them regardless of how inexpensive the price may be or how attractive the piano may look if you want a good piano playing experience, especially in these mini/micro digital baby grands that are out there. Most of them are just plain bad when it comes to key action response, dynamics, key action noise, durability, etc. I have written reviews on many of these brands and models so if you want more info, take a look at some of my other blog reviews.

In this blog article I will be referring only to furniture cabinet style models (including portable pianos with nice furniture stands & pedals) and only those that have an internet or regular store discount price for $1000-$2000US which is where most consumers want to be when shopping for a new digital piano.

Roland digital pianos are generally fine instruments and that company has five furniture cabinet models that sell for under $2000 and they're called the RP301R ($1999US approx store discount price), RP301 ($1699US internet price), F120 compact cabinet version of the RP301 ($1699 internet price), and the new F130R ($1299US internet price) and new RP401R ($1599US internet price). The 1st three pianos are the same as far as key action, piano sound, and speaker system, and all three pianos have 128-notes of polyphony. The key action (ivory feel-G) is nicely weighted but has a noticeably sluggish key movement as compared to the other digital piano brands as well as real acoustic pianos. The key action unfortunately is also noisy and distracting as the keys go down and touch bottom when playing in a harder more dynamic manner. It's like the keys don't have enough felt underneath them. The other brands here do not have this issue as the keys hit the keybed underneath, and I have played all the brands and models. The other two pianos, RP401R/F130R, are brand new 2015 models and have major upgrades over the other older Roland pianos and all the previous issues I mentioned are no longer a concern because of the major improvements. The older RP301/301R, F120 sound is somewhat thin and tinny in the middle to higher octaves of these pianos (the new ones are much better and I like them. The RP301 and RP301R piano have buttons across the front panel so it's easy to operate and has a nice selection of realistic instrument and percussion tones which is good and their stereo amplifier speaker system puts out a total of  24 watts of power which fine for most homes. The RP301 & F120 do not have a USB output connector (just standard MIDI connectors), but the new models do have them as well as other useful connectivity features. Overall I think Roland pianos in this price range are good, with the exception of the key action and sound on the older models (which are now discontinued). However, the new models are muchbetter as compared to some other name brands in this price range and a big step up from the previous Roland models. I have detailed blog reviews of these new Roland models here on my blogsite if you want to read more. Roland RP401R/F130R Review