DIGITAL PIANO REVIEWS for 2013: Pianos UNDER $1000 - GO HERE for the latest info!

Digital Piano Review - The Best Digital Pianos of 2013

UPDATED - Best Digital Pianos under $1000.

There are only 3 brands of digital pianos that I recommend right now which will be acceptable as having good 88-key digital pianos in the lower price range under $1000. Those brands are Yamaha, Casio & Korg (Roland & Kawai do not offer models under $1000). Within those available brands there are some specific 2012/2013 models under $1000 internet discount price that are available which I recommend. You can certainly get a very good piano playing experience in this lower price range and it may not be necessary for you to spend more money on a digital piano unless you have specific needs that are not going to be met with these lower priced pianos. However, the quality of piano sound & key action reproduction in a couple of these models may surprise you and you'll be able to save even more money than you thought and get a very nice piano for the entire family even if you have a higher playing skill level.If you would like to research reviews of digital pianos between $1000-$2000, go to my reviews of those pianos here:
Casio offers 6 models of digital pianos under $1000 selling price including the basic CDP120 ($449), the Privia PX150 ($599), PX350 ($799), PX750 compact cabinet model ($799 - lower left pic), PX780 compact cabinet model ($999 internet discount price), and the AP250 fuller size cabinet model ($999 internet price - above left pic). Yamaha offers 6 models including the new P105 ($599 - left pic) available now, as well as the DGX640 ($699), YDPS31 (same as YDP135R but in compact cabinet), P155 portable piano ($999 internet price not incl stand, pedals, or bench), and the YDP135R. I recommend all of the Casio's and Yamaha's mentioned here although the Casio CDP models are quite basic and use a lower quality key action, piano sound chip, speaker system, and pedal system. But they can be adequate depending on the need and budget. 

Korg SP170S

Korg offers three models under $1000 including the SP170S ($499), SP280 ($699), and LP350 ($999), the LP350 although it is an older model and has been out for about 8 years. It uses older digital technology (you can read my blog reviews of that piano) that have been surpassed by Yamaha & Casio. I don't recommend the Korg SP170/170S (above left pic) because I just don't like the key action and velocity sound response (although the piano sound itself is good), and that's one of the most important things in picking out pianos. Also, I don't like the sound selection system it uses and the case/cabinet is a bit plastic looking as compared to the Yamaha & Casio. The new SP280 is better and has an upgraded internal speaker system but I am still not a big fan of the sound itself or the key action as compared to the other brands. So in reality, the best options are either the newer Yamaha or Casio pianos. Some of the Yamaha & Casio pianos I recommend are portable so you would need to purchase an optional furniture style stand (or cheaper metal stand), pedals, and bench to make it complete. But even that expense should not put you over (or much over) $1000.

Adagio digital piano

All of these brands & models mentioned here are the piano style weighted 88-key digital pianos, although the key action movement will be slightly different from one model to another. They all have built-in speakers although the power & quality of the speaker system vary, and overall all of my recommended pianos are acceptable depending on your musical goals and experience. There are other brands and models out there in the lower price ranges as well, but I recommend against them because they are of much lower quality (in my experienced opinion) are not up to my minimal student practice or recreational playing standards for key action, piano sound, and pedaling. These brands include Adagio, Suzuki, Williams, Adams, or any lightweight spring key action digital pianos such as the Yamaha DGX505, Yamaha DGX535, Kurzweil SP4-7, etc, so be careful. I have even seen some recommendations on-line & also in some large (popular) music stores for these "off-brand" pianos among others, but in my opinion they are only a POS (piano shaped object) and in few other ways resemble what a digital or acoustic piano should play and sound like. Suzuki & Adagio are brands normally found primarily at Costco in the US, but that does not mean they are good musical instruments. Nice, attractive exterior cabinets (which some of them do have) do not always mean digital pianos are good for playing music correctly...even at minimum standards. I would suggest you stay away from these  brands if you want a very good piano playing experience.

Yamaha YDP135R

Of the three brands mentioned in the lower price range I believe Casio offers a noticeably better piano playing key action and sound experience than Yamaha or Korg, although Yamaha has some very nice models at $1500 and above. The lower priced Yamaha P105 & DGX640 are also quite fun to play and certainly worth looking at. But ultimately, all of these models I mentioned here would be fine although everyone pretty much wants the closest reproduction a regular piano as they can get for the least amount of money. For many recreational piano players and students, it can be difficult for them to determine which piano actually does do the best job in terms of the piano touch and tone. So how can you tell and what do you do to determine what the best one is in this price range since sound and touch are normally a subjective individual thing? And to make matters more difficult, it's typically difficult to find all of these pianos in one place at one time to compare them, or even find some of them at all. The best thing in my opinion to do is to research and then listen to an experienced expert like myself and then I can give you a better idea of what might work best for you.

With regard to piano beginner students and their music education, as a long time private & group piano and keyboard teacher, this is something I know a lot about after having taught hundreds of students over many years. If you want good info on the best way to proceed as far as lessons go as well as wanting to be sure you're getting the right instrument for your needs and budget, please contact me and I'll be happy to answer your questions. Also, click on the links below to read my reviews on some of these pianos under $1000.

Casio PX750 Review
Yamaha P105 Review
Casio PX350 Review
Casio PX780 Review
Korg LP350 Review
Yamaha YDP135R Review
Korg SP170S Review

Casio PX780

I would say my favorite new cabinet piano under $1000 internet discount price right now has to be the 2013 model Casio Privia PX780 (left pic). This piano really surprised me when I recently played it in that it was not only in a nicely designed compact cabinet with the full 3 pedals that was attractive & functional (especially with its full pull-down key cover), but that it had an amazing big sounding acoustic piano tone with a wide dynamic range using a three sensor key technology not normally found in a smaller instrument until you get well above $2000 in other brands (the Yamaha Arius series does not have this). When you also consider the Casio PX780 has the new synthetic ivory & ebony keys (normally found on pianos in much higher price ranges), 128-note polyphony piano memory (which is more than sufficient in most cases), half-pedal recognition damper sustain pedal, and life-like acoustic piano hammer (graduated weighted) key action along with direct USB output for instant connect with laptop and iPad (go to the following link to learn more about iPad apps: iPad Apps and learning piano), and hundreds of useful built-in educational features, this one just cannot be beat right now at the low $999 internet price. Not one of the other brands comes close to this model in what it can do overall, even for hundreds of dollars more money in my opinion.

Now there are some people who equate the name Casio and its lower prices with lower quality and sometimes lower price CAN mean lower quality. The Yamaha piano company has always been very respected and has a better known name in the world of music than Casio does, no doubt about that. Also piano teachers (like me) as well as schools and churches have played Yamaha pianos and other name brands for years. But competitive Yamaha digital pianos right now cost far more money than these new Casio pianos (as much as 2 to 4 times as much) depending on the model.

In my opinion any of these recommended pianos I mentioned under $1000 would be fun to own and play, but the Casio company has really outdone themselves this time with their new PX780 at $999. It is available now and should continually sell out fast based on my experience of how these things go. If you want more info on the PX780 please let me know. I try not to be biased on new low priced models that come out but it's a bit difficult on this one:) Go here to read my recent review on the Casio PX780: Casio PX780 Review

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