Digital Pianos in 2022

[cryophonik]

I'm seriously considering selling my Kurzweil PC3X and replacing it with a digital piano for our living room. I primarily use the PC3X as my piano for coming up with ideas and I mostly just use the piano/EP sounds, but for reasons I won't go into, it's just not an ergonomic fit in my studio in our new house. Also, my wife would like to learn piano as well, so we've started looking around at digital pianos. We want something that looks nice, resembles an actual piano (i.e., not a desktop piano sitting on a keyboard stand with cables hanging out), and, of course, sounds good. The reason we want a digital piano is primarily for the ability to use headphones. We're flexible with the price, but we're primarily looking at used ones because there are always a ton of them available locally for a fraction of the cost of new ones (i.e., people buy them, realize they never use it, then sell them cheap to get them out of the house).

The thing I wasn't expecting, though, is how many different brands and models I'm seeing and it's become quite a chore to research each one. So, I'm just looking for a little advice in terms of which brands/models are great vs. the ones to avoid. Yamaha and Roland seem to be great, as expected. My primary requirements are a decent range of piano and EP sounds, headphone outputs, obviously something that sounds good, and especially something that looks like a nice piano to blend in with the décor in our nicely furnished room and has a lid for the keyboard. USB and/or wireless connection to a laptop or tablet would be a nice bonus, but not a necessity, as would a built-in metronome. I don't care about clavs, harpsichords, strings, layering/splitting, etc., although that seems to be standard with every model I've seen. Any thoughts, advice, etc. is greatly appreciated.

[gminorcoles]

I have a kawaii MP11SE, its a really amazing practice piano. Portable, not super heavy, which is a plus compared to some pianos with the same level of action.

[cryophonik]

Looks nice for a portable/tabletop piano, but that's exactly what I'm NOT looking for.

[Benutzername]

I have a white Kawai CA78 in my living room and I love it. It was replaced by Kawai with the CA79 a while ago so it should be possible to find a good deal on this one. If offers all the features you requested on a very high level. The smaller CA cousins are of course cutting some corners on the features but they are still great and I've seen the older ones for some crazy low used prices around here.

[_leras]

I'm seriously considering selling my Kurzweil PC3X and replacing it with a digital piano for our living room. I primarily use the PC3X as my piano for coming up with ideas and I mostly just use the piano/EP sounds, but for reasons I won't go into, it's just not an ergonomic fit in my studio in our new house. Also, my wife would like to learn piano as well, so we've started looking around at digital pianos. We want something that looks nice, resembles an actual piano (i.e., not a desktop piano sitting on a keyboard stand with cables hanging out), and, of course, sounds good. The reason we want a digital piano is primarily for the ability to use headphones. We're flexible with the price, but we're primarily looking at used ones because there are always a ton of them available locally for a fraction of the cost of new ones (i.e., people buy them, realize they never use it, then sell them cheap to get them out of the house).

The thing I wasn't expecting, though, is how many different brands and models I'm seeing and it's become quite a chore to research each one. So, I'm just looking for a little advice in terms of which brands/models are great vs. the ones to avoid. Yamaha and Roland seem to be great, as expected. My primary requirements are a decent range of piano and EP sounds, headphone outputs, obviously something that sounds good, and especially something that looks like a nice piano to blend in with the décor in our nicely furnished room and has a lid for the keyboard. USB and/or wireless connection to a laptop or tablet would be a nice bonus, but not a necessity, as would a built-in metronome. I don't care about clavs, harpsichords, strings, layering/splitting, etc., although that seems to be standard with every model I've seen. Any thoughts, advice, etc. is greatly appreciated.

I think you can't really go wrong with a Yamaha or Roland Digital Piano. That said, the key thing is really to find a place where you can try a few and really sit down and have play. The feel of the key bed is really important and you'll probably have to hit a certain price point to get to the nice ones. Some even have different types of hammer response these days...!

They have some gimmicky things these days, like projecting the sounds from speakers off a wall behind to make a more realistic sound when playing, that do sounds pretty decent. So where you will keep it should be a factor when testing.

I have an older Roland digital piano. I spent enough to get one with escapement that gives it a really nice feel. It still sounds great, but as someone from this forum you'll no doubt also have access to some pretty decent sampled pianos as well. e.g. Alicia's Keys.

I love to play synths with it as well. I've tried to find a standalone pitch bend and modwheel device to go with it - but to no avail.

Good luck - but Definitely - go and try some.

[bmanic]

Check this Youtube channel. Lots of good reviews and overviews of digital pianos.

Personally I really like the Roland PH4 keyboard action and thus can heartily recommend this. I have the way older and less premium FP30 but it's served us very well at home.





If you have a much higher budget and want a piano looking piano, why not go for a proper hybrid/silent piano? Best of both worlds but costs as much as a super high-end bicycle at the low end and as much as a basic car at the high-end.

[bmanic]

This is probably my next digital piano.. if I can afford it. But considering I am now playing a minimum of 7 hours per week at home I think it may be worth it. Also, I've worn down the Roland FP30 quite heavily. The keys are noticeably clunkier than a new specimen of the PH4 family.

[lfm]

Apart from sound of Kawai I like how you can tweak to liking with virtual technician settings. Everything from various stretch tunings and just about anything else. Even make own tuning for each key, as well as level each key, as well as filter each key and so forth.

If furniture the CA series is nice. But for me MP7SE served my purpose better. CA series they made so much touch screen, app-based stuff and bluetooth and similar. Stage piano had relevant stuff on panel.

I had 4 Yamaha digital pianos since the 80's and more than anything I hate the strict equal temperament tuning that just sound awful, especially if a third on top. So I had to send sysex sequences to alter tunings using the Yamaha, my last CLP-535. And some choices with stretch tunings on more expensive models only worked with internal amps and speakers, not on line out. Really weird. But nothing to tweak it to liking.

Also Rhodes stuff with my last Yamaha was that you could only alter one parameter of say tremolo, depth but not frequency(or other way round). To alter more it was sysex again. Check if later models might have fixed that.

Everything is available in Kawai.

Roland is better than Yamaha when it comes to tuning. Would be my second choice after Kawai.

[_leras]

This is probably my next digital piano.. if I can afford it. But considering I am now playing a minimum of 7 hours per week at home I think it may be worth it. Also, I've worn down the Roland FP30 quite heavily. The keys are noticeably clunkier than a new specimen of the PH4 family.

Surely you can get that keybed serviced? Maybe just needs new felt.

And if playing that much, why not a real piano?

[bmanic]

This is probably my next digital piano.. if I can afford it. But considering I am now playing a minimum of 7 hours per week at home I think it may be worth it. Also, I've worn down the Roland FP30 quite heavily. The keys are noticeably clunkier than a new specimen of the PH4 family.

Surely you can get that keybed serviced? Maybe just needs new felt.

And if playing that much, why not a real piano?

Getting the keybed serviced for a low-end 500 euro digital piano isn't unfortunately really worth it. I will just donate it to some relatives or friends that aren't picky about the touch response. But we'll see, maybe I could just open it up and see what the shape of the felt is. Good point.

.. as for a real piano, no. It's too much noise and space taken up in a flat where the neighbors can be a bit problematic. I do have a real piano at the studio of course but there I don't get much time to practice. I also have access to proper Yamaha and Steinway grand pianos of all different makes and models (up to the Steinway D concert grand!) at the music school but I seldom get a chance to sit for hours there.

I think the Kawai NV5S would be a good compromise.

[cryophonik]

Thanks for all the input! I think I've settled on Kawai, just not sure which model yet. I'm keeping an eye out locally for a used recent (i.e., past 2-4 years) model, since they go for a fraction of the cost of a new model and I really don't need the latest model.

[JoeCat]

Kawai is across the board fantastic sound and quality action - I’m classically trained and recently upgraded an ES8 to a 920 (one of the last available in the US for now) - not furniture models but shared tech of course. The samples grands are impeccable. The new tech provides a remarkably accurate representation of sound you would here sitting at the piano (as opposed to in the audience), especially when listening with headphones.

Roland and Yamaha are top notch of course, however I find the Roland sound a bit artificial (it’s modeled I believe). The Yamaha build and samples are fantastic, however there is one major caveat to Yamahas:

Almost across their entire range, Yamaha actions are very heavy. This is not subjective - key weights are much, much heavier than typical for any acoustic. Kawaii and Roland are closer to standard.

Beware the Kawai key noise however (maybe the only drawback).

[JoeCat]

(Btw - Nord uses Kawai action (minus escapement) in their Stage line if there are no Kawais available to try)