I started out shopping for an acoustic piano for my kids, but have changed course and am now in the digital camp. I'm looking at a five year old Kawai CA7 (CA71 predecessor, I believe) and a new Yamaha YDP223. The Kawai is from a private party and is several hundred dollars cheaper even though it is in great shape. The specs on the CA7 are much better so I'm leaning towards it. Are there any concerns that I should look out for?

By the way, I really wanted to get the YDP160, but my wife says it doesn't look good and I tend to agree with her. We're going to live with the thing in our small house, so that's an important consideration.

The Clavinova CLP320 has specs nearly identical to the YDP160 ... and it looks good. The CLP320 price should be just a bit higher than the YDP160. Check it out.

It's not available at music stores, though. You'll need to see a Yamaha piano dealer.

(Actually, its predecessor, the CLP220, was nearly the same as the YDP160. But the 200-series was replaced by the 300-series last year, and the specs moved "up". So the CLP320 is a tad better than the YDP160 ... it has Pure CF Sampling and the transpose function.)

I'm probably missing something, but the YDP160 and CLP320 look almost identical in the pictures at the Yamaha site. The CLP330 looks nice, though. I bet it has a price to match.

DonBerg,

to address the basic question you posed in your first post here:
yes, the CA-7 is a terrific piano, a much better buy in my opinion than any of the others mentioned here. It has the AWA-Pro I all-wood, long-lever keybed which is firmer (and to my touch) better than AWA Pro II, simply the best keyboard ever put on the market and, as you state, excellent features overall. Go for it!

Regards,

Claude

I agree, I tried a CA5 sometimes ago, and it was far more like a real piano. The only problem is that the keys are slightly sluggish.

Thank you all for the advice. I bought the CA7 tonight and I'm very happy with it.