Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Digital Piano decision. Does 1/4" out matter?

Hey, everybody. I'm new here and have been playing for a little over a year now with my band. I'd like to get a better keyboard and am looking for an 88-key within the price range of $500-800. I'd be using it on stage with a keyboard amp. My band plays rock/hard rock with a lot of piano and some keyboard strings. I don't want a lot of extra stuff, just a very realistic piano sound (I don't care much about the feel of the piano. I learned on a keyboard, so it doesn't make a difference to me. I just want the best quality sound). A good strings setting would be nice also.
I want something that's sampled from a real piano and not a synth made to recreate a piano sound. I really liked the Yamaha P-85, but was a bit put off by the fact that it had a headphone output, as opposed to a 1/4" output. So, is there something else within my price range with an equal or better sound and a 1/4" output or am I making a bigger deal about the difference between outputs than I should be (would it even be noticeable)?

In a pinch the headphone jack can be used. But you'd prefer an Aux Out connection.

Check the DIGITAL PIANO SPECS spreadsheet. It shows many models, and indicates the presence of Aux Out jacks.

Many DPs have RCA jack for the Aux Out port, rather than 1/4" phone jacks. But there are inexpensive adapter plugs available.

Agreed, the headphone jack is stereo and comes out at a high level. It's a nuisance to use with an amp. You really want an AUX-Out for a stage instrument.

Consider the Casio PX-320, which has an Aux-Out, weighted kys, decent sound and is in your price range. If you can get a good price on a Korg SP-250 or Roland FP-4, that would be good too.

The lack of line outputs was one of the deciding factors when I went for a Casio PX-310 instead of a Yamaha P70 for the same price. I don't play in a band or on stage, but even in my home office/studio, depending on a mini plug sticking out the front of the keyboard was just not acceptable in terms of reliability.

The $500 to $800 price range seriously limits the options in digital pianos. The Casio PX-320 might work and it has the full selection of general MIDI voices. I've never tried the Korg or the M-Audio ProKeys 88 at about the same price. If the string voices on the PX-320 are like those on the 310 they might not do what you need though. They aren't very convincing and the attack is so slow they are really only useful as secondary voices layered with something else. If there is a way to adjust that, I haven't found it.

If you could go up to around $1000 - $1500 there would be a lot more options and you would probably be happier with the results: Yamaha CP33 or P155, Roland FP4 or RD300GX, Kurzweil SP2X or SP3X and Kawai MP5. The Kurzweil boards have the advantage of offering balanced TRS outputs, which might be useful if you need to plug into mixing boards on stage. Yamaha, Roland and Kawai have balanced XLR outputs only on their top of the line >$2k boards. Of course, you can always use a DI box. If you don't care about the keyboard action, there might be options in workstations/arrangers, but I don't know much about those.

For a hard rock band, you actually may not want the most complex and realistic grand piano samples available. I think the richness and complexity of the sound would tend to get lost in the mix. Yamaha is preferred over Roland by some for that reason, although I'm sure some people feel just the opposite. The Casio also has punchy piano sounds which might be good in that situation, but the strings might not be up to what you need.

So basically, a Casio PX-320 seems to be the one which meets most of your requirements in your budget, but you'd really need to try it to make sure it will do. If you need better it is going to cost more, but you might be able to get one used or at least find a floor model or scatch-n-dent deal.

PS: The same for the Korg SP250, which is being compared to the Casio in another thread. It may be an even better choice in terms of the string voices. Only you know what you are looking for and want to hear, so go try them.

Thanks for all the advice. It's been really helpful. I'm really not sure why keyboards seem to be the only electric instrument where 1/4" output aren't standard for all models. I suppose if you aren't taking it seriously, all you need is headphone jacks.

I have looked into the P-140 and the CP-33, which are the lowest priced digital pianos I could find that met my specifications. Even so, they're quite pricey, and I'm weighing the pros and cons. It's not so much that I'm not willing to spend on a good digital piano, but that I can't afford too much. Although my band does do some hardrock, we also have a few softer songs. For the parts where it's just piano and vocals, I want the sound to be really smooth and high quality. The Casio does seem to be right for my current price range, but I really was hoping for sampled keys for the realistic sound. Not a fan of synthesized keys. Also, the strings are a bit of a sticking point. I'd like them to be good. I might have to save up and look more towards something like the yamaha cp33 or p-155. The Yamaha P-140 seems to be my best option right now. It seems to have everything I need, including the aux out, and it's $999.99. It's a bit out of my price range, so I'll keep looking, but that could be the answer if I can save up a bit. I'm still open to suggestions, but am thankful to all for the input so far.

Bear in mind that the P-140's aux-out is at a fixed level. The onboard volume control only affects the internal speakers, not the level going to an external mixer/amp. In a band context, this can be a good or bad thing - good in the sense that you can't screw up the band mix once set, and can operate the internal speakers as a personal monitoring rig; bad in that you have no immediate control over your own level, if the overall band level changes from song to song and you have nobody operating the mixer. You can get the P-140 for around $800 at the moment.

You might want to seriously consider the Korg SP250, which some people are finding on offer at around the $600 mark. The strings are very good, and streets ahead of the Casio.

One other point. All the current digital pianos are built around samples. AFAIK, the only truly synthesized piano is the Roland V-piano - which is probably not in your price range.

That's correct, the piano voices on essentially ALL DPs are sampled. Only secondary sounds like strings may be synthesized, depending on the amount of memory available. Both the Casio and Korg have very respectable piano sounds.

I can't help but wonder if more importance is placed on this that necessary. If you have a very good quality stereo cable (I've had one purpose built from 1/8th" headphone jack -> 2 x 1/4 inch adapters by a friend who works in a HI-FI store), should it really be any worse quality than a 1/4 inch output? They're both unbalanced. What's the difference here? My main gripe is the 'durability' and stability, in that a 1/8" is more likely to fall out or 'move around' than a 1/4", so for LIVE or STAGE usage, this would be very undesirable, but for home usage only, would there be any difference whatsoever to your average ear?

To clarify, I think its disappointing that some instruments provide 1/8" only, I'd MUCH prefer 1/4", but for home usage I'm not so sure it should be a 'decision maker'. Particularly when you see some significant price differences.

You're right--for a home-only instrument it's less of an issue. Even so, if you expect to use the aux-out, you're better off picking up an instrument that has one. For example, buy a PX-320 instead of a PX-120. The Y-cable hack is less durable, may lead to level issues and distortion, and is likely to be ackward and ugly.

It is one of those things that does not cost much more for them to add, but they hold it back to give people more reason to buy the pro models.

The main downside to the small connector is they pull out easier and get a staticky connection more easily. If you are performing it is bad to have the connection flake out. At home, it should work fine to convert it. So, you don't need it, but it is better if you have it.

I don't think it's a "hold back". Rather, the manufacturers are responding to the market needs.

Stage pianos need to be compatible with other stage equipment, so 1/4" jacks are the norm. These are larger and more rugged.

Home pianos need to be compatible with home electronics, so RCA plugs are used. These are less rugged ... but they seldom get touched after the initial installation, so no worries.

The headphone output of the P-85 actually has a relatively low level! For recording with Line In on the computer, I usually have to set the volume to around 7 or 8. So I'd say the risk of experiencing distortion on the P-85 paired with an amp should be pretty nonexistent.

On my instrument (Yamaha NP30) the 1/8 headphone jack seems to be equalized for the small speakers, and or the headphones. I have to pull the bass way back when playing it thru the external sound system. In my small space a Cambridge Audio 2.1 computer system, which has bass control, works great--80 watts total, 40 to the subwoofer.