Hi all,

The brand new P155 stagepiano from Yamaha has already been mentioned in quite a few other threads, and some people seem to have already bought. And it´s very likely that many people considering to buy a new stagepiano/digital piano/keyboard/acoustic substitute (like me) will have this one in their shortlist.

So I was hoping that some of these proud (?) new owners or anyone who already had the chance to play the P155 could tell how he/she likes it. Preferrably with a comment on why you bought this instrument (e.g. to take it to stage, for late-night practicing, etc.).

Thanks!

I bought it yesterday =) Went to GuitarCenter with no intention to buy but just to try it. Well, they just unpacked brand new P155 for display on my eyes, and I was the first one touching its keyboard. Unfortunately they did not have any P140 to compare with, but based on what I remember this piano does not really differ from P140 - at least in terms of touch feelings. I was pretty satisfied by P140 keyboard, and P155 also suits me just right. Sound - well, I can`t comment on a sound difference between P140 and P155 since I tried both pianos in a pretty noizy environment. Good thing - sound of P155 piano is nice. Bad thing - it has only 2 pianos compared to P140 which has 3 (some ppl think that actually piano #3 was the best on P140). Speakers are def. better than those of P140. Plus it has 1/4" Out and USB function to store music.

So I realized in the store that:
1. This piano is decent enough for $1199
2. It is brand new with the color I wanted (Mahogany)
3. It is newer than P140 and at least not worse (I believe it is better =))
4. From all slab-like pianos this is the best for me in this price range (I didn`t want a console piano to have opportunity to jam outside sometimes)
5. For a dessert GC guy said they can match MusiciansFriends price online and give almost $200 instant discount. So the price was actually that of P140 (approx. $1000+taxes)

So I took it.

And I like it so far. Well, piano sound is not exceptional but decent enough for this price. I think the sound of lower octaves is kinda vague and not saturated, but its maybe personal. Touch is good and comfortable (way better than CP-33 or RD-300GX imho). I think its a pretty good deal for the price.

Now it rests on my table and waits for an LP-140 stand FC-3 pedal and some cables to hook up to a mixer and to a laptop via MIDI-USB. I gonna try it with Pianoteq demo (and other software demos that I will find) on my Rokits RP-5 monitors and post later.

If you have any particular questions - feel free to ask!

Max

Mine is in the mail coming to me right now, should be here in a week or so. But I was wondering could it be used like a synth? if i plug it into my computer will it play the sounds from a sound module?

Yes it works as a midi-keyboard. You can use it with VST instruments, for example, or with rack synth.

Thanks a lot Max. I appreciate the objectivity and thoroughness of your review. I tried the P155 at the local instrument-store but it´s always quite hard to make a proper judgement in the excitement of a single moment (although I did actually go there twice). I agree with most of what you say (I say most because you tell a couple of things that I did not know or try). Anyways, you made me realize that I need to be sure before I discard the alternatives. Thanks again.

Very solid dp. I was choosing between this one and an fp-4. I never got to play the fp-4, but I did prefer the touch and piano sound from the p-155 to that of the fp-7, which is about $600 more than the p-155 at full price.

The only thing lacking is a drum machine, but I hardly ever use on my workstation to begin with so I didn't let that factor to heavily in my decision.

The sound is great, imo, but the speakers aren't the best. However you would usually use an amp or PA any time you needed to be really loud on a dp anyway.


Only other complaint is that the metronome is just a steady click, not the *chik* *chik* DING that I'm used too. Though you could get a cheap metronome if you want that.

Overall it is a high quality, low feature dp. If that is what you are looking for I highly recommend the yamaha p-155.

campidiot, I suspect the time signature of the metronome can be changed. Assuming the instrument defaults to a 1/4 time signature there will be no 'ding' sound - you will need to select 2/3, 3/4, 4/4 etc. in order to hear the 'ding'.

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes, you are right James. I just read through my manual after reading your post. Thanks for correcting me.

Go for it.

I recently picked up a P-140, and although it has served me very well thus far I'd still recommend splurging for the newest version at this point- especially considering the $200 rebate that takes it down to $1,000. If I could have waited, it would not have cost that much more for the P-155. Only 25% more vs. looking at 50% more at that time plus a couple of months to wait.

Mine arrived on Tue. Started playing on Wed. It is a great DP. I love it!

Now I have a question about the piano sound. There is a selection to make the sound mellow or bright. I like the mellow effect. Is it just my preference? What sounds more like a grand piano? (I don't have much experience with grands).

I like mellow or normal-mellow too. It really sounds better.

I hear you, I got a YPG-635 approx 6mths ago (on sale) so now I just need someone to buy this, I'll buy your P-140 and then you can get the P-155

Thanks a lot for all the replies and suggestions so far guys!
I haven´t made up my mind yet. If I decide to go for a piano with a high degree of portability it will definitely be the P155 though. If I eventually buy it I will also put a short review/impression of it here.

I got mine about a week ago or so, and love it! I thought my dads digital piano had awesome hammer action(some m-audio keyboard) but this p155 blows his out of the water! I also love the sound(s) I play alot of with the strings and the voices that go "aaahhhhhh" they sound so great. I love it love it love it! my only complaint is the grand piano 2 option sounds like crap to me, but maybe thats just because grand piano 1 sounds freaking flawless.

Piano 2 is mono. It sounds ok in upper octaves, but lower octaves leave too much to be desired, imo.

Hi,
I have an additional question about the P155 (still haven´t bought..). I´ve heard that one of the bad things of the p140 was it´s amplifier. It wasn´t clear to me however what was meant with this: were people referring to the integrated speakersystem, or is it actually the output to an external speakersystem that is not too good? And the main question: has this improved on the p155?

Actually, P155 speakers are quite good. I used my Rokits RP-5 monitors as external speakers for it but finally decided to go with the onboard speakers. Not sure what is the difference in amp quality between P140 and P155, but speakers on P155 are definitely better.

What I actually meant to ask was if the "line-out" of the P140 is different in quality from the P155. But this was very valuable information just as well (both for myself and others, I think). Thanks.

the improvement of P155 from P140 is actually minor. If you can buy P140 at a reasonably lower price, you don't need to buy P155.
Even beacuse of the improvement of sampling, the difference you can hear is really not that prominent, you can try if you have a chance.

My 2 cents:

The P-155 is a improvement over the P-120: better piano samples and a better keyboard (the keys of the P-120 would sometimes break after several years of use)
The P-155 is also a improvement over the P-140 because it has better speakers (more power and better quality: 2x12W vs 2x 6W) and The Grand Piano 1 samples are better (128 polyphony and 4 levels of samples instead of 64 polyphony and 3 levels of samples) and the P-155 has a better connectivity (usb, etc).
You can really hear the difference of quality between the speakers of the P-140 and the P-155: it's the day and night.
The Keyboard of the P-155 is the same as the P-140.

BUT: The sound of Yamaha GP1 is very brilliant and if you're looking for a more 'europeen' sound, you'll not be completly satisfied because there is not Grand Piano 3 'mellow and warm piano' sound as on the P-140 (also there are only 2 Epiano on the P-155 vs 3 Epiano on the P-140 and the Piano+string has also desappeared)
I really miss the GP3 of the P-140, and the sound of the GP1 of the P-155 set to mellow is different from the GP3 of the P-140.

I'm still hesitating, I don't know if I'll buy a P-155 or a P-140.
For me, The ultimate machine would be a P-155 with a Grand Piano 3.

Thanks Bidibulle,
Seems we´re in just the same situation; you´re defining exactly everything that pulls me towards the P155 and that holds me back from actually purchasing it. I guess that if the P140 and the P155 were around for the same price, the P155 would win (mainly due to it´s connectivity and improved speakers). But where I am, the P140 (if you can find it) is just little over 2/3 the price of the P155. In addition, it seems that the P155 is a fair bit more expensive over here than in the US.

Also, I´m still wondering if the P140 and P155 have the same quality in their line-out. That would make it an even closer race to me.

Hi,
Well, finally I've ordered a P-140

The P-155 is probably better, but the P-140 is cheaper in France (900 euros vs 1350 euros for the P-155), it features more interesting sounds for me (GP1, GP3 and Piano+string. I will never use the string2 or the church organ2 of the P-155 and the other sounds I'll use like Jazz Organ or Epiano are exactly the same), and I don't use midi or usb stuff (I just plug and play).
With headphones (senheisser 555), the sound is great on both P-155 and P-140 and I'm not a good enough pianist to tell the difference between 4 layers samples and 3 layers samples.

If the sound of the little integrated speakers of the P-140 is really too cheesy in my room, I will buy monitoring speakers and then the sound will be better than p-140 or P-155 integrated speakers.

The difference of price between the 2 DP was really too great (450 euros, about 600 dollars). You're pretty lucky in the USA to have such low prices on the P-155 (here in France you can't find it under 1350 euros (about 1850 dollars): it's pretty expensive and you have to think twice before signing the check.

Are the samples the same length in the P-155? I remember playing a P-140 in a store and clearly hearing the loop come in when sustaining notes. The looping was done well--no clicks or sudden changes in volume--but I could hear the sound stop evolving and go dead a little too soon for slow pieces.

Bidibulle, congrats. I´m in the Netherlands where prices are about the same (a tad higher even, actually). I think for 450 euros price-difference it should possible to find pretty decent external speakers (or almost .

(This kindof makes it sound like if turned into a P155 adversary, but that´s definitely not the case.)

Hi Jake. I´m not sure what you mean with the loop thing. Could you explain? It sounds interesting, and I don´t remember having read anything about it before.

Pieper,

I just meant that the samples in the P-140 seemed fairly brief, looping soon after the attack. I was wondering if the samples in the P155 were longer.

I would love to hear more about this as well. I am interested in this piano, but have yet to drive the 45 minutes to go try one.

I play alot of slow music with alot of sustain in them, and when I've tried even higher end models I've heard odd decays. I didn't know enough to understand what was going on, but perhaps it's this loop thing. It loops and loops, and then putzes out.

Maybe even if someone could explain how sustain works on a digital piano would be helpful!

Thanks for the post, toyboy (hehe, funny nick). Now that you put it like this, I remember when I played in a band that something similar happened on my old keyboard back then, and it annoyed the hell out of our bass-player. Anyways I´ll put a separate post about this on Pianoworld, but hopefully someone will tell in this thread how the P155 performs in this respect. And maybe also of the P140, to make a comparison. So if you make that 45 min. drive, by all means...
cheers.

I finally got my first go on a P155 the other day and I loved it. The sound is to my liking and the feel was perfect for me.

So I'm off to sort my cash out and will be buying one in the next few weeks.

Toyboy, I started a new thread with your question about the technicalities of decay during sustain.
You can find it here.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1232359.html#Post1232359