Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Help with picking DP. Details in message

- Budget is 3-5K USD

- Upright

- Looking at Roland, Yamaha, and Kawai

- Piano will mainly be used by my 7 year old daughter.

- Piano will be located in Living Room. We would like it to be as nice looking as possible. Closer to a traditional upright piano the better.

- The more learning tools integrated to help my daughter learn/enjoy the better.

- Neither my wife or I have the trained ears to really hear the difference in the way a piano sounds.

- My wife would like one that has the ability to cover up the electric buttons/switches, but still have the keyboard visible- not a deal breaker, but a wish.

Any specific model recommendations from any of these manufacturers that you would recommend.

Much appreciated,
Mike

To me the LX-10 from Roland would be a good match for you, considering that you want an upright-looking one.
The HP207 would do too, and you can cover the switches and buttons separately from the keys. However, it does not look as nice as the LX10 (but is much cheaper).

for less than $5k, you can buy a top Yamaha CLP model: CLP380, which has the best Yamaha DP technology so far.

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA...etail.html?CNTID=5020782&CTID=203500

How much is the Avand Grand N2?

James
x

The Kawai CA91, or if you can wait a few months, the CA93 or CA63. The CA93 looks quite elegant, with the control panel on the side:

http://www.kawai.co.jp/ep/products/ca93/gallery.html

If learning is of high priority, there are the Roland HPi series and the Yamaha CVP series. They do tend to look less elegant though.

All of these are good suggestions, but she wants something with learning features. I'd recommend a Roland RM-700 or HPi7. These are full featured instruments, with a keyboard cover that closes to leave them looking traditional. They feel and sound great and the extra learning and play features would be a lot of fun. Of course, if you don't care about these, than a Roland HP-207 or LX-10 is a good choice for a regular digital piano.

Folks...great suggestions. Please keep em coming.

The LX-10 looks very nice, but I should have mentioned that we would like to DP to have a mahogany finish. Not an option for the LX-10.

The HP-207 is among our top choices. Plan on going to see it today.

Yamaha CLP380 is also one of our finalist. However, in research I have done on this site many people seem to put the the HP-207 and CLP380 in the same category, but the 207 is less $$$. Agreed?

CA91 is also an option, but my wife would prefer one that has front legs- like the 207 and 380. The CA93 looks very nice, but I wonder when it will be available and if it will be in mahogany.

The HPi7 was the first DP we considered, but I was thinking the screen would be used for the first 30 days- then just something that was never used afterwards. It is also at the top of our price range. I also have not been able to find much feedback on this DP, do people really like the screen feature?

Any feedback on my comments would be great. Thanks

mdevine,

The CA91 cabinet does feature front legs, and is available in mahogany.

I believe the CA93 is scheduled for a US release at the beginning of 2010, however I do not know if the mahogany finish will be available in the North America - a shame, as this is my personal favourite finish among the KAWAI digital pianos.

The HP-207 is indeed less expensive than the CLP-380, however it is still a very good instrument - certainly on a par with the Yamaha.

Good luck with your continued search.

Cheers,
James
x

[quote=signa]for less than $5k, you can buy a top Yamaha CLP model: CLP380, which has the best Yamaha DP technology so far

Is that true?? A CLP 380 for less than 5K?? I'm looking at one near Boston - they want $6400. (negotiable, but I don't think by that much - we'll see.

Another question- do pianos normally go on sale around the holidays/Christmas? Am I better off waiting a couple of months to get the best deal?

sure you're - during black friday period I bought my motif XS 600$ below the sticker price. I'd wait with any big purchases for that.

The best learning tool for your daughter is encouragement by her parents.

Christmas is a high volume sales period.

For the low-end products, I'd expect to see holiday sale prices.

But you said that your budget is in the $3000-$5000 range. At those prices, things are on sale all the time. That is, you ought to negotiate your own deal. That applies at any time of year, not just during the holiday season.

There might be some sales at Xmas (or black Friday), but you can negotiate a good deal any time.

The CLP-380 has a much nicer cabinet finish than the HP-207. The Yamaha is polished mahogony and looks like fine furniture. The HP-207 has a rather dull finish. The Yamaha also has a more elaborate speaker system. But you pay a lot extra for these two advantages. Otherwise the two are pretty comparable. I actually prefer the touch and sound of the Roland.

Besides the screen, the HPi7 has rhythms, automatic accompianment, many extra sounds, on-screen scores (ok that's screen) and so forth. If it's not much more expensive than the HP-207, you may decide that the extra features are worth the difference. On the other hand, I looked at both and bought an HP-207. But I'm mostly a "regular" piano player. The comparable Yamaha models would be the CVP line, which is very expensive (and non-traditional looking, so you might not like them).

Looks like we have narrowed the search down to the Kawai CA61 or the Yamaha CLP340. For the beginner stage that we are in- the extra 2-3 K for some of the other higher end models with extra toys just looks like money that would be better spent on more/better lessons.

I do not have the ability to really determine which one sounds/feels better.

The Kawai advantages seem to be the wood keys and soundboard. Not sure what the advantages are of the Yamaha besides many users seem to really like the Yamaha DPs.

Any further thoughts on either model? Thanks

Speaking as one who has serviced many digitals, Kawai support is fantastic. I am not positive, but the warranty might be better as well.

Ken

Hi mdevine, how much is the CA61 selling for? The only Kawai dealer in my area only has the CA51 on display so I have never seen a CA61 in person.

One distinguishing feature of the CA61 is the addition of the soundboard, which should provide better bass than conventional speaker systems and piano vibration sensation.

In Canada, both Yamaha and Kawai offer 5 years parts and labor warranty. It's probably the same in the US, I guess?

Right around 3K for the 61.

Another plus, I think, for the 61 is the Alfred lesson plan built in- could be useful for my daughter.