Hi all. My 2 sons are in their 4th and 2nd years of piano lessons. One is 9 and the other is 7. My 9 year old has run out of keys on the Yamaha YPT200 (its only got 61), and needs a full 88 keyboard. It looks like they are both going to stick with it, so we need to upgrade.

After doing some searching and talking we have narrowed it down to 4

One is the Casio Privia PX-730 (on sale this week Costco.ca for 649.99). Second is a Yamaha P155 (1600 with bench and 3 foot pedals). Third is Yamaha DGX630 (1075 with bench and 3 pedals). Last one is a USED Yamaha Clavinova CLP130 (asking 1200 right now).

Any thoughts or suggestions? I can't seem to find out much info on the Clavinova, is the 130 a good model? It's not made anymore from what I can see. But is a used Clavinova for 1200 going to be as good a value as a the Casio new for 650?

Guess our budget is around $1500, and all these are in that range. Want something that sounds good and is realistic to play vs an acoustic piano. Their teacher has an acoustic and when they do a recital or music festival its on an acoustic, so we want the key weighting, etc to be most natural compared to an acoustic (I'm sure that is what most people are after in a DP)

Anyways, thanks a lot for the help. I have never played myself, my wife has a bit, but many moons ago.

IMO, the best one of these four is the P155, but it seems a little pricy, even with the bench and pedals.
You can get it for 1200 allready.

$1200 (US) is way too much for a
used CLP 130, no matter how much it
sold for originally, how old
it is, or how good condition it
is in. A digital piano is
essentially a computer with
a keyboard and speakers--if
you open one up, all you'll see
inside is a few computer chips
and other electrical components,
connected to the keyboard and
speakers with wires--and because
of this inherently digital
nature, used ones lose value
fast, like a used pc.

This is probably several
yrs. old. How much
would a pc be worth several
yrs. after it was initially
purchased? Not much, maybe
a couple of hundred dollars.
This is worth only a couple
of hundred dollars (US).

The three new digitals you listed
would be good. And there
are many good digitals you
can buy for less than $1000
(US). For example, the Casio
PX 800 and the M-Audio DCP 200,
both $900 at amazon.com.

Of the 4 digitals you mentioned,
the best value looks like the
PX 730. The technology to
emulate an acoustic piano has
been around since at least
the 1970's, and by the 1980's
the digital pianos already
played like an acoustic piano.
Today, 20 yrs. later, digital
piano technology is widespread
and well-established, and
basically, any weighted-key
digital piano will perform
like an acoustic piano. I
use a $600 (US) Williams Overture
that I bought early in 2009.
Today it sells for around
$500. This is a econony
model digital, one of the
least expensive around, but it's
okay for playing anything, from
jazz improvisation to big-time
concertos.

I agree with Gyro on the Clavinova: there are better DPs for less at this point.
If your children are going to stick with playing, maybe you will need to get an acoustic.
Here is what I would do: save money for the acoustic of your choice, and in the mean time get the cheapest DP that offers adequate piano like action. In your list, I like the PX-730 (that comes with pedals and bench) and the P-155. You just need to decide if you and your kids like the P155 2.5 times more than the PX-730.
Good luck.

P155 is definitely the one to get. i wonder how $1600 for it coming from? internet price for it is $1200, and could be lower if you can get some discount.

CLP130 is kind of too old to me and the DGX is an entry level DP which i wouldn't consider. Casio PX730 might be worth checking out since it's pretty new Casio model, and many people seems happier with the new line of PXs than the older models.

i would go with P155 without any hesitation, but the price has to be lower than what you listed.

The CLP130 looks to be pretty much up to date. You can read the specs below. It has the same keys as the p155 but slightly older sound sampling. It likely has better speakers. But then used equipment has zero warranty.

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail.html?CNTID=2721&CTID=203500

With kids that age I'd keep options open. At their age you don't know where their musical taste will go. My 11 y.o. daughter is bored to death with any piano music but thinks Saxophones and flutes are cool. My 18 yo Son has gotten pretty good with elect. guitar.

Piano for young people, I would choose a DP with a lot of instruments, like the CDP-200R which has 670 instruments. That'll make it more fun.

Second best is DGX-630, for young people. I think it has 120 instruments.

The P-155 is a possible expensive and instrument-poor third choice.

Push your budget a little and push your dealer harder and you might get into a new Yamaha CLP320.

uzzi,
I know you're from Canada but you listed your butget in the above format so I'll assume your budget is in $US dollars. I will also assume that the P-155 at 1,600 is CAD. If that's the case, I can't comment because I don't know how much that is in USD. You can get the P-155 around $1,100. Check Amazon.com, it's a pretty good indicator of what the actual price is. It's hard to beat Amazon's price.

Anyway, I don't own any good DP yet and I'm looking to upgrade also so I have done some pretty extensive research the last few months on a lot of the Yamahas, so here's my take. Have you considered one of the YDPs? For around $1,300 - $1,400 you can get a YDP-160, which is a really good DP. I don't own either the P-155 or the YDP160 yet so I can't comment from experience. But specs wise, the YDP160 has better Keyboard vs P-155 has better sounds. YDP160 has a look of a real console piano too vs P-155 is more of a portable/stage style. I prefer the YDP160 for its keyboard, look, and 3 real pedals. But if I were you, I'd take your sons to a local shop and have them try both to see what they like.

I agree with the other posts, I'd stay away from the old CLP130. With your budget, you can get a much better DP that'll be with your sons for the next 10+ years. But by then I guess they'd be banging on an Acoustic.

Good Luck & Have fun shopping.

If you're stuck on those choices, the P-155 is your best bet - and scour the internet for a better deal. I'm about to buy a Roland DP-990, and I recommend a look at that, also. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. If you don't have the experience to know what you like, then either will do fine. It is important to get the best DP you can, because the children will be far more motivated to play something that is sonically pleasing. Whilst they may not be able to judge things like the feel of the action, it is important to get something with keys that have enough weight, so that their technique can develop appropriately.

Jonathan

Thanks for the replies. The prices listed are all in CDN $$
We live 2 hours away from the nearest shop that sells pianos, and they don't even have a P155 in stock to try. The prices I quoted are the retail prices I was given over the phone. The CLP130 was listed on Kijiji

Been doing more reading about the Casio PX-730, I don't see a whole lot of bad things said about that model either, and for 1/2 price or better of a Yamaha, I'm not so certain my kids will notice a difference either. The Yamaha keyboard they have right now has tons of different instruments, etc to play around with too, and they use that very rarely. They are each on it for 20-30 min per day and its usually down to business practicing with their mother and going thru the lessons their teacher gave them. So I'm not really concerned about the extra sounds and instruments, they aren't really using them now anyways. But they are both excited about being able to add some dynamics now into their home practicing.

If you have time, go through these 2 threads. You'll get an idea of what others paid.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthrea...ite_id/1#import

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1297445/DIGITAL%20PIANO%20%22PRICES%20PAI.html

Something is wrong with the new prices paid thread. Here are the 2 threads again:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthrea...ite_id/1#import

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1201029/DIGITAL%20PIANO