Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Please help me chosing a new digital piano

Hi
I want to buy a new digital piano, I use it at home.
I've studied piano for some years so I'm not at the beginner level.
I would like a digital piano that has:
+ 88 weighted keys
+ Great piano sound
+ Keyboard's features (rhythm & various tones)

I'm owning a Yamaha DGX-620. But I'm not satisfied with it, because of:
+ I'm not satisfied with the live! piano voice, it's not good.
+ For keyboard's feature, it has only 2 buttons (2 memory sets for a bank) for changing tones during playing with style. This is really bad.

So I decide to buy a new digital piano.
But I don't know what is the best choice.
I can spend about 700$ for this, and I can only buy Yamaha or Casio. Maybe I will get a Casio piano.

I saw the Casio CDP-200R on the internet.
Is its piano sound and key-action better than the DGX620?
Is the keyboard features better than the DGX620?
Or maybe there's a greater choice that I don't know?
I love the piano and I also like the keyboard's features.
Please give me your advices.
I can't go out and try any pianos by myself. Because at my place, I can only choose and ship a piano from the bigger city to my countrified area.
Thank you very much!!
Sorry for my bad English.

Your requirements with both weighted keys & rhythms for $700 limits your choices to CDP-200R. I don't know if it will have great piano sounds, though. There are DPs of $2000+ which I think have mediocre piano sounds.

Maybe you can get an _old_ Yamaha CVP for $700?

If you raise your budget a little and look for a used Casio AP-620 you will probably also get nice sound (and weighted keys + rhythms).

If you could find another $100 then you could get the Yamaha YPG-635 But if you don't like the sound on the your 630 I don't know if the 635 will be better. It all depends on what you mean be "better sound". How much better?

The Casio PX330 is in your budget

If all you want is better piano sounds and you otherwise like our keyboard then buy software for the computer and use MIDI to connect to the computer. This gives you true state of the art piano sound on the current keyboard.

What you are really asking for is a Yamaha Motif XS8 or Yamaha X90ES. But those cost a lot more than $700

It'll be tough to find a used Casio AP-620 since it's just been released (or not yet released on other markets). Maybe you meant the Casion AP-500. (Previous generation)

Thank you for your answers.
My current 620, I don't like its piano tone. The higher notes are ok. But the lower notes sound too fake. Maybe Yamaha voice isn't suitable for me.
And another critical problem is, the 620 has only 2 memory sets which is too few for playing an instrumental song.

The Casio CDP 200R has 4 memory sets and features like 620.
I like its piano sound (I listened to the demonstration on youtube).
But I can't try it in for real. I can just order and bring it to my local area.

So did anybody use the CDP 200R before? Please give me some reviews about it.
Or if you know good review posts about it, please give me the link.
Thank you very much!

PS: I can only spend <=700$

Before buying I would first listen to the DP in a shop, to figure out if I liked the sound at all. Expensive doesn't need to mean sound-that-I-like.

I think I would save my money until I could buy something similar to Casio AP-620 or a Yamaha CVP-407 to get good sound, because all those small DPs we are talking about have cheaper sound card electronics and quite weak speakers. You want:

A. Good sound (this IS expensive)
B. Weighted keys (quite cheap)
C. Rhythms/accompaniments + plenty of tones/voices (very expensive if it must include A. + B. as well)

There are not that many DPs with accompaniments and graded keys. I don't even think the expensive Roland V-Piano has any accompaniments!

The best Grand sound from Yamaha wasn't even present in a DP, but in the synth S90 ES (which is no longer manufactured)! The second best Grand sound is in the synth Yamaha S90 XS, which doesn't have weighted keys (balanced keys only). The third best Grand sound from Yamaha is in the Motif XS8 & Motif Rack XS, neither have weighted keys.

I haven't heard anyone compare the CVP-509 to any of the 4 synths / sound generators I mention above, but it could be possible that the CVP-509 has good sound and outperforms one or more of the synths above.

The CVP-509 costs a little more than your $700, but is within the brands you've limited your choice of DP to.

Of course, it will not be as good as a the sound from a true acoustic grand.

As others have pointed out, good sound does not have to be expensive at all. By adding external speakers/monitors to a modest digital piano, you can get excellent sound at a modest price.

In one kind of sense you are right. It to the ear of the listener.

Are you saying the grand sound from the older technology ES is better than the newer XS? Also, doesn't the Rack XS have exactly the same voices as the Synth XS? I'm asking because I've been looking at used sound modules.

I'm sorry that I can't quote a forum thread, but on your first question I answer "yes" when it comes to the Grand voices, as I can recollect two different threads stating so.

On your second question there has been one thread stating the opposite, which makes me answer "no" on that question.


The reason is that the old ES synth had a ridiculous amount of sampling data for the bass notes on the Grands. The surprising effect was that by resonance, the mid-range keys became better, richer. I think, in the XS, the amount of memory has been down sampled to store more different synth voices, about the double amount of voices compared to the old ES.

I don't know exactly how the Motif and old ES differs, but one thread said that one was sampled from CFIIIS and the other from S6, but the amount of sampling is the most important factor.

If you use 50 Mb for storing 10 instruments or you use 50 Mb for only storing the 10 topmost bass notes, you will get different effects and quality of your notes.

I might be faulty. Correct me then.