...

No name on the piano?
Instinct tells me "Danger, Will Robinson."

Personally I wouldn't buy anything that 1. doesn't have any sort of a brand name at all and 2. comes from China. I once bought a no-name MP3 player from China off of eBay on the cheap and it completely stopped working 2 days after arrival, and I waited nearly a month for the shipping. My sister bought one too and her's stopped working after about a month. After it broke down I was left with no one to turn to about it and ended up throwing it in the garbage and taking it as a lesson learned, steer clear of suspicious deals. Not saying this is the case with these pianos, but I'm highly suspicious. Personally I will never again buy knockoff items from China. They are always trying to lure us in with "good deals".

Also, the asking prices sound extremely high for a no-name Chinese instrument, these don't even sound like good deals at all, for the same price or less you can get a better digital piano from a well known brand. For example, for around $900 (US, not sure how much they are in CA) you can get a Yamaha YPG-635 (aka DGX-630), which comes loaded with 100+ voices, a lit screen, and all of the other features you're looking for. The only difference is that it might not be as pretty on the cabinetry side and all, but what's more important? Sound/touch and knowing it comes from a reliable trusted brand or how it looks as a piece of furniture? Or for the same price you can even get a YDP-140 which does come in a cabinet with sliding key cover.

You're able to come to your own decision of course but I advise you to be wary and I highly recommend you stick to well known brands like Yamaha / Roland / Korg / Kawai / Casio etc. and just walk away from this deal. Even if it sounds nice when you check it out, who's to say it won't break down after a month or two? Who's going to cover it? There's no brand, are you going to fly to China and start scouring the streets for the maker? I just have a feeling that if you went this route you'd come out with some serious buyer's remorse. I've been there and it's not fun, even on low-key items like MP3 players, this however is a much larger purchase and it would be a real shame to throw your money away on someone's knockoff instrument. I'm not trying to come off as forceful or anything, I just don't want to see you get scammed. If you're willing to spend that much money then you can get a really nice high quality instrument from a reliable and respected brand, so why spend the same amount on a knockoff?

You can buy a made in Japan Yamaha for almost those prices. And you can certainly buy a Casio for those prices. And you can by a no-name with those specs cheaper. Not good prices at all. I would not buy if at half the asking price.

One question to ask the seller: "Where to get parts and service two or three years from now."

If you want a no-brand buy this. At least the resellers will be there later if you need warranty work
Williams

Tell us what you are looking for. If you are willing to spend $1,100 then you have mmany options for good name brand pianos that come with support and a reputation. I would only buy a the no-brand DP from China if the better ones were un-afordable but this is not the case. Good playable name brand DPs start at about $450 and if you can spend $1300 you can get very good one.

A wise man once said:

You get
what you
pay for.

Cheers,
James
x

Unless it's Yamaha's top-of-the-line model, in which case you pay at least double.

A wiser man said:

And sometimes
a helluva lot
less.

Anyone can make a no-name brand pc today
from snap-together components,
that would be just as good as
a Dell or HP. The situation is similar
with digital pianos. A dp is essentially
a computer with a keyboard and speakers--
if you open up any dp, all you'll
see inside is a few computer chips and
other electrical components, connected
to the keyboard and speakers with wires--
and so a dp can be easily assembled
from largely snap-togther components:
computer chips, other electrical components,
weighted keyboard, and speakers. Such
a no-name brand dp might be just as good
as one of the big-name dp's.

So these no-name brand dp's could be
a good buy. They might be just as good
as the well-known brands, with a significant
savings over comparable big-name models.

You are forgetting about the SOFTWARE. That is all those piano samples and how filters and modeling effects are implemented. The hardware today is as you say "nothing". Well nothing except for th key action. the feel of the keys depends on very subtle design, exact selection of materials an so on.

But stil the most important part of the DP is the stored on the memory. The made in CHina no-names simply do not have the sound of a better Roland or Yamaha. Roland and Yamaha have been working for decades t get thew sound right te'll use custom chips and other things not on the comonity market.

What next? You will say that because anyone can buy a CD burner all classical music recordings are the same. Because anyone can buy paint are paintings are the same.

Not only does Gyro miss the point about the software but he fails to see that this no-name isn't even a good deal. Anyone on a really tight budget should look at Casio...there is no need to buy rubbish these days when something pretty respectable is available at such reasonable prices.

Steve

Gyro always comes from such an interesting perspective on things.

$1000 for a no name? before reading your post, i had automatically assummed $500 or below...and even in that range, i was going to say: "STAY AWAY!"