We are ready to make the plunge, but need advice.

Yamaha ydp160 is $1400 on Amazon.
Roland RP101 is $1800 at the local store.
Weber WLE 410 (acoustic upright) is $2300 at the local store.

Are there good reasons why I should spend the extra money to get one of the latter two? They do sound wonderful to me, especially the acoustic, but I am not experienced. Any thoughts?

Our primary priorities are authentic feel of the keys and quality of the sound.

Acoustic pianos are good but what do you do about the noise if you have others in the house or share a wall. There is no volume control and you can't use headphones. It is reasonable to own both a digital and an acustic piano. Buying a digital vs. an acoustic is like deciding between a pickup truck and a motercycle. They are just different.

I like Yamaha's "GH" key action on my P155. The YDP160 uses the same keys. The RP101 uses Roland's "Alpha" keys action which I don't like. But different people have different preferences. Im surprised you'd like them both.

BTW about prices. I just got a post card from Sam Ask, they are having a store wide 20% off deal end of the month Google finds the selling price of rp101 is $1,499 Tell you local store you'd like them to price match.

An acoustic piano can sound good but you's need to hire a tuner twice a year "forever"

Thanks, Chris. Actually I haven't been able to try the YDP160 yet. Still looking for a local store that carries it. I did try the YDP140 at Guitar Center, and then the Roland rp101 as well as the acoustic in a different store. I am expecting that the YDP 160 will be more impressive than the YDP140, but I don't know yet whether I will like it or the Roland better; was hoping there might be some approximately general consensus on it.

Thanks also for the price info.

We don't have a shared wall, and doubt that we will ever use headphones. But yes, the volume control is of value...

You don't really need to try the YDP160. Try any Yamaha that uses the same key action. The P155, CP30, CP300 or YDP223 I'm sure GC will have one of those on display. Of all the GH based Yamahas, the P155 is the newest and has the newest sound samples inside. The YDP223 has the largest speakers the most power but for a few hundred dollars you can add an even more powerful sound system to any DP.


I guess there are some people who can make use of an acoustic piano. But most of us share a house with others that don't really want to here endless repetitions of the same eight bars or scales played at 11:30pm.