Hi! I was recently offered a Kurzweil Mark 5 Ensemble Grand Digital Piano for 700$. The only reason I'm thinking about buying a digital versus an acoustic is because I have kids and will only be able to play a night. I also haven't played in a long time and it's nice to practice w/o people listening :-)

I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on the Kurzweil Mark 5. They say it's in great condition, 88 weighted keys, 3 foot pedals, 32 note polyphony, 3 MIDI ports (In/Thru/Out), 2 RCA out, 1 RCA in. I guess the special thing about it is that's it has an ivory finish and a glass music stand which I don't necessarily care about.

I was wondering if 700$ is too much. If so, what would you offer for an instrument like that? Anything I should pay particular attention to?

Thanks so much to anyone willing to give me some advice.

Ok man that thing's ancient, I'm pretty sure for that price you can get something that sounds way better nowadays

Have a look at this thread:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/664479/Kurzweil%20Mark%205.html

Apparently back in Dec. 2007 people could buy used ones for more or less $200 bucks .

I agree that for $700 there are probably much better options, and for $1000 you could have some excellent ones!

Rafa.

Hi. That's the exact same reason I bought my digital piano.

Don't know anything about that DP. My only advice is the grab a decent pair of headphones (and not the iPod ones) and have a play.
I recently tried out a few digital pianos at a store alongside some acoustic pianos. They were all very different in feel and sound so you will have to see if it feels right for you. I also agree with rafa and mac in that for that sort of money (depending on where you are) you can get a very good new DP for late night home use.

More importantly, be happy and satisfied with it because that could inspire you to play more.
I haven't been this inspired to play in such a long time.....lost allot of sleep over the 6 weeks since I bought mine.

I had a Kurzweil Mark 5. From what I remember the key action was awful in comparison with the better actions today. Very good sound system. But like my other Kurzweil, a Mark 10, it went up the spout...its (tiny) electronic brain committed suicide for some reason. I was able to take it back to the shop...can't remember if it was the Mark 5 or 10 because I had to take them both back eventually but whichever, the shop didn't bother to fix it, they just chopped it up and put the remains in a skip. Both had action problems too with some glue-like residue that had got into the action causing some hammer weights to fail to return after the key had been pressed.

The piano sound will be almost identical to their current voice, only it was not a true stereo voice back then, as it is now. It is a very distinctive sound - some people like it. But $700 is crazy money. I recently bought a new (floor model) Yamaha CP33 for the equivalent of just over $800. Put your money elsewhere.

Cheers,

Steve

Great. Thanks for all the advice. Tremendously helpful. I'm in the SF area and people tend to sell their old (and I mean 'really old') digital pianos for fortunes. Will see what I can find.

Thanks again