Budget: I have £400 in my savings account. This could be extended if absolutely necessary, but I'd rather have money left over .

Needs proper weighted keys and a nice feel. Also need to carry it around a few times a year, so cant be huge (not that I can afford a huge one :D). I dont want to compromise on quality for a light-weight model tho.

Dont care too much about sound quality. Needs good MIDI so I can make it sound good on my PC if I need to.

Im moving out to go to uni and need something more portable. I'm not such a regular player. Reached grade 6 years ago on a fairly cheap piano and stopped playing, just been tinkering around with it in the past year and I thought I would take it up again properly at university.

Sorry if this is a rude question (sounds to me like "do all my research NOWWW!!1!" ), but its so hard to research this. The manufacturer homepages seem to omit all but the newest models, which tend to be worse value for money. Never bought a keyboard before, plus the general forum chit-chat i have seen seems to be aimed at pricier models, and I'm in a fairly rural area so there isnt a "proper" music shop anywhere nearby, so I didnt know where to ask.

edit: done some searching around, the casio cdp100 seems like good value at £300, not sure on quality. Another one I saw was yamaha p95 but thats a bit pricier, what would the advantages be? or other suggestions of course. Forgot to say: thank you in advance.

The action of the CDP100 and P95 are pretty close. The piano sound of the P95 is better, but as you said, that doesn't matter for your purposes. The CDP100 weighs less. From a MIDI perspective, the P95 is a little more flexible... you can create a split and it will transmit on a different MIDI channel on each side of the split, and you can decide whether or not you want its sound selection buttons to send Program Change commands to attached devices. But if you don't need that, the CDP100 should do just fine. (As a bonus, I think the CDP100 has a particularly nice dark Rhodes sound in it.)

The models generally mentioned in your price range are the Yahama P-95, Casio PX-130, and Korg SP-170. They are all fairly close to one another in price, features, and quality. The most important consideration when deciding on any piano is the action because it can't be altered, and how it plays is important to how much you will sit down and practice. If you like playing it, you will find it much more enjoyable. I would also consider the sound as important, but don't make the action take a back seat. The Casio CDP-100 is also a good choice. Many people buy these and plug them into a computer for use as a midi controller.

Thanks for your help.
The P-95 and PX-130 seem slightly more expensive, and I would have to beg for money from my parents to get them so I'm going to avoid them, although, given the choice, i would probably go for the px-130.

The korg is slightly cheaper: i can get it with a good stand for £400, whereas I can get the cdp-100 for £290. However, I have seen a few reviews and the general consensus seems to be that in terms of key action, CDP100 > korg (anyone got any opinions on that?), if so I guess that settles it.

One question though: 32 - note polyphony on the cdp-100 - does that mean I only get 16 notes - since the samples are in stereo? Also, what happens if I exceed that (e.g. with the sustain pedal)? Do the new keys just fail to sound or does it drop them in the order played, or does it drop some in the middle?

Thanks again.

I like the CDP-100 action better than the Korg SP-170 (and the PX-130, for that matter). Also, the PX-130 is the only one without a standard 5-pin MIDI output, it uses USB. I prefer standard MIDI because it is the most compatible with everything (and will probably remain so in the future), though you will have to spend a few dollars on a MIDI-->USB interface cable on the non-USB models.


It should not be any issue... that should only be a limitation of the internal tone generator, and should not come into play when triggering a piano sound in your computer. But if you ever do have to use the internal sound, note-stealing algorithms on these pianos is generally pretty sophisticated. I've played things on 32-note Casio and Yamaha models and heard no voice stealing, while the same (admittedly unusual) passage did lead to note drop-out on a 64 - note Yamaha synth. (Which also means that you can't even assume that some keyboard with greater polyphony will have fewer dropped piano notes than some other keyboard that has lesser polyphony!)

I also noticed people take too much emphasis on polyphony. Sure if you are a master jedi piano virtuoso and like to play eighty notes at the same time, 32 polyphony will for sure be too little.

If you want a good keybed and round midi connections and light(er) weight see if you can locate a used yamaha p80.
It has a nice feel, and weighs in at 37lbs.

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/digitalpianos/p_series/p-80/?mode=model

It has good connectivity, (for a 10 year old DP), and really nice build quality.

I bought mine after trying the Korg SP170 and SP250, as well as the Casio PX130 and PX330 and CDP100

@ratty:
I have already had a quick look on ebay and gumtree for some good second-hand deals. Couldnt find any unfortunately, and I want it for when I go to uni (which is pretty soon) so I dont have time to wait around.

re:polyphony
TBH I dont think I would be able to play anything that used more than 32 notes except a full glissando with the sustain pedal held . Anyway, as I said, I'm happy if I can make it sound good on my PC, so if the polyphony doesnt affect that then its perfect for me.

I've ordered the casio CDP-100 - it will be delivered on tuesday. Thanks for all of your advice.

congrats joz...

I ordered this weekend what you did. I think maybe we're getting into the manufacturers mind that we want. I'm doing the computer sound thing also.

I was contemplating getting the CDP 100 as well, however after watching this video review -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52qu052XUg -- I'm a bit skeptical.

Let me know how you guys go with that.

While there is certainly some mechanical noised in the CDP-100, my experience is nothing nearly as bad as what he demonstrates in that video... and if you read the comments there, you'll see numerous other CDP-100 owners who likewise have no such problem. I suspect there was something wrong with his unit.

This problem is caused by the felt dampers inside that the hammers strike. The felt has compressed and the hammer travels further causing the keys to bounce back up and clack. Using woven wool felt (the kind used in a real piano) will cure this and rebuild the action. You can buy action cloth felt from a piano supply. You have to take the piano apart and remove the keyboard to fix it.