Hi

I had posted for advice of the various models of Casio and Yamaha keyboards and received excellent advice. I zeroed in on models of the Casio and Yamaha. Now I need some added help.

There are several models of Casio / Yamaha. The Casio Celviano 220, 420 and 620. The Yamaha Arius 141, 161, and 181 . AND I MIGHT ADD a very reasonably priced Yamaha DGX-640.

While my grand daughter is only starting her career with a piano she has all the ear marks of becoming an excellent musician. Self taught guitarist who can't read music. She can pick up music by ear and spend a half hour figuring out the notes. She is embarking on real lessons including music theory and education in music, and piano.

I am a salesman's best friend. If there are real advantages to upping the price for a better model I sign on. NIKON loves me as does one or two manufacturers of Classical Spanish guitars.

Understanding the DGX is the only on that doesn't look like a piano. What are the real advantage to moving up in quality / price on the "piano" type models listed above?

I know this is asking for a lot but I would hate to see myself back at the store next year, having wasted the price of the WGX640 and investing in one of the more expensive models.

Thanks (sincerely)

Bill Ginsburg
dandwginsburg@gmail.com

The Yamaha 141 has a GHS action, which is noticeably inferior to the GH action in the 161 and 181. The differences between the 161 and 181 seems small. Some extra voices...I can's really see anything else off the bat on a cursory examination. A salesman might be able to tell you what advantages the 181 has, but they are likely to be small.

If the price difference is noticeable, I'd probably stick with the 161.

I don't have much experience with Casio, but for the most part they have historically focused on lower-end stuff. People often complain that their notes don't sustain long enough, for example. Most Yamahas are better than most Casios.

If you don't mind getting a piano without the nice cabinetry, you can probably save some money getting a P155 online. The speakers are inferior to the others you pointed out most likely, but it's a nice looking piano with a GH action and good sounds--in fact the sound engine is a later generation and better than any of these Arius pianos. You can always hook it to external speakers if you are unhappy with the onboard one. You can also get a stand with it that matches and makes it look more pianoish.

For the most part (caveat below), there's no inherent advantage to a model in piano cabinetry over a model that is just a slab, it's primarily a matter of aesthetics and whether you want to pay for cabinetry. That's not to say that the models in question might not be better than the DGX, but it wouldn't be by virtue of their being housed in fancy cabinetry. You could buy a slab-style board that would sound better than any of them. The questions would then be, to narrow down your choices: what is your budget, and are the piano aesthetics important to you?

The caveat here only being that the pianos with full cabinetry in some cases have better speakers/amplification. So if you're not using headphones, and you don't want to bother with separate speakers, that could be an advantage to the console style models.

You didn't mention how old your granddaughter is, but one consideration is whether or not she'll be playing out in public. The console ("piano" type) will probably sound better in the home, but traveling with them is impossible. Something like the P series mentioned above would be better suited for playing around town.

If she's not going to be doing some gigs, don't worry about it. But if it's in the cards, I'd say go with a keyboard she can take to a gig and a good speaker system for the home.

By the way, IMO Casio has tried to come up to the pro level, where Yamaha has always been pro and has come down to the less expensive keyboards. I think Yamahas sound far better than the Casios.