Our oldest son is about to start piano lessons and he is mostly playing on our AP. But he sometimes wants to play other sounds such as organ as one of his songs now is for an organ ('Davy Jones' from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean). I never got speakers for my Roland RD-700NX when I purchased it last year so he can only play organ with headphones. At first we thought of getting a set of speakers to my DP but due to limitations in our music room placing the speakers proved to be very difficult. I also feel that my DP can be a bit overwhelming with all buttons and sliders for someone starting out.

So we started to look for a 2nd DP instead. Here are the pianos we were looking at this time around: Yamaha NU-1, Roland RD-507 and, Roland LX-15.

Yamaha NU-1
What a lovely piano this is!! The touch is fantastic and the speakers are extremely good. The piano sound was great too. The design is also very nice. I like it better than the N1 as it looks more like a "real" piano. But the best of all was the price. Our dealer had a very good price on the piano… The only drawback is the lack of "fun" sounds. Normally this would not matter but in this particular case I wanted to have a DP with organ sounds for example.

Roland HP-507
This piano has the same PHA-III action as my RD-700NX so testing it was easy. I just put the volume on 80% and listened to the sound coming out from the speakers. It sounded great. Perhaps a bit boomy as if you were in front of a stereo system. But the sound was good enough for us.

Roland LX-15
This piano is identical to the HP-507 with two exceptions; the sound system and the cabinet design. The sound from this piano was incredible. The sound was not boomy as with the HP-507 which made the sound a tad more realistic. In terms of design I think this piano is much nicer than the HP-507. The only problem with the LX-15 is the price tag as it is quite expensive.

When we were leaving the store owner approached us and said that he could give us a great deal on the LX15… We then said that we were not ready to purchase today but if he would sell it for a price that would fit our budget we would ink the deal right away. Well… the piano is being delivered on Sunday! Our son is very excited and so am I!!

Perhaps I'll record my next cover on the LX-15. That will be fun.

I just want to add a big Thank You to all of you who write here on PianoWorld as it is such a great source of information and I have learned so much from you!!

Congrats Amaruk!

May I ask the relative prices of the three models you tested, please?
I gather that the NU1 is very competitively priced in the US.

Cheers,
James
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these DP's and congrats on the LX15 purchase. That will be a fantastic addition in your home.

Thank you guys!

James, the asking price of the NU-1 was $1,500 (!) less than the asking price of the LX-15. It is an amazing piano at that price point!!

Spanishbuddha, yes, it feels great to be getting add such a nice piece of instrument to our home.

One dimension that I never touched in my story above is the dealer side of things. The dealer from which I got the LX-15 has a very nice piano store with both APs and DPs and it feels great to support them. I have been to a lot of piano stores lately and this is my favorite store. They have so many great pianos and they always seem busy with families buying a piano for their kids (mostly digital it seems). I know that Dave Horne is often talking about supporting local dealers and I understand him fully. It is sad to see that so many stores are closing as it is such a great thing to have a local piano store.

Amazing price. And how! I wonder how is possible that huge price difference between USA and Europe. The NU-1 costs, discounted, 4,333 eur at Thomann. That's 5,725 USD at today's exchange! At $1,500 (1,100 eur) I guess I would buy one today. Was there an error? I can't believe there is such a difference.

And I totally agree, we must support the local business. For their good... and ours.

Forgot it. Congrats for your new instrument! Enjoy it!

+1 for supporting local musical instrument shops!

James
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Carlo,

Sorry for my confusing sentence above.... The price difference was $1,500. The asking price of the NU1 was $4,500 and $6,000 for the LX-15.

Hi carlopiano,
I think what Amaruk is that the NU1 is 1500$ less expansive than the LX15. This is what wie also see in Europe, see Thonmann.

I also bought a NU1 and paid 4429€ in Germany.

Hi Amaruk, will we see some videos from you on the LX-15 on Youtube?

I'm a bit embarrassed now I read too fast. Sorry. I thought not only that prices are lower in USA (in fact they usually are) but yours was one special offer or an error committed by the seller.

Yes! I plan on recording the beautiful piece "In Dreams" from the Lord of the Rings movies on the LX-15 and upload it onto my Youtube channel. Stay tuned!!

Congratulations to a fantastic piano Dominik! I think the NU1 is one of the best DP's on the market today.