I'm trying to decide on DP for my son and after some tests it looks like Yamaha CLP330 is the cheapest model with acceptable sound and touch, which is $2300 and it is almost twice I planned to spend. Kawai CN23 looks promising and we will try it coming weekend.
But few days ago I heart about Classenti CDP2. I know that miracles happen not very often but they claim they sell it for $1200 because of direct sell, which could be a true. I'm professional googler but I can't find any reviews except some which posted on sellers' sites.
I care only about sound and touch and I don't care that it has only 8 voices. Did anyone tried this DP? Any experience and/or knowledge are highly appreciated.

The technology to emulate an acoustic piano has been around
since at least the 1970's, and by the 1980's the digital pianos
already played like an acoustic piano. Today, 20 yrs. into the
Digital Piano Age, you would literally have a hard time buying
a bad weighted-key digital piano.

Digital pianos are essentially a computer with a keyboard and
speakers, and, just as any neighborhood computer store can
assemble a no-name brand pc from snap together componets,
that is just as good as a Dell or HP, any small company can
put together a good dp from largely snap-together components:
computer chips, other electrical components, keyboard, and
speakers. These "no-name brand" dp's can be just as good
as the big brands. You see them selling under catchy
names like: Winchester, Hemingway, Galileo, etc. I'd have
no hesitation buying one, particularly if it is being sold by
an established online retailer. These companies are careful
not to stock junk.

I play a $600 budget digital bought sight-unseen online. It's
adequate for any kind of playing, and I can switch to an acoustic
piano at any time with no trouble.

This lack of reviews looks strange, doesn't it?
If they really sound and touch like branded ones, they should be more popular... imo.
Anyway I found some comments here.

Yes, ukpianos seems to be about the only place that talks about the Classenti. But the cynic in me wonders what the relationship is between the two given that if you look up their respective postcodes on google maps you find that they are four miles away from each other.

Also if you look at the source code for the web pages for classenti.co.uk alltalents.co.uk and ukpianos.co.uk there seem to be some remarkable similarities.

OK, I have no idea if their machines are any good or not, but trying to find some reviews apart from the ukpianos ones is something of a lost cause.

In addition Classenti seems to have no track record, as I read the Classenti entry on the UK Companies House website, the limited company was formed in 2007, was dormant until 2009.

For $1200 you can get a great DP from Yamaha, Korg or Casio. Why bother with an unknown company that isn't even particularly cheap?

Here's what turned up with a little googling:

http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=ukpianos.co.uk

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/soundsmusical.com

http://classenti.co.uk/images/Classenti%20UP-112%20Polished%20Ebony.jpg

Curious as to why I found two people named Graham operating from the same mailing address, I plugged "graham stodgen" into google and found this article:

INVESTIGATE: Dodgy Graham's familiar Sounds

Back to the whois database, there are links to Classenti's international web sites at http://classenti.com/worldwide-delivery.html. Here's the whois for classenti.ru:

http://www.nic.ru/whois/en/?query=classenti.ru


And there we find the names Graham Stodgen, and his wife (who was mentioned in the Daily Mirror article) Hejran Nazemi.

At this point, I'm not feeling a whole lot of confidence in that 5-year warranty.

Perhaps only the man in the reflection knows what's really going on:

Thank you, Voltara, Vectistim and Qbert, for so detailed investigation. I was suspicious because of quality of their web site, description and lack of reviews, but it turned out to be complete scam.
BazC, I don't think I will go with Korg or Cassio. We listened Yamaha CVP320 and were not impressed with sound. Same with P155 and Roland F110. Maybe P155 with external speakers will sound better but I'm not sure I want separate amp and speakers.
It looks like we will be choosing between YDP160/161 (didn't see a lot of difference, except 128 polyphony) and Kawai CN23, and CP50 as a backup.
I think this will be useful thread for potential Classenti buyers.

Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling it a complete scam -- at least one owner posted videos on youtube. But there's certainly reason to be cautious.

Of the two criteria you mentioned, touch is the one you can't change later, and it's also the one you can't evaluate without trying it in person. You can always upgrade the sound later on, either by adding external speakers, or by using a software synth if the keyboard has MIDI outputs. I did the latter when I "outgrew" the built-in sound of my YDP223.

Good luck deciding, and don't forget to let us know what you choose

Wow! Thanks for this guys! I was considering Classenti but now I may have to stick to the Yamaha YDP 161 or CLP 320.

-
I see UK Piano also promote Thomann on their website, I wonder if Thomann are aware of that companies history?
-

Having read all these comments, I thought I should share my experiences with ukpianos.

I bought a Classenti CDP2 from UK Pianos over 2 years ago. It arrived on time and in good condition, and I have really enjoyed the piano.
About 4 months ago the power adapter died. I contacted UK Pianos via email and received excellent support. They posted a new adapter out to me, which worked fine, and didn't even need to receive the old one back.

Great company, excellent product.

Of course, you might just be somebody attached to UKPianos and you want to pretend that you are a normal person. Bit of a funny place to start with your first post - digging up a thread thats over a year old to discuss something that nobody cares about anyway.

+1 very strange.

Mmm, very suspicious.

Lol, the suspicious mind!

Actually, I was Googling around looking for the manual for my Classenti (as I'd mislaid mine), and I found this thread. Reading through the posts I was surprised to hear that people were unsure about the Piano, and the company. But given that I can find so little about the Piano, I guess it isn't very well known.

Not really sure how to prove that I don't work for the company. Perhaps this'll convince you. A few months ago I created a Lone Arrangers account with a very similar username to this one (androo), and posted some pieces I'd recorded on my Classenti:
http://www.thelonearrangers.com/members/androo.html

But then I might've done that to promote the company! Who knows huh? ;-)

No offence intended but I suppose the way that ukpianos seems to trade on the idea that it is a source of impartial information about digital pianos but actually is intimately involved in retailing them - Classenti in particular - makes one very suspicious. And then, there's the other information within this thread that raises even more suspicion about the proprietor(s).

I was recently looking for a DP and came across digital pianos uk , graham recommended a few and I opted for the CDP2 I paid a deposit to hold the deal while I was on holiday £50 .but something else turned up when I got back so I emailed Graham who offered a full refund of my deposit .
Graham always answered my emails and didn't always promote the classenti as I asked him which one in different price brackets .
So even though I didn't end up buying from Uk pianos I still got a good service from them.

Just thought I would post this as he seems to have got some bad stick on here , I don't know Graham only from emails btw.

Regards Carl .