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Hi all,

This is my first time posting in this forum. Unfortunately I hail from a remote city in India and doesn't have hands on access to any decent digital pianos.
I am primarily interested in the closest possible realism to an acoustic grand piano ( both sound and feel of the keys etc.) under 1800 dollars, so all the bells & whistles are kind of unimportant.
As far as I can tell from all the reviews and partial discussions over the net, both Casio px850 and Kawai CN24 are highly rated and quite comparable, the former being considerably cheaper. I would really like to dig into an better step by step camparision of the two ( or the nearby models on either side).
I would greatly appreciate anyone making an effort and I thank him/her in advance....

Kawai for the playing action IMO. But both will do the job.

I have play tested all of the mentioned choices (not the KDP90) and selected the AP-450.

Kawai CN24's action's better, yes. But for the price difference, that little difference in feel wasn't significant to me. Kawai's action is slightly "shallower" and "faster" than Casio's.

As for the sound, Kawai's samples are from Kawai's own world-famous concert grand, and has a very unique sound character, something dark and rich, especially the bass end. Casio's samples, from what I've heard, are from Steinway grand.

Hope this helps

Edit: I wish to add that Casio's keys are somewhat louder when you hit the bottom. Also, the keys are hollow and some "knocking-on-the-keys" can be heard, sometimes. Also, don't play with long finger nails!

Thanks.
As you said I could hear the knocking sound of the keys in Casio's own promotional videos in youtube. I must say it is very annoying
Secondly I noticed ( again from there promotinal videos) that the bass section is little weak. Also overall I noticed inadequacy of sparkle ! But maybe it can be fixed by tuning up the 'brilliance'. Have you compared these aspects to the Kawai cn24 ?
Also wondering whether this 'string resonance' feature is noticeable in actual playing

Have you compared ap450 and Kawai cn 24 ?

I played them both in the same store. While I'm not a serious player, but my brother, a concert pianist, was there to help me choose, too. And we walked home with the AP-450.

Well, I did not test the various settings in the store as there weren't any manual lying around. I've owned the AP-450 for over a year now and have tested with various settings I can now say the string resonance works and the lifting the lid is not a toy. It really brings out the sounds.

I have a phone-clip of me playing and singing a Thai song for fun on you tube for you to check the sound. Don't expect good playing or singing, though. I was improvising. (And even if there were music sheets, I can't read the notes anyhow.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkjhDbI-Gck

If you have some decent speakers than a laptop's, it will sound much better. I plugged my phone into my car's system and the sound was BIG with deeper bass. (And I sounded better, too, hehe.)

Wow, great singing and playing Anirut!

James
x

Thanks, James.

(That sounds like I should upload some more, eh? HAHAHA.)

Good job, man! Sounds like a very useful instrument you`re playing.

Great singing and playing...though I didn't get the lyrics
Since you have played the casio for a year now, I absolutely must know whether there is a clicking noise from the keys
Please tell me, its eating me up !
thanks.

Yes they are quite loud keys, it is not an uncommon complaint, but it never bothered me.

I also had the privy of trying the Kawai CN24 in the shop and on touch alone, it did feel very nice and possibly easier to get on with, but I am a noob, so don't take my word for it

Overall the Celviano won me over quite comfortably in terms of features and sound, in particular seeing it was a good £150 cheaper here in the UK, I could not justify that extra cost since I do not feel I was getting something better in the CN24. The CN34 was vey nice, but a good 1.5 times more over the Casio, too much for me at the time.

This recording gives you a good idea, you can here the keys, but also the nice sound, which IMO is quite a good recording representative of how it sounds to me at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJWe6JW5qk

Thanks for all the appreciation, guys.



The keys themselves don't click. There are only noises from my fingernails hitting on the keys. You can hear that in the clip when I played the intro. Also in Casio's own promo vid, you can hear the lady-player's fingernails hitting the keys.

Also, to reiterate, if you turn down the volume, or when you plug in the headphone, the noise of the keys hitting the bottom is louder than from the CN24, but not to the extent of being annoying.

Thanks a lot

Are you referring to the sound the keys make when they hit the bottom or the friction sound between the keys...
Thanks.

Thanks a lot

Keys hitting the bottom sound you mentioned will be a 'thub' sound, right! Not the squeaky/friction sound heard on these videos, thats the annoying sound
thanks.

No friction noise from the keys. Everything's nice and smooth (so far).

@achowdhurig

Just FYI. Yesterday I got a chance to try the KDP90. Well, the feel of the keys isn't even close to that of the CN24 or the AP-450. Period. Personally, for me, a no go.

This key noise is relative... my wife can hear the keys on our CN24 if I am playing on the first floor of the house with headphones on and she is up on the 2nd floor. So even a "quiet" action is still kind of loud. It doesn't bother her unless she is already in a bad mood.

@Clumsy

Thanks. I am planning to buy the CN24 but will try waiting a couple of months for the release of CN25

Hi,

I went with your advise and brought Casio Ap-460 which is basically ap-450 but they are calling the reverb the HAll Simulator. Thanks once again for all the advise !
I need to ask you about one thing though, I am switching on the piano and setting the volume knob to say mid-volume. Keeping it fixed I palyed the demo piece that came with the product and it sounded amazing in the speaker. But when I am playing the piano at the same volume level the sound output is quite less, is it normal ?
Thanks.

Congrats on your new AP-460!

And, pictures, please. Would like to see how it looks.

I'm not really sure about the volume issue as I didn't take the care to notice.

Anyhow, here's a bonus tip for you to try:

Two days ago I just fiddled with my AP-450 and, just for kicks, layered the Grand sound with Electric piano sound. I suddenly noticed there was "something" coming out of the mix.

I then adjusted the layer volume balance by pushing all the balance towards the Grand sound and then just one notch back to the Electric piano and suddenly the digital piano sounded more acoustic-like. Adjusted the reverb to 1, brillance -1 and everything's set. The whole range sounds bright but not sharp/piecing. The treble end now has that longer "tingling" decay sound of an acoustic. And you get a bit more sustain, too. Over-all very acoustic-y. I'm a happy dude now.

However, make sure there's a proper distance between the wall. I found that 6-8" would be right for the mid volume (or say 11 - 1 o'clock setting). And this can be pretty loud already.