Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards I am leaning toward a Yamaha DGX 660. Thoughts?

If any of you remember me I had just started playing on a Casio Privia (sp?) 350. I was learning OK for being self taught, but then a half feral cat we let come in one cold winter morning ruined it with a well placed puddle of urine on the keyboard. I hated that piano anyway due to week speakers. I am just now getting some cash because I was given a house by a dying relative and I am going to sell it.

The new DGX is right smack dab on what I wanted to spend assuming I also bought the peddle unit. What I like about this instrument is the different voices:organs, electric piano, pads, etc. I also love the backing track option too. Those are must haves on whatever I end up with.

What does concern me is the reports I have heard on the action. Is it really, really that bad? Could I not wing through it? I have even heard people say it was unsuitable for classical due to it only having two sensors. That I really have to disagree with and call that a stretch as there is this young man on YouTube, Toms Mucenieks, who has about 60 videos of him playing his DGX 650, many of which are classical. The boy is good, so good in fact I have almost wept the music was so moving. Now I know I will never be able to play that good as I am now almost 41 and I am sure he was taking lessons before he could read, but I have seen him play classical with my own eyes. I guess what I am asking is, is it too bad to actually learn on? I will never be going on a gig, but maybe when I am sixty it would be nice to volunteer to play piano at some small country church, or in a rest home.

My other concern is durability. I know this piano has plenty of bells and whistles to keep me amazed for years to come, but do you think it will hold out for say ten years with at least some daily play? I realize this is going to have to be answered based on previous models of the DGX series as the 660 hasn't been out long, but I need a feel for how long to expect it to hold up. I am disabled and money is tight; add on lessons and sheet music, this is really gonna push me when it comes time to retire it.

Is there anything else with all the bells and whistles and many voices I should be considering in this price range?

well, Bill. Just so happens I`m the chief (only perhaps) exponent for these pianos around here. Or at least the 650 which I had `till a year ago. I`ve had 3, changing them for the advances that the next model offered. 630 was my fav, with the unsophisticated yet appealing piano sounds. The 650 had arguably a better sound engine, with built in resonance and the usual myriads of voices.

I enjoyed every minute o` this most versatile beast. Not a moment`s trouble out of any of them. Chief features are

Easy multitrack recording; the initial reason for buying.

Light and easy hammer action keyboard. Could be better, but won`t hamper you in the slightest.

Decent speaker system for a smallish room without external boosting,

There`s so much in there I never touched. The 650 has bluetooth, I believe. I would ignore it and hope it ignored me.

Now, I been playing for a goodly number o` years and it hasn`t made me into a virtuoso. But I don`t care. The fun has been tremendous and there`s nothing I play that can`t be played on the DGX. Other people here have their own views about Yamahas and the DGX range.

I`ve loaded a link to p2 o` my stuff which features exclusively this range. None of it`s brilliant, but you may get a sense of the fun to be had. . . .best wishes to you and happy playing whatever you choose.

https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?o=U&pi=2

Congrats on getting the house, though sorry about your relative. Sorry about what happened to your Casio PX-350.

As usual, advice will depend on how much you're willing to spend. Like, if it's more than $2,000 I'm inclined to point you in other directions, some of the Rolands and the Kawais, come to mind.

If you want to stay around the $1,000 mark, there is the Casio PX-560, which has the same action as your (now unfortunately soaked in cat urin PX-350) and has some bells and whistles, like the DGX660.

Although, I don't like that degrading phrase, bells and whistles. I think it's perfectly fine to want to have accompaniment and styles, like drums and such. It's fun to play with and can help in developing your skills as a pianist.

Edit Could you post the link to the YouTube channel of the DGX650 playing guy, you were talking about? I like watching performances on the DGX-6?0, as I think the Yamaha piano sound is very nice.

Well, you do not need a link.

Just go to YouTube.com and search for DGX650 Tom ... and you will get all of his stuff.

Noticed (afterwards) the name, and found the channel.

If you were not happy with the speakers on the PX-350:

. . . Are the speakers on the DGX-660 much better?

The specs on the DGX-660:



That's similar to what's on the PX-350 (the PX-350 woofers are rectangular, and smaller than the DGX-660):



The DGX-660 uses the Yamaha "GHS" action, same as the P105 / P115. I prefer the Casio action (it's a little heavier), but the "GHS" is fully-weighted (no springs), and will be OK.

"Unsuitable to classical because it has only two sensors" ? I don't think so. 3-sensor actions only became available a few years ago, and people were playing classical music on DP's long before that. And I don't think you're a hard-core "advanced-level classical" player (in which case, neither action would be OK).

You should really play one, before you decide to buy it, if you can.

Toms Channel

The 2 vs 3 sensor issue comes into play with fast repetitions of notes - mainly if you play the same note twice in a row, you have to let the note come to almost fully back to the top to then be able to press it down again for the repeat. With triple sensor, you don't have to come up as far. This is mostly an issue when playing trills.

Is triple better? Yes, by a lot if you play classical. Can you play beautiful music on it? Any good pianist can make even the worst pianos sound decent, but that doesn't mean it will be pleasurable. The GHS action is Yamaha's bottom of the line, and it's really inferior to what you had in the PX-350, IMO.

Onboard speakers, unless you are in the $2k or higher range, will be mostly inadequate. So why not play some other DPs and just plan on buying monitors for a better sound if needed? I'd try the PX-360, Kawai ES100, and Roland FP-30.

I actually think that the speakers on the Casio would have been OK if it weren't for their placement. As I recall they fired to the back of the piano. As I recall there were all sorts of theories as to why they did this: to reverberate off the wall it was to be placed a certain distance from, to be aimed at a recital in a small room, etc. Now, I may be remembering incorrectly about the position of those speakers and the excuses that went along with it. Maybe I am thinking of another make a model, but I think I am 90% sure of that.

I hear what you're saying about budget. The DGX with peddle board is pretty much what I will have. If money were no object I would go all in on one of those top of the line Yamahas that look like little grand pianos. If you cant play or don't want to they can play themselves. If I could just squeeze a $1500 increase I would dig a Kiwai CN35.That has a ton of voices and I would accept the limited two track recorder. Especially in rosewood that thing looks sharp.

There was also a trait the Casio had that made it a turn off for me. With headphones on you would hear your note play, but you would also hear a sort of "clunk" sound come through the headphones. I talked to a few people about this hear and we never did figure out what it was. Now, I was using open earphones and I may have been hearing the action thumping, but it got ruined before I got it figured out.

You are correct it would be best to play it, but there are no Yamaha dealers nearby and I can't play anyway. It's been so long I doubt I could find middle C again.

I recently bought I DGX-660 and am very pleased with it. I preferred the main sounds over its competitors. I also didn't want to buy a instrument with less than around 60 high-quality sounds, and there were some voices that were must-haves for me. That quickly narrowed it down.

I'm not a master musician, so I haven't noticed any limitations on the action. I had to nudge a key sideways a little to take out a tight fit, but maybe it just needed a little breaking-in.

The speakers may very well be good enough for a smallish area, but I also have some higher-end open-back headphones to enjoy what the instrument can do (and of course to avoid disturbing others).

Even if someday I want a high-end action, I would keep the DGX just for the array of top-notch voices. It's fairly easy to move around, too. Heavy pianos are kind of a turn-off for me.

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

No springs?Every key on every Yamaha keyboard has a spring, until you reach the high-end Avant Grands and their predecessors.

No this is inacccurate, no springs inside the GH3 action or later variants. Older Yamaha actions had plastic or metal spring strips beneath the key or hammer, examples include GHE, GH, but these are no longer used in the top actions. I'm not sure about GHS; whether you count the rubber sensor cups, or plastic pivot points on GHS as a spring is something else, but their primary role is not to return the action. OT most upright actions have a spring, and these are often compared unfavourably but fallaciously to a grand action IMHO. A summary of Yamaha actions is here.

Oops -- I spoke beyond my knowledge. I don't know if the GHS has springs or not.

I was using "fully-weighted" in contrast to the "semi-weighted" actions on Yamaha keyboards like the MOX6. The "semi-weighted" (and "soft touch") actions feel, to me, like "synth action".

Yamaha itself, doesn't use "fully weighted" as a property of any of its actions. A list is here:

http://faq.yamaha.com/us/en/article...rds/digitalpianos/p_series/p-80/330/6575

GHS has no spring mechanism, at least from what I could see when I disassembled my p105. The traditional GH action definitely has the ribbon/strip spring that mac mentions.

What I like about GHS over Casio's action is the consistency and build quality. GHS is by far quieter and less wobbly. I think Casio does have a nice springiness (not taking about physical springs) that feels a bit more like a real piano action, but it is louder and with way more side to side wobble in the keys. Both are really nice beginning/intermediate actions that are enjoyable to play.

Incorrect.

The GH3 action has a forked leaf spring beneath each key. (And if you're unlucky/careless, one can get loose when removing a key for lubrication. It's tricky to put the spring back in place.)

The GH action is mechanically the same.

The NW keyboards are wooden. I don't have information about their construction.

In a GHS action the keys ARE the springs. Multiple keys are molded as a single piece of plastic. The flexing of each key against its rear clamped edge provides the spring action.

I posted the GH3 key diagram here, taken from the CLP-240 service manual.

Yet that unsourced set of diagrams conflicts with this Yamaha FAQ.

SB: I've updated the post ...

The diagram comes from the Yamaha service manual.

My point about the springs comes from my own experience. The springs are there. I've dealt with them.

Perhaps they've taken them out in newer designs?

I have seen the same springs in the Yamaha CLP150 service manual (GH)... and in the real instrument. However, I think the main effect comes from the hammer weight.

If you look at the schema, the spring pushes up the rear of the key, near the fulcrum. It will not have an important torque.

Well, I guess you could call that a spring, it's certainly an interesting mechanism.



http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1830168.html

NW-Stage has the GH/GH3 strip spring as well, as you can see in the photos. I don't know if the NW-X or other NW variants do, but from what I've seen, the mechanism is extremely similar for NW, and I've actually wondered if you can just stick an NW key into a GH keybed...

Wow! That makes me wonder ...

The Kawai wooden actions have a keybed similar to an acoustic piano. I presume there are no springs because there is no need?

The Kawai wooden keys are pinned, weighted (and bushed?) on rails. To get the feel of an acoustic action you have to have an acoustic action, right?

So if the NW is just a wooden GH3, why bother with the wood?