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Dear Community!

I have started playing the piano about two years ago on a Kawai ES100. I just sold that instrument in order to upgrade to a little higher level piece.

Primarily in my focus right now are the RP401r and AP460. I really like the touch of Casio's keys and was about to choose it, but the lack of possible sounds put me off a little. The Roland has over a hundred more sounds available, but it is more expensive (and I do not like it's look that much). As for feel, it seems really similar to me to the ES100, which is OK.

I tried to look for unbiased user reviews of these instruments, but had little luck so far. If anyone could link some, that would be great.

I know that the next level piano in the AP series would have all the bells and whistles I want, but I have a hard time justifying the cost right now.

Let me know what you think.

Definitely go with the one that you like the feel of - the Casio. Having more sounds can easily be accommodated in a couple of ways:

1. hook up the DP to a computer and use software instruments to play other sounds
2. get a small keyboard that has lots of sounds and hook that up to the DP via MIDI to play those sounds on your DP

Looking at the spec sheet of the Casio, it appears to have USB MIDI capability, but not MIDI In/Out. This means that option 2 is out if you want to play the sounds through the DP, so you'd have to play on the keyboard itself. But option 1 would work.

Either way, you'll be buying software sounds (although some can be had for free - if you have a Mac then you have Garage Band) and a DAW to play them, or a separate keyboard. So perhaps it's worth it to get the AP650M or AP700, or to look at other brands in that price range.

Indeed, I am just worried about the claimed quality issues (the casio's keys getting noisy and the dynamics dieing after 6-12 months).

Does the Casio have a line in? With usb midi it's easy to connect to a computer or ipad, and there is plenty of cheap software that will get you sounds at least as good as the extras in the Roland. But without a line in on the piano you'd be left using headphones, tinny laptop speakers, or buying an extra speaker set.

I don't know what pricing/availability in Hungary is like, but in the US a couple new release Roland models that are close in price to the AP650m that might be worth looking at are the FP90 (portable) and DP603 (non portable). Maybe try to look at the Kawai CA17 if that's available (it is not in the US)

The AP460 does not seem to have a line in option. I looked at the other recommendations, but most are out of my price range. The search is ongoing

I forgot to update this thread. Here is what happened: after the last reply, I spent most of the weekend looking up information on the selected instruments and others in the same price range. I ended up with the following list: YDP163, RP401r, PX860, AP460, F-140r and looked for a shop that has all of them on display. I almost found it too, only the casios were missing (they had a different casio with the same keyboard though). So I went there and checked how they all feel.

First I took a fast look at what they had. I tried both the YDP163 and YDP143 and the funny thing is that the chepaer one felt much better to me. This was unexpected. The 143 felt much more natural, frieldy, while the 163 was heavy and unpleasent. At any rate I still did not like the texture of the keys, so I tried the Casio and kept going to the Rolands without much delay. Casio just felt too light (the texture is nice though). As this little paragraph is going, I think you can now guess how it all ended: I tried the F-140r (an instrument that was not even on my list until sunday) and I knew I found the one. The key textures were similar to Casio's and while the action was a little strange at first, it felt good.

So here I am now, trying to order a white F-140r. However, it seems that no shop in Hungary carries one and the central eurepean storage is out as well and will not be back in stock this year (since I sold my d. piano and want to play, this is a bad option). I never expected to run into a supply and demand issue in today's market. At any rate, I was able to make an order on a big online shop and they did not give me the usual negative feedback yet (meaning that they seem to actually have one in stock).

Thanks for your report. And lets hope you get it before the holidays.