I am thinking about playing the piano and looking for a digital piano, a digital one because of my space constraint. However, I don't have a clue on which manufacturers and model I should select and I'm hoping someone could suggest me which one to buy. I listed my questions below. Any help is very much appreciated!

- Which manufacturer sells the product that has the best value for the money? My budget is around $1000. Casio seems to be good, but I'm not sure. I prefer to have 88-key model.

- There are models that have 'legs' and don't have legs. Because I have a big table in my room and can place the 'non-leg' type on my table, I don't have to buy the leg type?

- I want to play the Baroque music, like Bach. I think I could enjoy more if I could switch to the harpsichord sound.

- Eventually, I want to buy the real piano. It'd be good if the digital piano has a similar touch and feel that people'd expect from the real piano.

- Any other considerations that I should know.

Thank you!
Tsutomu

Probably the best value would be the Yamaha YDP113 or YDP223 at that price range. Casio is a little new in this market, they are mostly known for manufacturing toy keyboards, and I haven't played any yet that can compare with the big guys. The big guys being Roland, Yamaha, Technics, Kawai, Korg, and Kurzweil.

Thanks [Luke's Dad]. I looked into other Yamaha model as well and found a similar one below. This does not have the stand.

http://www.andysmusiconline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Yamaha_P90

Is this kind of no-stand moedl the same as the with-stand model like YDP-113?

The P90 is similar in touch and tone to the YDP113. I think you will find the stand to be fairly important though, as I've never been able to find a portable stand that would let me sit on a bench at a comfortable heighth. Plus, I'm not sure if the P90 includes speakers. Many models like that do not, and you have to add on other speakers. But, you should be happy with either.

I don't know why this would be true -- there are stands that will allow you virtually any playing height. You might have to put in some trial/error time once you get the stand, but it's certainly possible.

Thanks again.

If I buy the P-90, it looks like I don't have the pedals. Can it be added usually?

Reading the manual it looks like it comes with one pedal, for sustain. There are no other jacks on it to connect any other pedals.

I'd be wary of going by those specs listed at andysmusiconline, they don't seem to match up with Yamaha's specs for the P-90. You can check them at YamahaSynth .

Exactly. I noticed on one page it stated 64 note polyphony, and 32 on another. Which is it?!