I am a beginner, but I'm ready to buy my first piano. I am trying to decide between a Casio PX-800 and the new Yamaha YDP-S30.

The Casio has better specifications, but Does the yamaha sounds/feel better? Do I should by the Casio??

I am quite lost...
Thanks

Which one sounds better to you?
Touch is very subjective - again, which one do you prefer?

I am not sure... I think I prefer the yamaha, but I don't have enough criteria :-s

When I bought my P-120, there was not 1 doubt about it. And for years, I considered my P-120 better than any Casio I had the opportunity to try.

Now Casio came with a very aggressive line of products lately, and if you compare instruments in the same price range, ... the difference is not clear anymore and really depend of what you care the most about.
To me, it is all about action and Piano voices. I never use any of the voices (I have a synth that does much better than the "static" voices you can find in the digital pianos and keyboards like the YDPs).
I did not find any reason to replace my P-120 yet.

It comes down to what you want and how much you want to spend. Primarily, consider what you are going to do with this thing. If it's going to sit in your home hooked up with a midi cable to your computer then you will probably buy something very different than if you plan to travel with it every weekend and hook it up directly to an amp. For me personally, I was in the $400 price range. I needed midi out and I wanted a nice hammer action feel. I went to a keyboard store here locally and tried literally dozens of keyboards. In my price range, the Casio Privia felt the best. In fact, to me, the $400 Privia felt better than all of the Yamahas in the $800 price range. Does this mean that Casio is "better" than Yamaha? Absolutely not! To someone else, I'm sure those $800 Yamahas feel better. And maybe they produced better sound... I don't remember because I didn't care. Moreover, when you start to get in the $2000+ range, the Yamahas are awesome! Hands down. I would love to own one, but I'm not spending that much money on a keyboard. At least not right now.

So it comes down to what you need. Unless you are willing to spend $4000 on a keyboard, you're going to have to make a trade off somewhere. So figure out your needs and your budget, and then you can make an informed decision. And if you voice those needs and that budget, people here will be able to help you out, too!

Good luck! It can be rough at first, and maybe you won't get every feature known to man, but in the end, if it works for your needs, then it is "the best"!

dave

rigel - agreeing with previous posts, it all comes down to personal preference on touch and sound. That said, what feels right to you now, could be very different from what will feel right after a few months of experience.

I'm cringing thinking about what I'm about to write because I know it will be jumped on by some as personal bias or worse... but consider how many Casios you see on stage vs how many Yamahas. The fact (industry reports, not marketing fluff) is that Yamaha significantly outsells Casio in both digital pianos and portable keyboards.

Cheers,
Alden

consider how many Casios you see on stage vs how many Yamahas.[/b]

Absolutely! So if you plan to use this thing on stage, that's definitely something to consider. Otherwise, maybe not so much. That's why it all comes down to your specific needs. Personally, when I think of stage pianos, I think of Yamaha, Roland, and Korg.

I'm cringing thinking about what I'm about to write because I know it will be jumped on by some as personal bias or worse[/b]

LOL! I think with regards to stage presence, your statements are pretty safe. But who knows. Maybe we'll get to witness some "jumping" here soon.

dave

Casio is a good piano for entry level and people on the budget. Surely Roland and Yamaha would be better but for the good models you pay up more than for any Casio model. So choice boils down to what you need and how much money you got for this. IMO

A Casio is perfectly good for people who can't afford or notice the quality difference in the Yamahas. 1000s of people love Casio and it will perform just fine. There is nothing wrong with Casio and I would recommend it for many people with limited budgets. It is worth a little more money or a few less features to go with Yamaha for people who can notice the quality difference though.

Now that my Yamaha is hooked up to decent external speakers, all the internal speaker yamahas at the store I try sound like trash though. So you could probablly put external speakers on a Casio and make it sound better than a Yamaha w/internal.

+1 on the external speakers!
Ray - what speakers are you using on your 33?

Boston Acoustics CR6 speakers powered by a B&K Components Ltd. model AVR 101 home A/V receiver. I also have a cheapo Yamaha YST-SW010 powered sub hooked up to make the lower keys rumble.

Attaching halfway decent speakers does a lot, but then I ordered custom Canare StarQuad cables with Neutrik 1/4" and RCA connectors for it and instantly noticed a sound difference there too. For $30 on eBay, nice cables are definatly worth it.

If you're taking lessons, can you rent a DP from the store? It's not possible for you to know what touch you will like before you've had any experience. If you can't rent, borrow or beg something to use, I'd buy the cheapest Casio and start with that, knowing you can sell it for a small loss once you have your own opinion. I think someone posted about PX310s that are selling for well under $400. You can probably sell it for $300 in a year.

I'd say as a beginner go with Casio. There is not enough difference in sub $1000 Yamaha's or Casio's to warrant spending the extra money on a Yamaha. There's a thread on $320 PX310 - definitely a winner.

As far as sound you'll notice that both lower end Yamaha's and Casio's use interpolation (only every 3rd key is a real sample), and there's no real sympathetic resonance. These are things that won't concern you as a beginner, but start becoming issues later on.

If I was in the market for a new digital piano, I'd go with Roland FP4. Each key is sampled, and true sympathetic resonance is implemented. You can get one for about $1000.

I bought the PX-800 a few weeks ago and I am very happy. I thought both the sound and feel were better than the YDP-S30, which I was also considering. I guess one concern over the long run will be whether the casios hold up as well as the Yamahas (I have some old Yamaha 61-key keyboards that just keep chugging along.)

The high-end Yamahas (over $1500 or so) sounded and felt great, but I thought the casios were better at the lower price range.

Go someplace to play them, though. You may feel differently. As you can tell from these forums, everyone has a different opinion. (Yamaha vs. Casio vs. Roland, etc.).