Glad I was able to find a forum specifically for digital pianos.

I am leaving for medical school in September and will be living in an apartment with other medical students. Obviously, it would be in poor form for me to bring an acoustic piano into the apartment, so I am looking to purchase a digital so that I won't disturb others who will be studying. I am not a great pianist, but I like to play late at night when I need to get some stress out or not think about studying. Hence, I don't need the best piano money can buy. In fact, my budget is limited to about a thousand dollars, give or take a hundred or so. What I am most concerned with is that it sounds reasonably close to an acoustic and that it feels like an acoustic. I really don't care much about all the midi or recording features (although a 1/4" or midi line out would be nice).

I have been looking at the Yamaha YDP121, since it is right in the budget range I am looking at. Is anyone familiar with this model? What do you have to say about it? Are there any other decent models I should try in the price range I am looking at? Again, this will only be played an hour a day (if even that - during exam months, I may not play more than an hour a week) for entertainment purposes, not for studio recording or hardcore practice sessions. Many thanks in advance.

My recommendation is for the Yamaha p80. It can be had for about 800-900 Dollars. I like it over the newer p120. I test drove quite a few digitals and settled on the p80. It's has very good, piano-like, action and the quality of the sound is very good (not too bright as is p120). Lately, however, I'm using a software-driven piano solution (I posted some info on it in another thread on Midi/software). For your situation, though, I think p80 should do the trick. Ultimately, it's a personal choice, so the best advice is to play as many different digitals as you can get your hands on. In looking at different keyboards, consider polyphony (64 is passable, but 128 is best), as well as the action and touch of the keys, and use a good pair of headphones when testing them out --if you have a good pair at home bring 'em along.

rxfudd:

I'll pretty much echo netizen's advice, but add:

Since you're a student, check out the Roland FP-3, Yamaha P-80, and the Yamaha P-120/P120S. These are portable digital piano models with accoustical piano touch and can be easily installed into/removed from the manufacturer's optional stand or an X-stand making it easy to move come moving day.

Think twice about the YDP-121: it appears to be non-portable (a large single unit of furniture not easily assembled/disassembled) and has 32 notes of polyphony. Polyphony is the total number of sounds that cam be played simultaneously usually expressed as a power of 2. The higher the number, the better. 128 is the current benchmark; most are 64; 32 is substandard.

I will just add my 2c here and chime in that in the price range you are looking the Roland and Yamaha offer the most bang for the buck.

Hey fr, you may have seen us chatting on this forum about the new General Music Promega 3. Its polyphony is 320!!! I am not a big fan of digital pianos personally (I work for an acoustic piano only dealer) but this is one bad dude.
Check it out: www.generalmusic.com

I'm anxious to read the "fine print" on this one. If you look closely, GEM says that the polyphony is a "combined" 320 between it's various tone engines. This leads me to believe that any one engine has more limited polyphony. Do you have more info on this, Dave?

HI,
If you are not necessarily looking for a portable piano than I would suggest you look into the General music RP series. THey are quite affordable. THey do have a portable seried pRP but I have no idea about those.
The gems have a lot to offer and yet their prices are very affordable.
just my 2 cents.
Payal

I'll check into that Steve. That was an excellent observation on your part.

Incidently, the Pro 1 and Pro 2 GEM keyboards can be had fairly reasonably these days. I was impressed with the Pro 2.