Can anyone offer any advice on any of the Technics digital piano's? Particularily the lower end PX 662 or the PX 664?
Our budget forbids us to consider any "better" models, but we were taken aback by the quality of sound coming out of this piano. The problem is its price...it is $500 more than the Yamaha CLP-120, which has more features (although that's not of primary importance)and we can get a Roland HP 2 for $300 less than the Yamaha, we are primarily concerned with sound quality, but I would love your opinions.
Does any of you own or know about these models? What advice can you offer?

Arkon,
I work with a Technics dealer but I do not sell them. I can try to get some info if you want to wait a few days to get an answer.
ej

Any light you could shed on this issue would be greatly appreciated. This is a fairly large purchase for us, and I want to get a piano that will "do" us for a while...it's not my intention to upgrade for some time, so I do want staying power. Currently we are leaning toward the Yamaha, as it seems to be a farily "middle of the road" (not the cheapest, not the most expensive, - if the addage 'you get what you pay for' has any merit) piano for us, and I think it will do nicely. It's just that the dealer at the technics store was SO helpful, and really was passionate about his pianos, so maybe he sold us a line or two, but we were singing the praises of the technics for some days afterward. Is it worth $500 more than the Yamaha?
I believe I need more input! So please, any help would be great. Thank you

Arkon,

As has been stated many times on this forum, buy what pleases you. Judging "goodness" of digitals is very subjective and I have seen a number of good reports on this forum on Technics in general. The salesman selling this brand near me was really high on them, particularly on their great sound and feel. But after playing three models (can't tell you which ones but they were $2600, $4400, and about $9000 at his store), I was pretty disappointed with both sound and feel of all of them. The $9K model had the best grand piano sound, but I would say even it sounded like many spinet acoustic pianos to me - missing the deep and mellow resonances I like in the mid and lower keys. But that's me - I am used to playing a decent acoustic piano. Buy what sounds good to you. You might look at the Bluebook of Pianos (www.bluebookofpianos.com/digital.htm) for highlights of characteristics to consider beyond sound and feel.

FYI -- the bluebookofpianos.com site seems to be very out of date. I wouldn't put much stock in the specifics of anything stated there.

As for Technics, great company (Panasonic), but not the greatest reputation in the keyboard world. But if you like it, that's really the important thing. I'd just suggest that you play as many pianos as possible. I'd look at Yamaha, Roland, Korg and Kurzweil.

I've had a Technics since '96, and it has never let me down...The sound is great because each note is truly digitally sampled from an acoustic grand, vs. the Yamaha, which uses a mathematical calculation to determine the notes. It is truly the most expressive digital piano I've played on...and the closest thing that comes to it would be a Roland, in my humble opinion. The Korg, Yamaha, Kawai, etc. all have a touch similar to the organ. I play a lot of Bach, Scarlatti, etc., and it just sounds great. When you use headphones, I swear you can barely, barely, tell it's not a grand. I record from my Technics directly to a tape recorder...and it sounds like a very good grand to me. I'd suggest you go back to the other brands...play the same composition on each piano, and you should be able to tell right off the bat which one you feel most at ease, and most expressive on...my bet's on the Technics.

Well, that's my 2 cents...happy hunting!

Arkon,
All I could get from the dealer was that he believed any Technics dealer should be able to beat anybody elses prices. He also is very passionate about the Technics. I have two acoustic pianos BUT I have the Technics P50 Stage Piano for church and school gigs. I like the sound and the touch very much. Try doing a search with the GOOGLE search engine and type in the words:: reviews technics digital pianos[/b] There are a bunch of places to check out there. It doesn't hurt to take your time and don't hesitate to check 'em all out. Sorry I couldn't help you more.

We finally decided upon the Yamaha clp-120.
Thank you everyone for your help, I wished I could have gotten the technics, but in the end it came down to dollars and cents, the yamaha was our next favorite pick, and our piano teacher came with us to help us pick one out of the crowd. The technics spent more on sound and action, the yamaha was several ($700) cheaper, which thus, made it the better choice for us at this moment. Thank you for your input, especially on the technics...We did appreciate it and it helped narrow the choices.
Thank you