Hi! I've spent the last few days browsing through this forum, and it's a fantastic resource. However, I do have a couple questions that I don't think have been addressed in previous posts (although, if I missed something, please point me in the right direction).
Background: I'm a poor college student living off investments. I'll be graduating in May (finally) with a real job already lined up. I played piano when I was a kid (5 or so years) on a quality acoustic upright. I have some time my Senior year, and I want to start playing again! So, I'm looking for something to use in my cruddy apartment. Note: I'm not an audiophile -- I don't mind using $15 headphones. (Yes, I know that makes you cringe).
It seems that the consensus for people on a budget is the Casio PX-100 at ~$500. Here are my three questions:
1.) Is there a "next step up" that's less than a 50% price increase? If I'm shelling out $500, I don't want to pay $750 or more. But if there's something that requires only a 20% increase and the quality is exceptionally better -- please let me know! (A cursory glance at other posts revealed $750 options, but not much less).
2.) Will the polyphony limitation of the PX-100 cause a problem for an average piano player? One post said that it was limited to 16 when using the "best sound" (the 32 is just a max number). While I'm not going to be playing complex Rachmaninoff pieces (although I may try), I won't be playing primer book pieces, either.
3.) I haven't seen much discussion about synthesizers, because of their non-realistic feel and sound. And while I definitely don't want something without weighted keys, are there any synthesizers cheaper than the PX-100 that have decent feel? Like I said, I'm not an audiophile or a concert pianist -- if there's something out there for $300 with decent weighting and lots of cool features, I might consider that over the almighty expensive "digital piano".
Thanks for your help! I'll, of course, refresh this post every 5 minutes, so if you have any questions -- please ask!
