i have decided to ay cash for a piano. a digital baby grand. 5,000 or lower. any suggestions???
i would greatly appreciate it!!!

Kohlers were using Fatar actions. In the past, those actions did not have a good reputation for durability or quality control. I don't know the situation now. If you check the specs and see a "TP" in front of the action I.D., it's a Fatar.

For Yammy, you may want to look at the CLP295. It uses Yammy's "Natural" action - wooden white keys and an action mechanism which is supposed to be different from their grade hammer actions - and four levels of sampling for the piano. (The 265 has only one sampled layer.) Multiple sampled layers should translate into timbre changes as volume changes, i.e., a wider dynamic range.

Yammy's speakers have never been their strong point. The bass speakers are too small. Kohler used to spec their digital grands with a nine or ten inch woofer.

You can improve tone with software pianos and/or larger speakers, but you're stuck with the touch.

There's no substitute for actually auditioning instruments before you buy.

thank you...so it appears you may be more inclined towards the yamaha? you seem torn between the two...?

Depends on budget and what additional steps you might be willing to take.

I'd expect the Kohler to be significantly less expensive, but the Yammy should have a better touch.

There's a CLP 295 on eBay here. The CLP 295 is being sold by a private party. You may want to contact the seller and ask about shipping. Digitals are usually shipped in boxes that include internal "baffles" which are shaped to the piano. It'd be good to learn about this. You could also take the seller's reply as an opportunity to express interest at a lower price.

By "extra steps" I'm referring to, for example, buying a powered bass speaker to give you better reproduction of the lowest notes. Again, I haven't checked the Kohlers' recent specs, but they used to come with larger bass speakers than do the Yammies.

Since tone can be improved, but touch can't, I'd tend to go for touch, *if* budget is there. If you check KBlair's digital price paid thread, you'll see that siginificant discounts are doable on digitals.

BTW the touch settings on digitals are a clever psycho-acoustic illusion. As the touch setting is increased, the lower MIDI control messages - the ones that result in softer notes - get cut off, which makes it necessary to press harder to get any sound at all. So to get the full volume range, set touch to its lowest setting. (The default setting is usually Medium or 2. I'd reset it to Soft or 1.)

Re improving tone, the best purchase you can make is a set of studio quality headphones, such as Sennheiser's HD 580's. They're sometimes available on eBay and always on Amazon. (The current Amazon price is too high; be patient.) Good 'phones will let you hear the true quality of included sounds and are worth buying for your auditioning.

Things can change rapidly in the digital world. If at all possible, play both instruments. If you don't play, try to take someone with you who does. Try to learn if one or the other feels better under the fingers. Yammy's actions tend to be durable and consistent. I haven't played a Fatar in c.3 years and don't know what they're like now. How do they feel to *your* fingers?

It can be helpful to play chromatically - every key, one note at a time. You might want to press softly at first and pay attention to how each key feels under you fingers. If there's any unevenness, you might want to point it out to the rep and ask if there's anything that can be done - another instrument, opening the case and making sure that everything is set up properly - and see if the shop can get it right.

Just take your time, play as many as you can, and watch eBay and Craigslist. You'll get what you want.