I desperately want to learn to play the piano at age 43. I'm in the market to buy a digital piano and have heard Technics and Roland. I'm leaning toward the Technics Ensemble series PR53/603/703/903 as I like the feel, sounds and rythms. At the NAMM show last week, Roland and Yamaha announced some new piano's. I can't find any information on the next round of Technics ensembles. Can anyone provide guidance on their preferred vendor and most importantly, preferred models and why? Most of the forum topics hint at Yamaha as the best, with Roland second and Technics rarely mentioned. Why is that? Price is not an issue. I also have 2 young children less than 6 years old that will hopefully have fun learning. Will they be confused or motivated with hundreds of buttons and sounds and gadgetry?

Over fifty percent of sales are made from reputation alone in regards to digital pianos.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

Yamaha, and Roland have good sales because they offer quality products, most of the time anyway. Technics is rarely mentioned, you said that yourself. Hmmm, I wonder why.

Personally, I think of Technics as a last resort. In the end, go with your gut instict.

Good luck!

Much like yourself, I too am on the market for a new digital piano. As a matter of fact, I'm also looking to buy one of the Technics Ensemble pianos. I was talking with a dealer today and asked why Technics didn't have as many models as everyone else. He said it's because Technics tends to only put out a new series every 5 years or so where Yamaha and Roland do it on a much more frequent basis. (Which, by the way, makes your keyboard become obsolete a lot quicker.) Anyhoo, to answer one of your questions, the 603/703/903 series is the latest as it just came out last year, so don't expect anything new from Technics for awhile. At least that is what the salesman told me. Just passing the info along.

By the way, I'm leaning very heavily towards the Technics versus the Yamaha or Roland. The sound seems to come across a lot better than the others. Here's another interesting note I learned from the salesman today too. Technics samples a $250K Steinway for its grand piano, while Yamaha samples a Yamaha grand piano. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Thanks MusicLover. I've heard and have felt the touch of the keys for the upper end Roland and Technics keyboards side-by-side, and personally I like the Technics, and I think it gives me more value for my dollar. I did a lot of research on the Yamaha Clavinova CVP line today, specifically the 201/203/205/207/209 units. Very impressive, but I'm not sure about price and value. Yamaha's website is really informative and it gives you the sense that Yamaha are really trying hard to make piano playing easy and fun. Further, I don't trust sales people, at least not where I live. I've done my homework before going in the local stores, and often I know more about when units were actually launched than they do. For example, the PR603/703/903 came out in early 2000, and they should be coming out with new units soon. They just came out with the PX662/4/5 and there are many features in these non-ensembles that are not in the 603/703/903. So, you can expect something soon. The low end PR53 units come out every year. Finally, does anyone have any experience with the Clavinova 200 line up, and how it compares to Roland or Technics - sound, key touch, feature sets, learning, value for dollar, etc.?

Dan,

Yes, I've noticed the same thing in the 2.5 years since I purchased my Technics (Digital Ensemble, PR51 I think?). Technics never seems to get as much "press". I don't know exactly why that is. Mine sounds good, and has a great feel to it. Plus, there have been absolutely no problems, mechanical or otherwise, with it. Let's hope that doesn't change for awhile. I paid well over two thousand for the thing, but I'm getting my money's worth. I do sometimes wonder if there are even better digital pianos out there (for less than 3 grand). But, my next piano will probably be an acoustic.
Rick

My theory as to why Technics doesn't get much press is that they don't have a professional division to speak of. Roland & Yamaha get a great deal of exposure from the pros that use their instruments. They also make guitar/bass/drum and recording equipment. Technics, which is essentially Panasonic, has some great pro audio equipment, but has never made any inroads into the professional keyboard business. While I have nothing bad to say about Technics as a company, this is precisely why I'd feel more comfortable with a Yamaha or Roland. They are constantly refining their designs due in part to feedback they get from the professional world.
(Full disclosure: I have several Roland keyboards at the moment and have owned Yamaha keyboards in the past)

Thanks Rick and SteveY for your input. Does anyone have any recent statistics on "existing" market share AND recent statistics on which vendor is selling the most right now? Obviously, the next logical question is, what models are the most popular by vendor (Yamaha, Roland, Technics). AND, finally to keep everyone's interest level up on this question, what is everyone's DREAM digital (ensemble) keyboard for each vendor?!!!

I have a Techic..KN500 and I love the rich sound of it and the bass + when I connect it to the speakers at church its such a crisp clean sound. Now, my speaker at home is a 50w crate. I have been lookin for a new 88 full size keybroad,, my keybroad now is 6l keys...I really hate this cause I would keep it if it was 88 keys. I keep running out of keys now that I have been playing alot of fatt chords. I love my techinc and the sounds. I love the sound of roland but, most of them dont have speakers attach to them..but, I think techic has more of a crispier sound and more features that I love to have. I have tried yamahas and they are nice and brite sounding and I like to play alot of jazzy sounds.