I'd like to buy a digital piano mainly to learn and play Jazz.

With a budget around 700$ I think the best choices are Yamaha P60 and Casio PX300.

The PX300 has 30+128 sounds and 120 rhythms (which may be useful when I haven't the PC with Band-in-a-box)...

Is the piano sample of the P60 much better?
What about the keyboard quality?

Maybe the best thing is to buy the Casio now and then switch later to something more professional (and with 64 notes polyphony!) such as Yamaha P120.

What do you think?

Thank you,
Matteo

I assume you are a beginner. Then the Casio wouldn't be a bad choice. You are right not to buy an expensive piano now because if you choose not to continue your piano lessons you're stuck with your expensive piano.

Also, I wouldn't look at the quantity of the samples. Just listen to the piano sample and see if you like it, because of the 158 samples you're probably going to use 3 or 4 samples frequently. I did when I had a keyboard. I mostly used the piano sample.

Hope this helps, keep in mind though that I don't know much about piano brands and models.

Thank you Cryptkeeper,
I'm not a total beginner, I did 3 years of lessons but then stopped playing during university.

Then I began playing again some months ago by myself with blues improvisation, studying jazz theory, scales and now improvising over II-V-I and the simplest jazz standards.

I'd like to take lessons again and this is why I have to buy a digital piano (my old GEM WS1 is not the best thing to learn jazz piano on

I think I wouldn't use many samples, as you said, but I like the idea of rhythms in the Casio PX300: wouldn't it be useful to improvise (or even study even scales/voicings) over a swing rhythm?

Hi there,
I like the idea of Casio Px300.
It is fun to play music from time to time using your digital piano. P60 is very limited in function, not to mention lack of numeric display. they both are well built instruments too. Sound quality may not be that different. They both have 32 voice polyphony.
PX300 is stereo while P60 is mono instrument though.
PX is general MIDI instrument(16 multitimbral) while P60 is not.

The p60 is stereo. The px300 has 32 note polyphony only for some of it's sounds. The stereo piano sound on the px300 is only 16 note polyphonic.

I still think the px300 is a great deal: you get lot's more features than the p60 (many sounds, rhythms, sequencer, accompaniment, etc...), and I find the keyboard feel to be pretty good compared to more expensive keyboards from korg, roland and others. But I think the p60 sounds better and has a better feel to it.

True that stereo sampled sounds gonna take 2 or more voices. P60 gonna have 16 notes polyphonic in some voice also( E. piano 2 for example and probably with grand piano voices too). That 1/2 of maximum polyphony seem to be the trade off for stereo sound.
And it is true for almost all synthesizers and digital pianos except certain Kurtzweil instrument which has 40 notes polyphony regardless of the voice nature.

The p60 is superior to the PX300, IMO. The p60's acoustic piano is very nice, and it has a great hammer action.

Regards,
p120mAn

I haven't played the Casio, but the P60 is very much a piano piano, and not a piano-with-lots-of-bells-and-whistles piano. It has only a handful of other instrument samples, but it has a very good piano sample. Sounds like the Casio has more toys to it, but the piano sound is probably worse. Since you're going jazz, I dunno if you want cool features like rhythm/beats.

Thank you all for your advices.

In the next days I'll go and try them both to understand *how much* better are the P60 sound and the P60 touch feel.

Matteo

Not always true. Manufacturers measure polyphony in different ways.

I tried a P60 and a Casio Px100 (the shop didn't have any Px300).
The piano sound of the P60 is indeed more convincing.[/b]

I think that I could replace sounds and rhythms with synth software and software like band-in-a-box if I need them.

Still I think that the P60 lacks some useful features, so I am thinking about a P90[/b] (approx costs in Italy: Px100 590 Euro; Px300 700 Euro; P60 750 Euro; P90 850 Euro).

A P90 would have same sounds as P120, sequencer, metronome, display, MIDI to host (BTW, how much is it important?), 2 phones in... for 100 Euros more than P60.

But P90 has no speakers. [/b]
So, since I have no stereo where it would be placed, I have to buy one. How much should I spend for a decent stereo to use as output for the P90?

I am very undecided between casio, p60 and p90.

What do you think?

The answer would be in your pocket....

If you are that quality conscious, get P120 or P250.
Don't even think other brand/models.

I think the quality of the P90 is not inferior to the P120.
It has the same quality, with no speakers (and very subtle samples differences, as it seems from the P90 vs P120 thread).
Am I wrong?

In Italy P90 is 850 Euro, P120 is 1250 Euro, so the difference from P60 to P90 is much less (100 Euro) than the difference from P90 to P120...

Another option - rent a keyboard ... or have the option to return it within 30 days if you are not happy. Sometimes a keyboard that sounds great in the store, can get on your nerves after you spend some time with it.

Thank you all, I've almost decided for a Yamaha P90.
I think it has much more features than the P60 for just 100 Euro more.

The P120 has the speakers advantage, but for 400 Euro more than P90 I think it is not convenient.

I'll buy a stereo instead...

Its great to hear that you've gotten the Yamaha instead. I wish I had it available here in singapore.

I've been using the Casio PX-300, and I quite like the sound and the feel, as well as the fact that it is light enough for me to lug around during my gigs. However, I've been having problems with its line-out jack, it seems that the voltage output is not high enough for some reason, and I've been waiting for the techs to give me a reply. I think I've heard that QC is not too good with the Casio.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Yamaha! Perhaps one day I'd get to listen to the piano sound too, and be blown away