I am trying to find a digital piano for my 6yo daughter and feel interested in 330. I just visited a dealer in the weekend and was asked $1990 + tax + delivery ($100). Wondering if this is a good price. Not trying to get the best deal in the world but also don't want to feel I am paying more than average. Thanks a lot everyone.

That sounds like a terrific price for a CLP-330. The dealer near me (Boston area) is asking $2450.00 plus delivery. I purchased a CLP-230 three years ago for $2500 and at that time I thought it was a good price. I am very pleased with my CLP-230. Although the CLP-330 has noticable better tonal quality (using studio headphones), my CLP-230 is still pretty good and I will not be upgrading it. Your daughter is one lucky little girl to have parents who are willing to buy her such a fine instrument.

Thank you for your reply Orez Eno.

The price seems to be about right for this
model. However, you should realize
that all weighted-key digital pianos
will perform grand piano-like, and so you
can get a good, new dp for about $400 to
$900. At the lower end of this price
range you have pianos like the Williams
Encore at about $400 online, and at the upper
range you have ones like the Korg SP-250
and Casio PX-800 at about $900 online. Etc.
The 330 would be a good piano, but
that's a lot to pay, in my view, when you
can get good dp's for less than half
that price. The difference in price
would be due to things like brand
recognition, better fit and finish,
bigger speakers, more features,
appearance, etc. But even something
like the Williams Encore would be perfectly
adequate for any type of playing.

The dropout rate is high for piano
lessons; some people just don't take
to it, so it makes sense to not spend
too much on any piano. Many people buy
grand pianos to learn on, and you often
see these for sale in classified ads
at bargain prices--the owners just want
to get rid of them after becoming
frustrated at the difficulties involved
in playing, because the piano is now
just a big piece of unusable furniture.

Has Gyro ever played a Williams Encore? I don't think so. In fact, I read the thread where someone said they could get a Williams Encore for about $400. and he has been repeating it ever since. Don't believe hear-say when it comes to pianos, digital or not. You need to play them before deciding if it is the right instrument for you. As for all digitals playing grand piano-like, well, that's like saying my Mazda3 drives Ferrari-like.

Price difference between low and high-end digital pianos also accounts for QUALITY. Something Gyro forgot to mention. I don't know about you, but I want my digital piano to have a good fit and finish. The difference in action is also included in the quality category.

And don't forget the sound Les. The higher up the food chain you go (and as a consequence the price tag) the better the sound gets, not just the samples themselves but also the built in speaker spec and therefore what you hear when you actually play the piano.

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

One of the piano teachers on the Teachers'
Forum, a Russian conservatory grad, teaches
on a Williams digital. The Williams brand
has been around for years, and that
would not be the case if they were not
satisfactory pianos. Williams has a reputation
for offering digitals at bargain prices.
They do this by putting together pianos
with maybe slightly less than state
of the art components, but that's no
problem at all, since as far back as the
1980's there were already dp's with
fully-weighted hammer-actions
that played similar to today's digitals.
Moreover, the technology to emulate
an acoustic piano has been around since
at least the 1970's, so dp circuitry
and software is now well-established
and widespread, and many smaller companies
have no trouble putting together good dp's.

Today's actions are much improved, today's circuitry is much improved, today's samples are very much improved, today's software is also very much improved.

And the best of the best actions, samples, software and speaker configurations as well as extras like Yamaha iFAC is found on the top line DP's of today.

How much any individual is willing to spend on a DP vs how good an instrument they would like and what additional bells and whistles they would like is entirely down to the individual.

There is no right and wrong answer, but all DP's are not created equal.