P-105 /PX-150/350 side-by-side

Hi all

Had some time today to visit our local GC and Sam Ash. Walked into the keyboard room at GC and- although they advertised on line that the store had the PX-150/350 in stock- all i saw was the 330. Plus there was a dude blasting out a 4 measure loop on a synth ad nauseum so i realized it was pointless being there (i am learning to hate GC- truly hate the place...).

Went to the Sam Ash 10 minutes away- geez, such a better experience. They had a Yam P-105 sitting within striking distance of a PX-150 so i decided to spend some time playing both. There was also a 350 up on the rack but it didn't have a sustain hooked up, but it at least let me see how it differed from the 150.

on that subject- i couldn't tell if it made sense to pony up and additional 200 bucks for the 350- basically sounded and played pretty much identical. the interface on the 150 is very spartan vs the 350, but if all you wanted to do was tote around a very light dp to play piano- the 150 probably will work fine.

However- and as usual this purely based on player preferences- i found the 105 much, much more enjoyable to play. It has a very light action, but it feels good and makes you feel ultra-connected to the sound. I could only find two piano sample/voices- a grand 1 and a grand 2- but they were both very nice. The grand 1- i believe based on their new CFX acoustic grand- was very alive and robust. The grand 2 had a more spatial sense to it- a somewhat more distant sound, and somewhat mellower and very usable for most modern music. They were good enough to get the job done. There were 4 EP's that were quite enjoyable to play. I didn't have a manual- it was easy to layer other sounds but i couldn't figure out how to adjust or tweak the layered sound- and I thought the strings over the piano was marginally acceptable. if you could cut the volume of the layered sound it would make it far better (perhaps you can).

The PX-150 pianos all seemed to be EQ'd too bassy for my taste. if it can be adjusted that might take care of that, but it wasn't intuitive how to do it. The action seemed somewhat sluggish to me and not nearly as well connected to my playing. it does seem to have a lot of speaker power and can be played quit loudly. But i found myself staying at the 105 and having stuff drawn out of me, while i found the 150 to be somewhat of a chore to play. Legato style playing seemed to decay too quickly for my taste.

Both boards are pretty darn impressive for $599. I just found the Yamaha to be much more enjoyable to play- in fact much more enjoyable than my older p-250 Yamaha. I will probably lose it soon and spring for a 105 as an easy to transport keyboard for my occasional playing requests. I look forward to losing 50 lbs of metal to move relative to my 250. Its almost as heavy as the v-piano, but at least the V stays in one place hooked to a computer.

just wanted to post a few thoughts while fresh in my mind.

oh yeah, the Korg Krome was there- could not stand the action and i'm just not feeling any love for this highly-touted Kronos Piano sample, but that's unfair because it has almost infinite tweak potential . anyway, it seemed like one step above synth action to me. maybe it was!

Hello, there definitely is control for the mix of layered sounds- around 20 steps. Involves holding one of the function keys and piano keys. Same with the effects; holding metronome and one of the four last keys selects an effect (or none) and then 20 steps are available for what level.
Personally, I think without tweeters the PX 150 suffers; I think the PX 130 sounds a lot better and I would recommend that over a 150 any day for that reason.

Possum- have you developed an opinion of the P-105 vs the PX 350 yet. granted, you may still be waiting to get a 350 from what i remember...

A valid comparison for those who never intend to plug these keyboards into decent external amplification.

Thanks for the review. It sounds like you didn't have any headphones with you in order to exclude speakers as a confounding variable. Too bad. It's interesting to hear someone preferring the p105 after so many good reviews of the PX150. I tried a P105 the other day and was pleasantly surprised (I was by no means a fan of its predecessor). Still haven't tried the PX150, unfortunately.

Did you, by chance, get a chance to compare the action of the PX330 with the newer PX150 and PX350?

Hi, I'll do another comparison but with Sensheiser HD280's and also with the KRK Rokit 5's. I think the KRK's are excellent for piano sounds as they do not hype the bottom end. In fact, MF is selling the limited edition white KRK R5's for $99 each next weekend.

In terms of the action,even though the keys are different on the x50 and x30 series, I find the action just as heavy.
Another plus of the 105 in my opinion is with headphones the output is very loud even half way up.

honestly, if i want to listen through headphones i'd just use a keyboard as a controller for a VST. there is just no comparison. neither of these keyboards is going to give you a recording quality sample.

Hearing the speakers in a room is a good simulation of what you would be dealing with using the board for performance. Granted, i'd probably hook up a keyboard amp or a couple monitors in addition to the onboard speakers, but i wanted to see how it sounded. The yamaha is clearer and brighter than the casios. But i admit i like the sound of a yamaha, although i haven't really found a yamaha VST that comes close to the steinways.

As Possum just mentioned, heavy is a good descriptor for the casio's action. Light and fast is how i would describe the yamaha 105.

Ironically, Yamaha does not include a CP50 sample while the Casio does!!

I remember my Yamaha P50M module had like 2 or variations.

I would say that while the Rhodes sounds are usable,they are not the empahasis of these boards. (I do like the one on the 105 and the one on the 130, the 350 one is likely similar to the 130).

This is fine with me because I am playing acoustic sounds most of the time, and I can use my Gi for recording EP sounds.

The Yamaha Motif from 10 years ago was more developed in that area to be quite honest.

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well Dave you are right that SA isn't a huge uptick, but at least it is reasonably quiet there and the keyboard section has enough space where you can actually sit down and play. God bless them for that much.. i swear GC doesn't want you to hear what you are doing- they are even arrogant enough to have an in-house PA system blaring out heavy music in the keyboard room.

i haven't tinkled the CP50 in a good while, but if memory serves the action is firmer and perhaps a bit sluggish compared to the p-105. You seem to put a premium on getting something that weighs in at the bantam-weight class- you should be pleased with the 105. i picked it up off the stand and almost cheered out loud at its indifference towards gravity. same with the casios... I think you would find the Grand Pianos on the 105 extrememly clean for jazz lines- very expressive and should cut through a trio easily. there are some good youtube videos on the 105 that i think accurately detail its timbre. in conclusion i would say if you like a bright, complete piano sound with a fast action- you would be hard pressed to find something better. particularly at an outrageously inexpensive price point...

I'm trying to decide if Mrs. Santa is bringing me either an ipad or a p-105. and what to do with my Panzer P250- which is still an impressive instrument designed for weightlifters.

i picked this up from another thread- if you go to www.pianocenter.com - you can see a decent video on both the px-350 and the p-105. just go to home page- pick the brand under digital pianos takes you to the product page and you can watch a video on both keyboards. the environment is well-enough controlled so that it gives a very representative comparison of both keyboards sounds.

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My mistake in an earlier post- I meant to say CP80 sample and it came out CP50- On the PX350 it is called "80's Piano" or something to that extent. Reminded me how on my Yamaha P50M Module they would call the EP sounds ROADS, SOFT ROADS, HARD ROADS. lol

As bfb said- I believe the CP50 had a heavier action, closer to GH if in fact it was GH- did weigh ~40 lbs.

Another comment on the output of the P105- it seems louder than the PX350- both speaker sets are very good though.
I am eager to hook them up to monitors

When I stepped into the Clakamas GC yesterday there they were - a P105 and PX-150 side by side!

After playing both I have to agree with conclusions in the original post. For those who are always going to use these keyboards on their own without external amplification, the P105 wins that contest easily. The internal amplification and speakers inside the PX-150 are frankly horrible.

Once I slapped on a set of headphones though the Casio became a completely different instrument, and personally I preferred it to the Yamaha. But that was just my personal choice. The Yamaha still sounds amazingly good for a piano of such modest specs. Although the keys of the PX-150 feel like no piano I've ever played, I liked them a lot and preferred them to the P105 once the headphones were on and I could bypass the substandard amplification of the PX-150 - which was really wrecking the whole experience with that board.

I had several errands to do that afternoon, and didn't have a chance to really put these boards through their paces through decent powered speakers. So this is just an initial thought.

Thanks! Wow, that guy is really good at demoing! He seems to be carefully controlling velocity when playing the EPs, perhaps not to reveal obvious velocity switching? (This is the danger of having sellers do demos, they will only show you the best side of the product.)

The difference in speakers between the P-105 and the PX-350 it really obvious. The 350 sounds muffled and the bass end of the AP voice distorts the speakers/amps. The P-105 speakers don't sound bad at all, but that string sound he played isn't very good.

agree with you, and that was my experience. and that is my "dilemma". I didn't listen to either through headphones because i'm only interested in the boards as an cheap featherweight-on-the-fly solution to playing away from home. It would seem weird to be playing either board at a party or my church class with headphones on. but given my playing that might be a good solution for all.

I suppose- in fairness- i ought to hook both up to external amplification to see if it balances out the differences. I'd rather own the PX-350 because i think it offers more and has an overall more realistic action (but i did enjoy the fast action of the 105), but as i've said- i just don't think it generally sounds as nice as a simple solo piano because of either its EQ'ing or its internal speakers.

and yes, the 105 strings were of the cheddar variety. i don't remember if the casio's were much more effective.

I thought, from his quick demo, that the PX-350 strings sounded pretty good.

I'm used to Yamaha throwing in decent extra voices like two pipe organs, slow / fast strings, harpsichord, that are all useful for church settings. This video shows off more of the voices, though not through the speakers, and the strings don't sound so bad:



The manual shows only one pipe organ, but it's the baroque one that is probably the most useful. Only one string sound, but that's probably OK too. They say the harpsichord has let-off sound which is great. Four EPs.

I kind of wish they'd leave all that auto accompaniment stuff out. Coupled with their often cryptic UIs, it's an accident just waiting to happen. Kind of hilariously typical watching the guy in the video above fumble with the UI here and there. Having a single LED as the upper / lower printed voice indicator seems kind of dumb, particularly having it located in the middle. One on top and one on bottom would have made more sense and would vastly reduced the chance of picking the wrong bank.