expirediconian | Staff posted Sep 30, 2022 11:29 PM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
expirediconian | Staff posted Sep 30, 2022 11:29 PM
Kawai 88-Key Digital Piano's: CA49 Compact $1699, ES110 Portable
+ Free Shipping$519
$699
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the 49 is about the price you can talk a dealer down to.
That said, I think that my general advice applies: if you're considering a digital piano, try it in person before you buy. It's the only way to judge the action. You can also get a better feel for the sound playing it yourself vs listening to a sample online. Of course, listening to samples online is also very helpful! But it doesn't replace playing the piano in person, which is also the only way thata you can judge the sound of the internal speakers and to what degree you can tweak the sound.
Musical instruments are personal. Don't assume that your preferences will line up with any given reviewers'. So, *personally*, while I'm not too impressed with this sale, I still think the Kawai lineup from $1.5 to $3k has better values than the lineups of Roland, Yamaha, Casio, and Korg.
To my ears and fingers, Rolands don't start being competitive until the mid-$3ks, when they let you heavily tweak the action and sound using digital controls (it's very flexible and very cool). I also think almost all Rolands look as ugly as sin. That might color my impression.
I didn't care for the Yamaha action in this price range and the sound didn't impress me either, but I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about why. Higher-end Yamahas are have excellent reputations that seem to be justified but I didn't have the budget to shop those.
I didn't care for the sound of any of the Casios under $3k. Still, if you have to get a new digital piano for under $1k, the Casio PV-870 and PV-780 may be your only options with acceptably realistic action.
Korg has excellent sound synthesis and good action across its lineup but builds in underwhelming speaker systems even on its flagship G1. Korg starts to win more comparisons if your budget drops below $1.5k, as the LP-380u is one of the best values in digital pianos in spite of its disappointing speakers. IIRC you can usually find it for ~$1k if you haggle.
Again, this is all personal. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you disagree with me on some or all of my conclusions! Even if we agree about sound and action we might make different purchasing decisions because of visual aesthetics. After all, these things aren't just sound generators, they're also large pieces of furniture.
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After reading your comments in the forums and your recommendations, i was looking for bookshelf speakers and amps.
As a bonus, i wanted to add a microphone so we could sing along with the piano or have fun karaoke sessions with the kids
with the cable, it goes into the aux port of the monitor, then the included cable from the monitor goes from the monitor link port to the other aux port of the other monitor, then you set 1 monitor for left and one for right using the switch. that's the easiest hookup.
You could also get mono to mono 1/4 inch cables, but it'd make adding a subwoofer slightly harder if you decide to do that later on. (more cables)
if you don't like these monitors, which is possible, lots of people don't jive with a certain set of speakers,
you can get an Aiyama A07 amplifier + bookshelf speakers of your choice, I would avoid large towers unless you're getting expensive towers, because they're more muddy for piano sounds.
for example, you don't want those jamo $200 2x towers to go with piano, those $250 each polk s60s would work alright.
microphone would need its own rig.
with the cable, it goes into the aux port of the monitor, then the included cable from the monitor goes from the monitor link port to the other aux port of the other monitor, then you set 1 monitor for left and one for right using the switch. that's the easiest hookup.
You could also get mono to mono 1/4 inch cables, but it'd make adding a subwoofer slightly harder if you decide to do that later on. (more cables)
if you don't like these monitors, which is possible, lots of people don't jive with a certain set of speakers,
you can get an Aiyama A07 amplifier + bookshelf speakers of your choice, I would avoid large towers unless you're getting expensive towers, because they're more muddy for piano sounds.
for example, you don't want those jamo $200 2x towers to go with piano, those $250 each polk s60s would work alright.
microphone would need its own rig.
I am not, what you might say, musically savvy. I just don't actively listen to music. So i don't really have any taste to be picky.
I think this is good bang for bucks.
NeXT challenge will be making the room pretty and cable management
Are either of these options a decent deal?
https://www.costco.com/casio-cdp-...79642.html
https://www.costco.com/roland-frp...19453.htm
So, at the low end, it's more or less simple weights, while at the very highest end, it's an actual acoustic piano hammer mechanism built into it--everything but the strings. If you visit a piano dealer in person (and you should) they will probably have cutaway models of one or more of the mechanisms so that you can see what happens when you press the key. Ideally they will also have a selection of acoustic pianos so you can remind yourself how the real thing feels and responds.
There are also design choices in how the sensors map the key's change in position over time. Decent modeling requires at least two sensors per key. The nicest implementations often have more sensors, but the implementation matters as much as the quantity. For example, there are three sensors per key on every Casio starting on the PX-780, but that doesn't mean that Casio's action (while good) is clearly better than every two-sensor implementations from Kawai, Roland, or Korg.
Anyway, I hope I've convinced you to visit a few stores before buying a digital piano! A piano is a big investment even if you discount the actual cost of the piano because of what a hassle it is to move and how much space (physical and visual) it takes up. It's worth spending some effort to get it right the first time.
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