Korg LP-380 88-Keys Grand Digital Piano (Rosewood Black) Expired

This is a good intermediate-level piano, decent build quality and overall profile isn't too big so it will fit well in any room. The key action is good and the 40W speakers sound great. My only complaint would be the finish on the keys themselves - they're a bit too glossy (and hence grippy) for my tastes. I think some of the expensive Roland or Yamaha ones have ivory feel keys which are better.

However, Adorama customer service is absolutely AWFUL. My box came in severely damaged, which is pretty typical for UPS in my area (union job, high pay and yet these clowns can't do their jobs properly - go figure). I opened up the box and the base wood piece that holds the pedal was badly damaged. I tried calling Adorama, but their CS wanted me to send in photos of the damage to a separate team and wait 5-7 business days for a response. Fine, I do just that and 5 days later someone informs me that they will need to "validate" the damage and UPS will come by to pick up my package. I guess the photos and my word wasn't good enough.

I'm pretty annoyed at this point as the keyboard was meant to be a birthday present, but regardless I go along with it and wait. UPS never shows up so I send a followup E-mail to Adorama asking for an update. I guess the CS agent ran out of macro prompts for the E-mail, I got back a completely nonsensical E-mail that didn't make any sense. I tried calling back to escalate, but no go - need to contact them again via E-mail. Another week passes and I get a response from someone else at Adorama CS apologizing for the delay and that UPS would pick up the package without fail within the next 2 days.

That didn't happen either. I gave up at this point and contacted Korg directly, trying to see if I could just buy the base piece from them. They sent me that part absolutely free of cost!

So overall, the piano is good, but I definitely would not recommend anyone purchases large items like this from Adorama. I recall them having pretty decent service back in the day, but it looks like everything is outsourced now and their systems are a complete mess.

I had a very similar interaction with Adorama a few years ago. The piano was fully functional, but they would not take responsibility for the fact that it arrived damaged. I would have been happy with a discount, but they insisted I return it for them to assess. Then they simply credited me the discounted price that I'd paid and refused to replace it. I might MIGHT order small electronics from Adorama (which historically was all I ordered from them). But I would avoid for something like a piano.

I bought the LP-380 through this deal and received the piano 5 days ago.

For a little background, I've played the piano for almost 50 years, but always just for fun. I'm pretty good, but nobody's going to come to listen to me play. Until 5 years ago, I had an old Steinway grand piano. I loved it, and it was beautiful and had a beautiful sound when it was tuned. But it required a lot of maintenance and most of the time it was not in tune, which made it less desirable to play, which meant I played it less and got out of practice. Ultimately I got rid of it because of the amount of maintenance it required and the fact that (partly as a result) I wasn't playing it much. I also live in an apartment, and I was always worried about disturbing my neighbors.

About 5 years ago, I bought a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-645. This is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I think its sound is hardly different (to my ears) from my Steinway grand after it had been tuned - big and beautiful. It requires no maintenance, and I can play it without disturbing my neighbors. As a result, I play it a lot more, I'm much more in-practice, and I enjoy playing the piano much more. I have some minor gripes about it (mainly, the higher notes seem too bright to me), but even acoustic pianos all have their oddities. In my opinion, I would buy the Yamaha over an acoustic upright in a second.

I have a second home, and I wanted to buy a cheaper digital piano to play when I'm there, and that's where the LP-380 came in, which I've been playing for the past 5 days.

1. This is definitely the newer "U" model, with front-facing speakers and USB MIDI in and out.
2. It is physically much ... less ... than my Yamaha. On the upside, assembly is extremely easy and fast. On the downside, its appearance is cheaper, the music stand is just the keyboard cover when flipped up (which is not an optimal angle), and there is no space around the keyboard to put stuff. I don't think this is a big deal.
3. I really like the sound, especially with the headphones. For some reason, without the headphones, the way it's tuned (the temperament, I suppose) makes it sound to me just slightly out of tune at times. This may depend on the space it's in (since I don't notice it as much with the headphones). Without the headphones, I compensate by turning down the brightness and turning off the reverb (both at a push of a button). I also find it slightly hard to control the dynamics, which I've fixed by decreasing the touch sensitivity (push of a button). And the soft pedal has more of an effect than I'm accustomed to.
4. I think the action is fine. Easier to play, I think, than my Yamaha.

People will quibble about the sound of a digital piano, and I often read commentators writing things like "Good for a beginner" or "Get an acoustic piano if you can afford it." I think this piano (and my Yamaha) sound and play better than any acoustic upright I've ever played. And, if you keep in mind that most people will not religiously keep their acoustic pianos tuned and in good shape, there's just no comparison. I don't need or want a better sound. Someday, when I play at Carnegie Hall, I'll be using an acoustic concert grand. Until then, this is a great experience.