Best stage digital pianos according to redditors

It's this one.

The FAQ says that the starting price of keyboards worth getting if you want to study piano cost $500. There are a lot of keyboards that will be cheaper. Here are the Yamaha and Casio entry-level digital pianos that this subreddit will probably recommend as the absolute minimum:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CN8WZ6

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094KNESM

I can't answer your question, but I can give you general advice/opinions =) I recently bought a digital piano that I'm really happy with, so I'm excited to share my experience.

My situation:

• Living in an apartment, don't want to make noise
  
  
• Played piano from grade school through high school, so trained but nothing fancy/professional and hadn't played regularly in ~10 years
  
  
• Wanted to stay around/under $1000
  
  
• Just wanted to be able to play again on something that felt nice!
  
  
  I couldn't find anywhere local to try out different digital pianos in person that were in my price range, so that advice didn't apply to me. Everything on Craigslist seemed really old/outdated yet still overpriced. After reading a lot of reviews and forum posts, I landed on the Kawai ES100, available on Amazon for $800. I got the stand as well, which put the total over $900.
  
  I've been playing on it for 8 months now and I've loved it since day one! I think a big caveat here is that I actually haven't played on a digital piano since I was in grade school, so I really have nothing to compare to. I'm amazed at how much the weighted keys make it feel like a real piano. Other commenters are saying the feeling of an acoustic doesn't exist yet, so I guess the better thing to say is that the feeling of the keys lets me play like I'm used to and doesn't get in the way, and I don't really notice a difference.
  
  I'm sure there are a lot of nuances that I can't appreciate and are missing from the experience, but for what I want, which is to be able to sit down and enjoy playing whenever I want, it's perfect. If I had more experience with pianos, or if I had gone and tried out expensive digital pianos, I might not be so satisfied, but in this case I'm fine with an "ignorance is bliss" perspective since I can't afford the alternative =)
  
  The acoustic piano I had growing up wasn't the greatest, so I actually find myself enjoying the digital more than my old acoustic because the sound is so nice (the higher notes just sound so pretty and ethereal, it makes my playing sounds like it's on a professional soundtrack or something. I'm experiencing a whole new world of joy in playing!)
  
  One of the selling points for this model was that it doesn't have a ton of extra synth features or a fancy display, so ostensibly your money is going toward better piano quality. Not knowing anything about the speakers, I'd say they aren't super great. The lower register feels a little muffled, but great over headphones.
  
  Anyway, just thought I'd pass along my experience since it seems like we're in a similar situation, and I've been so satisfied with my purchase.

Do you have Guitar Centers in Canada? You should really feel a piano's action before buying it. That being said I really like the feel of my Casio Privia PX-150 for that price range:

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-CAS-PX150-BK-Tri-Sensor/dp/B0094KNESM

It has midi out like most digital pianos, they have midi to usb cords for next to nothing if you need one.

Thanks for the reassuring response!

I've narrowed it down to two keyboards:

Yamaha E-363

Casio CTK 3500

Which one do you think I should purchase? The price diff. is not an issue. E363 seems better as it has more touch sensitivity levels, but I'm curious if it has some hidden downsides.

I'm also hearing the Casio CTX-700 has superior sound systems, but I'm trying to get too complicated here.

Would love to hear from you.

I just purchased my first keyboard a few days ago.
After talking to a lot of people and researching what I needed, I went with this.

http://www.amazon.com/Casio-CAS-PX150-BK-Tri-Sensor/dp/B0094KNESM

There are some keyboards that are 50-100, but the extra features you get with this one make it worth it.

I love it so far, sounds and feels great.

If you're in Canada it's a little more expensive. I got mine from best buy for 599 inc. a wooden stand.

edit: I think almost any modern electronic keyboard has a headphone jack, this one does as well as the ability to connect to your computer through usb for midi control and to upload different songs to play along with.

I had it narrowed down to three, I was also looking at.
http://www.amazon.com/Korg-SP170s-88-Key-Digital-Piano/dp/B004M92J0O
and
http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-Series-P35B-88-Key-Digital/dp/B009CN8WZ6

Great question! Start him now! Most people who end up professional musicians start around age 5, actually. But don't worry about how good he will or won't get - music is an amazing thing that can be a lifetime pursuit, even if you never do it professionally or all that well. I've made some of my best friends through playing music, and had countless good times. It also teaches patience, discipline, attention to detail, how to calmly work through frustration when you don't know how to do something, how to be creative on the fly, and a million other good personality traits.

Ideas on picking an instrument – piano and violin are two common ones little kids start on. See which one he's more drawn to, or if he's more interested in something like drums, guitar, etc. Recorder is the worst sounding instrument ever – you don't want to listen to him practicing that thing. I remember when they had us learn them in elementary school – having taken piano, I thought it was really lame. Actually, one of the best things to do is get him singing, and not only because it's free.

Find him a teacher for a weekly lesson. Talk to them about their experience in music and their teaching philosophy – don't start him with some tough hard-ass classical guy (one of these is what made me quit piano way too early, though I later came back to music). Start him with someone nurturing who has experience with little kids. Ideally it's someone who appreciates musical creativity / experimentation / writing / improvising / playing, not just rote learning – I have too many friends who can play Beethoven but can't pick out the chords to a Beatles song, and I think that's sad. Ask for advice on what instrument to buy from the teacher.

A lot of music stores will do a rent-to-buy program for student instruments. It's important to get one of decent quality - it's impossible to learn on a broken instrument, and will just cause frustration. A good space-saving (and money saving) alternative to a real piano is one of these digital things – make sure if you get one it has 88 fully weighted keys. It should at least be fine for his first couple years. If he gets serious about piano, you deal with getting a serious piano (and keeping it in tune) later.

Your kid will get assignments to practice. It's more important that he spends a little bit of time on these every day than big blocks of time less often. Encourage him to practice, help him keep to a schedule, and leave him alone to do it. Encourage him to just play around after he gets through his assignments, especially after some time has passed and he starts learning some chords and stuff - it keeps it fun. Oh, and get yourself some good earplugs – it'll be rough at first, but you NEED to restrain yourself from getting frustrated at the noise.

Take him to see somebody GOOD play the instrument he plays, live. He'll think it's the coolest. Listen to all kinds of music around the house.

If you want inspiration, look up youtube videos of little kids playing instruments – they're awesome.

Definitely not the Privia. Look at it brand new.

The YPG-535 is a good deal actually.

The P120 is old and discontinued.

I'm a fan of Casio's PX line. They're not perfect of course, but I've always found them to be great values in terms of how closely they mimic a piano for the price. Basically anything labeled "Casio Privia PX" with a number at the end is in the same line, but there's less logic to their product names than there used to be.

Specifically I recommend the PX350, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Casio-PX350-BK-Intelligent-Resonation/dp/B0094D3JI4

Again, it packs a lot in for $600. I have its predecessor from 2010 (the PX330) and even that one isn't too bad all things considered, but the modern ones blow it away with how much more realistic they feel and sound.

If you have $1299, you can get a Roland RD 300nx. I have a slightly different model (rd700sx), but all of the keyboards in this series are great. Has nice weighted keys, sound, and can interface with your computer via usb. https://www.amazon.com/Roland-RD-300NX-Digital-Piano/dp/B004KCLX8W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469289985&sr=8-1&keywords=roland+rd

What do you guys think of these two:
Yamaha DGX640C
Yamaha YPG535

I bought the Casio Privia PX-150 in a bundle on Amazon. I paid $550.00 for it, which included the piano, a bench, two stands (a portable metal one and a stationary wooden one) headphones, two pedals, and a few music books.

In regards to the piano itself, I have been overwhelmingly satisfied. Here are a few of the best points:

1. The weighted keys are FANTASTIC. If you want to learn piano on a keyboard, this is very important, so that you don't develop weird/bad habits. I've played on a few keyboards, and this is the only one that even comes close to replicating the feel of a real piano.
   
   
2. One of the music books that comes with the piano contains around 70 songs (ranging from intermediate to very advanced), and all of the songs are ON THE PIANO. You can select the song to play on the piano, and you can follow along on the sheet music and play with the song. It really helps when learning the more advanced pieces, to have an correct version of the song playing along with you.
   
   
3. There are a variety of different modes you can use to play, and I really like how it is set up on the keyboard. Five of them are very similar: Concert, Modern, Bright, Classic, Mellow. Because of the slightest differences, the same song played on all of these can be changed to sounding slightly sad, or uplifting, or crisp, or echoing. The settings are very fun to play with.
   
   The speakers aren't the best, but not bad enough to impair performance. It's only noticeable if you put in headphones; the sound quality juxtaposed is much improved with headphones.
   
   Overall, I feel like this is the best purchase I've ever made. I love this piano.
   
   Here's a link to it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHVJAZU/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_-mAntb1X17ET5

I've been at piano since I was in high school and want to finally own a digital piano, but my goodness are there a lot of options out there. My absolute max is $2000, my highest priority is great hammer action and acoustic piano sounds (I'm most familiar with Yamaha uprights), with a secondary focus on tweakable EPs (preferably more than just two varieties as some digital pianos have). 88 keys is a must as well.

My options that I've sifted through so far are:

• Korg SV1
  
  
• Korg Krome 88
  
  
• Kawai MP7
  
  
• Casio PX5S
  
  I was completely set on the SV1 until I heard some people say they couldn't get a good natural piano sound out of it, so I turned to the Krome which I loved. However, despite its awesome tone tweaking and mixing capabilities, people report the keybed feeling cheap and problematic over time. I'm not sure how to feel about the Kawai or Casio.
  
  Can anyone offer any guidance? I'm pulling my hair out trying to find the right match for me and no stores around me seem to have any of these models.

Well, on a budget, I see three digital pianos that stand out. The Yamaha P-115, the Kawai ES100 and the Roland F-20. They have around the same specs. The differences are the number of voices, styles, speakers and polyphony and MIDI support and most importantly, Tone. They all support the three pedal assemblies sold separately and come with one. Also stay away from Casio. Their action and Tone are inferior.

Voices and Styles don't matter if you are playing the piano because a piano is not a keyboard.

As for Speakers, the Yamaha and Kawai have 2 7W speakers and the Roland has 2 6W speakers. This means the Yamaha and Kawai will probably be louder and will sound possibly better. I've only compared the higher end Yamahas and Kawais and not these particular models but i find their digital piano sound quite comparable. This will not matter if you practice with headphones or are planning to buy a separate keyboard amp which can go from an extra 100 to 300 dollars.

Polyphony in a nutshell is the number of keys you can press simultaneously that will be played through the speakers. The Kawai and the Yamaha are 192 while the Roland is at 128 but this shouldn't matter. 128 is for most people much more than needed.

The Kawai has a MIDI input and output port for digital recording as well as the usual headphone ports. The Roland has a USB port for digital recording and can connect to a computer. The Yamaha has just a USB to host connector which can record MIDI to your PC but no MIDI in unlike the other two. Here, I like the Rolands features the most and the Yamahas the least. None of this will matter if she records via AUX and MIDI does not matter to her.

Now Tone. I find Yamaha and Kawai to be very similar on tone and I prefer Roland to them. It sounds warmer to me which I like. Get your girlfriend to try one/any digital piano from each company to see which she prefers.

Overall, Id get the Roland because its more or less equal to the Kawai and the Yamaha but the 100 bucks more than the Yamaha gets me a tone I prefer. Then I'd get the Kawai because of MIDI IN/OUT. Else, I would have gotten the Yamaha. But the Yamaha is the cheapest and only loses features you possibly may not care about and has a very nice Tone too.

http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-P115B-Digital-Piano/dp/B00UHBGE7A?ie=UTF8&keywords=yamaha%20p115&qid=1465281078&ref_=sr_1_1&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Kawai-ES100-88-key-Digital-Speakers/dp/B00GXH4XVQ?ie=UTF8&keywords=kawai%20es100&qid=1465281051&ref_=sr_1_1&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Roland-F-20-CB-F-20-Digital-Piano/dp/B00FB2THIS?ie=UTF8&keywords=roland%20f%2020&qid=1465282786&ref_=sr_1_1&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-1

Here are the Kawai and the Yamaha with the furniture stand, the furniture bench and the three pedals in a combo. I recommend you get one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Kawai-Portable-Digital-COMPLETE-BUNDLE/dp/B01BFIRNOG?ie=UTF8&keywords=kawai%20digital%20piano&qid=1465283255&ref_=sr_1_8&refinements=p_36%3A-100000%2Cp_n_condition-type%3A404228011&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-8

http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-P-115-Digital-Furniture-Style-Instructional-Polishing/dp/B00UOEBXBC?ie=UTF8&keywords=yamaha%20115&qid=1465283364&ref_=sr_1_4&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-4

And here are some good Keyboard amplifier to have a better and louder sound

http://www.amazon.com/Peavey-KB-20W-Keyboard-Amp/dp/B004LRP56W?ie=UTF8&keywords=keyboard%20amplifier&qid=1465283594&ref_=sr_1_2&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-K900FX-BEHRINGER-ULTRATONE/dp/B000LQ29XE?ie=UTF8&keywords=keyboard%20amplifier&qid=1465283594&ref_=sr_1_3&s=musical-instruments&sr=1-3

Do you have a link to this? I've been looking at getting the PX350.

Edit: found it

i did see it for 79 extra, and older model. https://www.amazon.com/Casio-CAS-PX150-BK-Tri-Sensor/dp/B0094KNESM/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1497894681&sr=8-17&keywords=casio+88+keyboard

I'm looking to restart playing piano after a 10 year break. I was at an intermediate level when I stopped, though I will no doubt be pretty crap now.

This electronic piano has the full 88 weighted key and is very reasonably priced. It comes with the stand. (Also Costco is really good for returns if one makes a bad mistake).

Is it more or less the same as the Casio PX-150 that costs $500 on Amazon and is recommended in the FAQ?

Thanks.

Oh that's fine, but you can go in to feel the keyboard see which one is good for you and then buy it online later. They can be surprisingly very different (mainly weighted keyboards). Normally I wouldn't suggest doing that much for a beginner piano, but you're talking about spending $300. What ever you do buy with that amount could last you a good amount of time.

This is what I got (it's what my first teacher used for his class) after I became really passionate about playing.

https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-CP33-Stage-Piano/dp/B000TG619O

Was about $500 used.

Had it for about 2-3 years now and the only "upgrade" (obviously this is very opinion based) I could make would to be a real piano. Like someone said before, you really shouldn't spend that much to start out with, but if you do, there are choices that can last you a really long amount of time if you choose carefully.

So I'm finally going to start working part time and start saving up for a keyboard. My first question is if the Casio PX350 is worth the 100$ more than the Yamaha P115. And my second question is how much are piano lessons on average? I'm so damn excited to finally get formal lessons after all these years of butchering music on my own.

I played piano for a year when I was a kid. A week ago I bought this guy.

Anime makes you do some crazy things. Also note that I purchased the dam thing at $600 then a week later they reduce it by 100.....




anyways im sleepy you have a nice night clever username.

Well, I have this Digital Piano:

http://www.amazon.com/Korg-SP170s-88-Key-Digital-Piano/dp/B004M92J0O

It's not exactly light weight, but if I wanted to I could easily move it from room to room. Could you explain to me what you mean by the difference between keyboard and digital piano?

Thank you Koran for the timely response. I was looking at this 500 dollar one I saw posted in the FAQ http://www.amazon.com/Korg-SP170s-88-Key-Digital-Piano/dp/B004M92J0O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406221916&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+sp170 would this be a good one to get her?

What about something like this or this?

They are certainly a step up from the $150 portable keyboards but obviously are a step down from the $500 ones listed.