Dear all piano enthusiasts,

I have been playing piano since a very young age, however for the last 5 years due to work commitment I have not been able to practice at all, and thus am not familiar with the piano technology of today.

Currently living in a busy apartment complex, I do not have the room nor privacy to own an upright or grand piano without disturbing others. So perhaps the newer digital pianos may be my solution to continue this wonderful hobby.

Having looked at many of the current models, I am leaning towards the Kawai MP5, due to the numerous good reviews. Basically I am looking for a quality digital that have the feel of a grand piano (Yes feel is on the top of my priority list). And also quality sound. I don’t mind if the piano has no built in speakers, as I will mostly be using a headphone. This way when I move back to my home town in the suburbs I can swap into playing a grand with little problem.

If you could help pointing out any positive/negative aspects of the digital piano (Especially the MP5), and also recommending more suitable models It’d be most appreciated.

Thank you very much!

Hello,

If budget is not a problem, then take the time to test at least one model from each of the major brands, on top of Kawai, since manufacturers use different keybeds, samples or technologies :

- Roland (RD700 series, FP series, etc.)
- GEM (Promega 3, PRP series, etc.)
- Yamaha (CP300, YPG series, etc.)
- Kurzweil (SP2X, RE series, etc.)

Since sound and keyboard feel is 100% personal, only you can decide which one will fit you the best. If I try to give generally accepted views about the particularities of the digital pianos from each of the above manufacturers, I would say that :

Kawai has the best reviews for the keyboard feel action, closest to a real grand. Piano sound is good, but not the best.

The keyboard action found on most Roland digital pianos is stiff and heavy, even though different from a real grand, so this is something some people love and others hate. The piano sound is rather marginal.

The GEM pianos offer a completely different approach in terms of sound, and wins over the others for things like resonance emulation, half-sustain pedaling realism, etc. But they are difficult to find, so service can be a problem if ever needed and their keyboard action is rather light.

Yamaha digital pianos are, just like their acoustic pianos, not for everyone. They sound very bright too, which is not always the best for classical. So it's a love or hate thing. Their keyboard feel is pretty close to the Rolands too, stiff and heavy, but different from a real grand.

Finally, Kurzweil offers a different type of piano sound, which is also again a love/hate thing. Their keyboard feel is closer to the GEM, being on the light side, but they offer more ways to edit whatever parameter you want than any other brand.

So as you can see, it's a matter of compromise, since none of them offer all the advantages. So try at least one of each brand yourself and see about the keyboard feel and the piano sound, then select between certain models from your two favorite manufacturers.

Have fun shopping and take your time.

If you can find one to try out somewhere, I would highly recommend the new Yamaha Nocturne
N100. I have one and it is a beautiful piece of gear with a fantastic real piano sound and
graded weighted keyboard. It plays and sounds better than most uprights and baby grands I
have tried. It's entire reason for being is to be as Yamaha-grand like as possible. It doesn't have
a ton of different sounds, in fact it has only ten sounds: Yamaha grand sound, bright piano sound,
church organ (awesome!), harpsichord (you can hear the levers moving!) and a couple of
marimba-like sounds. I went shopping for a piano a few weeks ago and of all the pianos I played
none sounded better than my Nocturne. However, as a disclaimer, the Nocturne is the first keyboard
instrument I have owned. Your mileage may vary.

http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Produc ... nformation

you can download a soundbite somewhere on the page.

This thing has the best samples on board I have ever heard. And its ferrari red to boot!