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AP-245 bought for £479. Delivery early next week.

Thanks for the advice.

I'd be interested in your thoughts once you've got it and had time to use it.

A few weeks of ownership under the belt so time for a report.

AP-245 bought from Musicroom.com but at their Hatfield store. Price matched to UK Pianos and got a small discount on a stool. Good service in store, offered free delivery but I decided to collect the following day.

Got the machine home and was easy to assemble despite it being a bit heavier than I expected.

My daughter (beginner level) and wife (returning to playing after a gap of many years) have had most use of it. They've found it good to play with a decent weight to the keys and a good tone. I've played it a bit and was impressed with how it felt. Undoubtedly there are better DPs available but I think it's a good DP considering the price and more than adequate for our needs.

Can anyone confirm the weight of the Yamaha P-105 as 26 lbs? Amazon has one seller saying it is 26 lbs, and another seller saying it is 36 lbs. An extra 10 lbs is a deal breaker. I need something to practice on while my upright is being worked on (by me), and it will be in and out of a closet, so a heavy bulky unit is not a good idea. Seventy six key models would work well, but I hear the feel of the key action is terrible.

I think 26 lbs is right. It's a lightweight board, comparable to PX-150 in weight. Maybe one of them is quoting shipping weight, rather than net weight?

You could check the Yamaha website -- www.yamaha.com -- no guessing, then.

. Charles

Thank you. Yes, it is 26 lbs. It looks like 36 pounds is the typical shipping weight, but it is interesting that one seller has it at 36 lbs, and then also gives a shipping weight that is much higher yet, 63 lbs. I see one that says the keyboard is 10 lbs. Don't ever depend on Amazon to give you accurate info, if any info.

It's probably 63lb w/ the wood stand.

Which means this seller really doesn't know what he is doing, as he is offering only the basic keyboard, at a basic keyboard price. ???

As I said in another thread, I got the ES100 this week and the key action is everything Daniel says..but the volume of the built-in speakers seems awfully weak. I could really crank the volume on my old Roland EP6 and my new Yamaha NP31. I think there should always be the option of too-loud.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe there's something wrong with this unit.

Also the settings adjustment seem a lot more complicated than the Yamaha.

True. The ES100 speakers are not very loud. But for me is enough to annoy the neighbors next door in my building.

About settings, at least can save settings and load them later. So is complicated, but you don't really have to mess with that often. I really don't change settings. I only play with settings when was new. After i like the settings, i save it and i never touch it again.

THanks...BTW, have you done any adjusting to the temperament?

Dissonant intervals seem unusally jarring. I get a lot of "vibrato" off basic 7th intervals that I haven't noticed in my acoustic. I thought maybe it is a temperament issue.

I didn't change temperament nor find any issue about it. I hope you are talking when using the speakers because with headphones I can't find anything wrong or strange. But with speakers, the resonance with the case affect the sound for worst.

I have a Yamaha P105B, and love it. I take lessons on a Baldwin spinet and can feel the difference, but it is not a hard adjustment in feel. The sound of my Yamaha is excellent.

I've been using my Roland FP7 for quite a while now. I gig with it and it fits in the back seat of the car. I also teach with it as it has a good split piano/bass sound so I can provide my students with a walking bass. (I teach jazz piano in London).
Paul Abrahams

I have been using Yamaha P105 for about 8 months. I started from scratch and still am a beginner so I don't know how much my opinion will count. I am currently on the 3rd grade. In overall, I find P105 very good for its price. It served me very well with one exception, key weighting. The comments on that are below. I would recommend it but if someone think of playing piano very seriously, I'd decided to spend more money and buy CLP or CVP.


The speakers.
The speakers are ok but poor in this model but this did not concern me because most of time I have been practising using headphones. Besides, I eventually going to buy good speakers for any piano I'll have.

Slightly noisy when connected to my audio interface.
I have Audio Interface Focusrite Saffire pro 24 connected to MacBookPro and sometimes record myself. The saffire is super noiseless, tested on pro mic Rode, cables are ok. However I found that Yamaha P105 is slightly noisy, not too much but can be of problem.

Only one track to record.
There's only one track to record but Yamaha allows to record hands separately--if this is of any advantage :p

Metronome.
When recording a track with metronome with ding on first note, the piano holds recording until I start. Unfortunately, Yamaha somehow "synchronizes" or shifts the ding sound / first note when I touch keys. Consequently, I have to adapt to metronome . It's annoying because I cannot play the pieces with extra note at the beginning. I have to press/touch any key to start recording and wait for the whole cycle then start to play.

Key weightings.
Because of its softer key weighting than pro pianos, I did not properly learned dynamics such as piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte and forte. I tried more professional pianos like CVP Clavinova and I found hard to express dynamics. We agreed on that with my teacher. I find it difficult to express louder and quieter parts in pieces I play when I play on my teacher's Clavinova CVP. I believe his piano simulates Grad Piano very well.
This should not be a problem for very beginners but later it can be an issue.

No display screen.
It's really annoying when I have to change anything like, metronome volume, or more advanced settings such as MIDI channels. Majority stuff is coded in sequences of buttons and keys. I have to keep manual with me all the time. Perhaps this is normal for other pianos. I don't know. I find it sometimes irritating.

Hope it helps.

ZikO, are you going to replace your P105 by another brand/model soon, or what is your conclusion with the teacher ?
It is interesting for me to watch your progress as I started from scratch 4 monthes ago (on DGX650 which is the same in key action as P105).

I had this same problem years ago with my P-80.. my teacher would harp on it all the time.

I haven't tried the ES100 but in the < $1000 category IMO the Casio action is considerably better for dynamics.

This kept me away from Yamaha this time and is one of the reasons I elected to go above $1000.

Hi MartaK,

Congratulations on this decision. Piano is great isn't it

Yes, I will be replacing this or simply buying a new piano, that is one of the Clavinova CLPs as soon as I can meaning when I can afford it :p . I rely on my teacher's opinion who has great experience and has got CVP at school. He also owns very old Clavinova CLP (don't know the number but it is from 1xx series) that, as he says, served him for ages and he's very happy with it. He suggested to consider one of the CLPs 4xx or above. I was reading a little bit and think of CLP 440, CLP 470, or CLP 575. All of them seem to be around or a bit above £2000. There's also a model of Clavinova CVP 601 in this price range.

I feel like I need to make a separate thread to ask for opinions on these models. I cannot decide which would be the best for me.

EDIT. As addition, I was reading a few posts here and visited Yamaha webpage and I will also be considering CLP-585.I

You do need to find some way to compare the yamahas side by side with the GF and RM3ii kawai digitals. Yes I have an older CLP-142 myself and while it's not bad the current higher end digitals are noticeably better. The lower end? I don't feel any improvement.

What are some good options for "a cheap digital piano, or MIDI controller, with a good key action"?