Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards What to buy? Used Yamaha P60, P120, or new P125?

You're right about not knowing the speaker efficiency.

The Yamaha P120 uses 12cm x 8cm speakers, one per side. The PX-160 uses (if I read the specs right) 4.7" (=12cm) round speakers, one per side. Advantage to Casio, but not by much.

I think I'd take the new PX-160, but I'm not the OP -- different budget, different biases.

If the Yamaha is a full range speaker (rather than a 2-way speaker), then yes, there's no inherent speaker advantage over the Casio. Regardless, which sounds better remains an open question.

I have a P120 and am surprised at how well it stands up after all these years, even when switching back and forth between it and my Yamaha KX8 and some of the latest software pianos like Grandeur, the Giant, and PianoTeq 6. I talked with my wife about selling it and buying something like a StudioLogic SL88 Studio (The KX8 isn't a bad midi controller, but it is pretty bulky to haul around, and geared more toward Cubase crowd and I'm a Logic guy), but my wife worried about what we'd do when kids visit - right now they can push the power button and play away, no worry about a laptop or software or a sound system. I find myself doing the same when I just want to play. The speakers are rich and full, the polyphony is fine for my playing style, and the piano sound is fine! The action is a little heavier than that of the KX8, but nothing that would keep me from playing it.

I did look to see what going prices are for a P120 and $500 seemed to be the going price. Not bad as far as holding its value.

If it were me, as much as I like the P120, I would probably lean more toward saving a bit more and jumping up to something like the Casio PX 360 or PX 560, just because you're getting a new device with a good reputation for keyboard feel, relatively portable (lighter weight), full warranty and the latest and greatest electronic capabilities as well as decent built-in speakers.

Getting back to another aspect discussed, personally, I'd have no qualms about buying a 15 year old board, if it seemed to be in perfect operating condition. Of course it's always nice to buy something new, be the first owner so you know the history, have a full warranty. But once you're looking used, age doesn't matter much. You could pick up a 3 year old board that was used to play 300 gigs and stored in between in all kinds of temperature and humidity situations, or a 15 year old board that was hardly played and kept in a comfortable climate living room. If it's in good shape and the keys feel good, I don't think the older one is necessarily more likely to fail in the next 5-10 years than the newer just by virtue of its age.

I concur. Among others, I still have a Yamaha p200 here that I bought in 1999. It works faultlessly, and over the years the only repair I made was to replace a couple of felt strips that muted the hammer noise. It has little monetary value today, but someone who got it would have a lot of reliable keyboard for just a few bucks.

But as you say, a two year gigged board--not a good choice.

+1 for CASIO PX-160 new (or used if you can find it on Craigslist), preferably for the whole slab/stand/bench/tri-pedal setup.

Best value and bang for buck entry-level digital piano (not the best entry-level, but on sale, was less than half the price of new Kawai ES110/Roland FP-30), I picked up the slab-only version on sale for $500 CAD new from Amazon.ca early in the year as my secondary digital piano slab to keep at my work desk.

If in Canada, as mentioned above by Charles, Costco.ca's $650 retail online price with free shipping (not including taxes) is great for the whole slab/stand/bench/tri-pedal setup, and worth saving up for.

Also, while you save up, you can see if it will go on sale again soon like it was several weeks ago (late April/early May?) for $550 CAD online. They are no longer carried in-store, where the sales were great at $500 CAD for the whole setup.

It is a small, yet worthwhile investment to save up for, in my opinion.

It's hard to beat those Costco bundle deals, since they tend to actually have "everything you need to start playing." The main drawback of buying used (assuming the gear is functional) is that it often tends to be missing accessories. Add a $30 bench, $50 stand, $20 music rest, and $15 pedal and things start to add up. Heck, I once paid $75 for a dang music rest for my CP50. I needed it but it was the worst feeling purchase I've made in a while

That's a really good deal, around 20% less than that bundle goes for at KraftMusic in the USA (doing the currency conversion). And it's not even a special Costco model, something done in the USA, for example selling the Costco-only Roland FP-25 (nearly identical to the FP-30) with stand and pedalboard for US $799 (CDN $1049), compared to a near-identical FP-30 bundle elsewhere for US $909.