Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum It’s worth it to me for an extra $5 to play on a grand piano

As I mentioned to another member recently, what really surprised me from reading this forum the past year is how many people use headphones with their DPs. Lots of course to keep the room noise down, but MANY using them for improving sound quality. Perhaps even the majority.

I know this has been gone over dozens of times, but any recommendations for an open back headphones for a CA79?the idea of open backs appeals to me.

Thank you all,
Muskie.

PS... Any fans of the Dexibell 7SX out there? I know Sweetwater who has very good customer service as well as a good return policy sells it. They aren’t giving the thing away, that’s for sure. It ain’t cheap.

Muskie

. . . Your budget?

On the inexpensive end, I do OK with AKG K240 Studio headphones, which I think are around $100 US.

The headphone market is split between "consumer" models, which are often strongly "colored" (deliberately peaked frequency response), and "professional" or "musicians" or "monitor" models (reasonably flat frequency response). Stay away from the "consumer" models.

My budget for headphones? I’d be willing to spend about $300....maybe more, ideally less, for open backs. I really wouldn’t need noise cancelling.
Muskie.

I have AKG K712 headphones for my NV5. They are very comfortable which is important to me and also sound is good. I payed 200 EUR for those.

I'd be interested to hear an update on this once you get new headphones.

I have a CA79 too and while I like its sound (particularly after I adjust it in the VST), I have very cheap headphones so could use an upgrade too.

If by chance, Peter, you happen to get in some headphones that thrill you before before I get some, please share the info with me. I’ll do the same. 👍

Me, I’m going with open back..... of some type.

Black Friday, as we call it here in the U.S (not sure if you’re familiar with this as you’re in the UK. It’s when retailers have good sale prices the day after Thanksgiving) as well as Cyber Monday is a few days away. This may be a good time for me to pick up some headphones.

Muskie.

Sennheiser HD600 is great for the price, neutral-sounding, excellent for hi-fi equipment and portable devices as well as digital pianos (it has two plugs). About $300, less on White Friday, as we don't call it in our neck of the woods.

On the original topic, the extra $5 for the 2-grand lesson setup sounds totally worth it

On the sounds, I have lower end Sennheisers (around €100 I think). I have a CS8, which is an older Kawai DP (CA67 maybe) in a different cabinet. The sound is ok through the speakers, definitely better through the headphones. Before I got the CS8 I had a much older and more entry level Roland and the effect of the headphones was incredible.

So if it's the sound production of your instrument that's the biggest issue, try headphones and/or speakers. If you don't like the in built sounds even when sound quality is good (ie through decent headphones etc) then trying some of the VST options others have suggested would be a way to address that, but I haven't tried myself.

@Muskellunge. did you try the virtual technician to adjust your CA79 to your liking? There's many tuning parameters available, and maybe something could be done to improve the sound to your ear.

Off key,

I did play around a bit in VT to adjust the piano sounds. Nothing really jumped out at me. However, I didn’t tweak every setting.

I have a Kawai tech coming out here, one of these days, because I have an intermittent LCD screen. Often multiple taps are needed to get a response from it.(tap... nadda, tap.... nadda , tap... nadda, tap.... finally a response) Depends where you are in the menu and how it’s feeling at the moment. Sometimes sliders don’t slide. Something is definitely wrong with that screen but I’m not terribly concerned about that. I know that can be fixed. Not a huge deal. No such issue when I use the iPad app for the VT screen.

Perhaps this tech will help me out with the sound.

Muskie