WOW!!! Where do I begin? When it came time to buy a digital piano for my studio (and for my son!) I looked high and low for the best digipiano, but with a reasonable cost in mind. I played on some Steinways and high-end Yamaha grand and concert grands to really get a feel for accurate and proper-muscle building play (for my son). After several months of research, and playing all of the finest digital pianos out there - yamaha, korg, roland, kurzweil, kawai, I happened across the Casio PS20. Well, as expected, no one in town had one to demo, so the research began. Now, let's face it, I first heard of Casio back in the early 1980s when my brother bought a watch that had a calculator built in. That was my only memory of Casio. That, and cheesy, plasticky keyboards that had "over 100 sounds" and a "drum bank"...you know what I'm talking about.
I talked to several different music store "digital piano gurus" and all of them laughed their faces off and pushed the Roland RD150 or Korg SP200 or Yamaha P80. I tried all of those and really liked the action on the Yamaha the best. After some more research in the "overseas" markets, BBS, www sites, review magazines, etc., I found that the Casio PS20 is truly the diamond in the rough. Mine just came in today, and I've had to pull myself off the thing to get some errands done. It is....by far....the best Digi Piano for the ~$1000 range. (Mine was only $689 from Musician's Buy and that included shipping and a basic set of headphones!!!) So it's the cheapest, but it's not cheap. The piano has a very substantive feel to it and the keys are to die for. The graded hammer-action is superior to Yamaha's and the ZPi technology gives me goosebumps when I recall how the Steinway sounded! (No, it's not a Steinway, duh, but it sure has a wonderful acoustic sound! Each and every nuance is there!)
There are some minuses.
1) The piano is heavy, 57 lbs., but it feels solid.
2) There are limited sounds (no strings, chorus, etc., etc.) but for me, it's the grand piano that I was after and a real-feeling action.
It's tops as I said before. The adjustments to the how the keys play (OFF, LIGHT, NORMAL, HEAVY),transposing options, sound changes, and EQs, etc., are absolutely great. The speakers are not the best, but they work. I'm going to purchase a nice set of speakers to really let this piano shine. (The headphones are more accurate as to the sound) Also, it has dual headphones so I can work with my son on our practice lessons. It's really a stunning piece to look at too! (I didn't buy the matching stand.)
Well, to sum it up, those of you who are wondering, is Casio serious about this DigiPiano thing or just building "keyboards", write me, and fire away with the questions. I am truly impressed with the quality, look, feel, action, sound, and overall "almost acoustic" presence of this piano.
My background: 30+ years in music. 13 as a songwriter, 10 as a composer. I play the piano, guitar, bass, drums, some woodwinds, and sing. Not a brag sheet, but I've been in music for a long time and I know the "other brands" out there competing with the Casio. I've been involved with recording for about 11 years now. My current project - contemporary classical music with a "twist".
Love to hear from anyone who needs help getting into the digital thing!
God Bless,
Rich :p
I've bought Casio as well!
