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What would be considered the top digital pianos for home use. I actually would prefer an acoustic piano (grand) but due to space limitations I am opting for a digital. Price is important but not the most important factor. What I would like, if it exists, would be a digital that sounds as close to an acoustic as possible, feels as close to an acoustic as possible, and comes in a beautiful cabinet (mini grand shape preferred).

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

Try the Yamaha GranTouch. The sound is passable, but the touch is authentic and the cabiinet is a mini-grand.

CVP900

I had to be put on a waiting list to get this piano. The reason was because of the ebony finish mind you but the fact remains, the CLP-170 is a very popular and VERY beautiful digital piano. I'm actually still trying to pay it off so anyone wishing to donate can send funds to, just kidding. :p

Thanks for the advice. Do you have any knowledge of the Technics PR-1000? I saw one at a local piano shop and was wondering how it compares to the Yamahas previously mentioned.

Technics PR-1000 Technical specs.
http://www.technics.com/pr1000.html

you can compare these specs to any Yamaha digital piano, all of which can be found at http://www.yamaha.com or http://www.yamahaclavinova.com

In my personal opinion, the PR-1000 would be comparable with a lower end CVP Clavinova. Having never played it, I'm sorry that I cannot give you a sound-wise comparison.

Huracan,

Just curious, how much does that CVP900 cost or is it one of those....if you have to ask?

sp.k.

Here an image of the PR-1000. Nice! By the way, I have spoken to two different piano dealers and both told me the same thing, that the sound quality of the PR-1000 is far superior to the Yamaha's.

Did either of these dealers also sell Yamaha Pianos. If they do then you should be able to do a side by side comparison. My guess would be that the dealer's you talked too are trying to hype-up the PR-1000. I would highly doubt that it would be far superior to Yamaha, but I have no experience with the PR-1000 (I don't even have a clue as to what they sell for). That said, the PR-1000 might be the best for your budget, and it may be better than the Yamaha's in its price range. Oh, and beware the trickery of piano dealers, they are only out for one thing (I'm still debating what the one thing is).

Don't forget to try the Roland KR7, KR15, and if you can find one, a KR977.

Yeah and chances are, if the dealer sold both Yamaha and Technics, it wouldn't matter which you like better, the dealer would attempt to sell the most expensive piano they could, as it matters not to them.

I'd suggest browsing this archive for comments on the various brands. You'll find most references to Yamaha and Roland since they are the biggest manufacturers, but others are here as well.

I don't think there is a single "best" because there are multiple parameters. To me, the most important (other than cost) are sound, touch and features. Most digitals split into two "feature" lines - ensemble pianos with lots of bells and whistles (e.g. Yamaha CVP, Roland KR) and piano pianos (Yamaha CLP, Roland HP.) If you don't need the features of the ensembles the piano lines are a lot cheaper.

Touch and sound are very subjective and you just have to experience them yourself. The Yamaha Grantouch undoubtedly has the best touch (real acoustic action) but its electronics are limited. The "graded hammers" of the Yamaha, Roland, Kawai and Technics lines are second best, with perhaps an edge to the Yamaha "Natural" keyboard found on its CVP900 and CLP990 models (I have a CVP900.)

The mini-grand cases are usually found on top-of-the-line digitals - most features, most powerful sound systems, etc. Lots of companies make them, including Suzuki, Viscount, etc. But I'd focus on one of the "big four" noted above.

One concern about the Technics is that it only has 64 notes of polyphony. That's probably enough for solo piano if you're careful with the sustain pedal, but not enough if you want other instruments playing at the same time.

Good luck,
jim
P.S. Don't pay list for any of these!!! You have to bargain and can often get significant discounts

Thanks, JimM for the information. I'm curious about the action of the CVP900. When you strike a key at various levels of force the volume of the note changes, i.e., the harder you press the louder the note. How many levels of sensitivity do the keys have?

Midi can express 128 levels of volume, so all velocity-sensitive keyboards are limited to this number.

A more subtle issue is the shape of the keystrike/velocity curve. Most digital pianos are linear with a changeable initial strike velocity - that is, you can set them to "hard" if you want to have to strike a key harder to get the softest volume, or "soft" to go the other way. The CVP has 5 different levels, Roland has a continuous adjustment, don't know about the others.

The response curve can make a big difference in playability. I use a separate computer sampler for my piano sounds, and I have a small piece of software in the midi chain that allows me to draw my own response curve, as nonlinear as I like. Different piano samples seem to like different curves. There is also a hardware device that enables this, but the software was free and easier to use. Within the CVP itself, however, you're limited to 5 linear curves.

Of course, on an acoustic piano you have a theoretically infinite number of strike velocities (especially if you're Arnold!) and you can be as nonlinear as you like.

Forgot to mention that there is an excellent independent user group for the Yamaha digitals at www.cvpug.com. I am unaware of any similar resource for other digitals. Of course you won't get unbiased advice about which non-Yamaha to choose, but it's a very good place to browse and ask questions.

Hi Jim,
I've yet to get my hands on a CVP900 so can you answer a couple of questions for me. It's hard to tell from pictures but are there speakers at either end of the keyboard? ...or are they in back of the piano in the cabinet?

Thanks again...

are there speakers at either end of the keyboard? ...or are they in back of the piano in the cabinet?

Both. The main speakers are in the cabinet just back of the music desk. They fire upwards, so when the lid is up the sound bounces off it. I find the piano sounds much better with the lid up. There are also two small speakers on the front facing forward.

Although the CVP900 sounds OK with the internal speakers, I have supplemented it with a couple of bookshelf speakers under the cabinet driven by a cheap stereo receiver/amplifier. This creates a much bigger, fuller sound. Probably the best add-on investment you can make.