Hi!
If you're looking for the right digital piano let me tell you then you have to find out for yourself which one is the best. I'm not saying this because I don't wanna help you, because I really do. I will give you some info and tips based from my own experiences. But everyone has an individual perception about music, so each person will give you different advisery and recommendations, which results in you don't know what to do with it. What other people think is great doesn't have to be great for you as well.
I'm affraid it's not wise to rely on the advisery of salesmen. In many cases they know almost nothing about acoustic pianos so they cannot say the digital piano has a realistic sound or touch. Also it occurs sometimes salesmen give you false information to persuade you buying a model they want to get rid off.
First let me tell you which model you shouldn't buy: any model from Technics. Technics decided to stop producing digital pianos. You can still buy digital pianos from Technics, but warrantees are worthless; suppose when something is wrong it cannot be repaired because the factory is closed.
Another thing. It is claimed very often that modern digital pianos have a similar touch as grand pianos. Indeed the touch of digital pianos is much more comfortable than the keyboard of the usual synthesizers. But it's really not similar to grand pianos. For example it's too easy to control the dynamics of your touch (piano, mezzoforte, forte, etc.) on the keyboard. Digital pianos aren't suitable to practice on when you finally want to perform on a real grand piano or a normal pianino.
However some models have a better keyboard than others. Kawai, Yamaha and Roland produce the keyboards in Asia, and those keyboards are heavier and more dynamic. Some people don't like a heavy keyboard, but in my opinion a heavy keyboard plays more comfortable. It is said Kawai has the best keyboard - real wooden keys - but unfortunately the sounds of Kawai are not very great.
The most popular marks are Yamaha and Roland. I have the Roland RD-700sx. I've chosen for Roland because some people told me Roland instruments match better with acoustic instruments for performances of bands than Yamaha. Indeed I must say the Roland sounds are more full and massive than the sounds of Yamaha. It's a matter of taste which kind of sounds you prefer. A lot of people prefer Yamaha to Roland.
The Roland RD-700sx is 128 polyphonics, which is great because high polyphonics is very important, especially when you use the damper pedal while playing. The instrument contains line-out connections, XLR connections and one headphone connection. A damper pedal is included, but you can also buy a soft pedal and a sostenuto pedal. There isn't a built-in sequencer for recordings, however you can still capture your plays by using your computer. You can connect the RD-700sx to your computer with a USB-cable, so a MIDI-interface isn't required. (By the way, you can download freeware MIDI-sequencing software for your recordings, like
Anvil Studio.) The instrument doesn't have internal speakers, but I think it's better to buy separate speakers of higher quality.
I'm very happy with the keyboard. I've mentioned before the keyboard of a digital piano isn't similar to the one of an acoustic piano, and that counts also for this one. Still it plays very comfortably and dynamicly and the heaviness can be compared with the one of an acoustic piano. Also the keyboard is suitable for other sounds like organs and ensembles, so that makes the RD-700sx a perfect masterkeyboard as well. I have to mention one thing; the keyboard is quite noisy when you play on it, and that can be annoying for other people.
The first piano sound - Superior Grand Piano - is very realistic. It sounds a bit dusky, so that makes it suitable for classical piano plays. The sound is contructed by many samples: each note is sampled on several dynamics (when you press the key softly you'll hear another sound sample than when you press the key harder). Compared to the Superior Grand Piano the other piano sounds are not very great, so I hardly use them. But one good piano sound is sufficient for me.
Still I have one comment about the Superior Grand Piano. It sounds a bit blurry. But maybe that's because it's a digital piano. Acoustic pianos always sound better of course. I think it's really difficult to sample a piano, because it's such a complex instrument with many possibilities. It's not just a matter of capturing the sound of every note.
The electric piano sounds are really great and expressive. The Rhodes pianos sound warm and spherical. The FM-synthese pianos are bright, but definitely not cold or emotionless. A lot of electric pianos will sound familiar to you. My favourite one sounds exactly the same as the electric piano in Riders Of The Storm from The Doors.
The Roland RD-700sx contains a virtual Hammond organ, called the Tone Wheel Mode. By real organs you can change the sound by pulling in or out the drawbars to control the supply of air in the pipes. That function is simulated by the RD-700sx. There are 8 virtual drawbars which can be controlled with the edit sliders. Also you can add percussion, and there are several percussion types.
There are other interesting sounds: clavis, celesta, marimba (though in my opinion you have to adapt that one by using the edit sliders to make it sound darker and warmer), string ensembles (there are a lot of those, from chamber ensembles to orchestra ensembles), synth pads, harp (that one is very expressive!), flute, oboe, saxophones, etc. And last but not least there are a lot of realistic drum sounds, and many of them are layered in 2 or more samples.
Unfortunately not all sounds are great. All the choir sounds are a bit poor. But it doesn't matter for me because I prefer to listen to real vocals. Also the RD-700sx contains that horrible trance sound! The vibraphone is really bad. The harpsichords are quite allright, but would definitely sound better if they contained more samples. Actually that's a bit odd, because Roland produces digital harpsichords.
If you want you can expand the sound library by installing a SRX Wave Expansion board. Those boards are quite expensive, but not as expensive as a new electronic instrument. I really hope Roland will release a board with better and more detailed harpsichord sounds. If Roland sells digital harpsichords than those must have a good sound quality.
The Roland RD-700sx has many functions to edit the sounds. With the edit sliders you can change the cutoff-frequency, the resonance, the attack time and the release time. Also you can change the sound by adding an effect. There's a choice between 128 effects, including reverb, chorus, delay, tremolo (usefull for electric pianos), rotary (usefull for organs), distortion, and a whole lot of others. The quality of the effects is absolutely very good. A reverb for example sounds very detailed and pure. I can't image one would complain about the quality of the effects.
The Roland RD-700sx has a lot of useful functions. But there are also functions and features which are really not necessary. (1) Next to the RD-sounds there are 256 sounds and 9 drumbanks which are supposed to be used for playing general MIDI-files. Those sounds are of lower quality than the other RD-sounds, so I don't use them. I don't use my digital piano for playing General MIDI-files, but suppose if I want to I'll first adapt those MIDI-files so the RD-sounds are used instead of the General MIDI sounds. (2) A built-in metronome is useful when I want to practice playing in the measure. But 128 different programmed rhythms are not necessary in my opinion. (3) There's also an Arpeggio-function. You probably know already an arpeggio is a broken chord. But in relation to the RD-700sx it means programmed accomodation. So combined with the rhythms you can use the instrument as a keyboard. But I haven't bought it for that.
But you'll find unnecessary functions in other digital pianos too, so I'll overlook that. I'm quite satisfied with the RD-700sx. I've got an acoustic pianino as well - a Schimmel with a beautiful characteristic sound - and I use that one for practicing my lessons. But for recordings I use my digital piano. When I listen back my recordings I can hardly notice it's from a digital piano. It sounds definitely better than for example the digital pianos of Korg.
Topic: What digital should I get?