Frankly the best console pianos are second hand and thirty to one hundred years old.
Four years ago, I bought a 1941 Steinway 40 with some veneer damage, and my physician friend bought a "superior" Pearl River. I heard the Pearl River last week: it doesn't sing like my Steinway. His superior piano has broken three of the same bass string in four years, the piano is still in warrenty on paper, but the company refuses to send anybody out without invoices for the three new strings. My physician friend runs a paperless house, so the superior modern piano is going on e-bay for the next sap.
My Steinway, by contrast, after three years of hard practice, is beginning to need tuning again. It took seven tuning stages to get it up to 440, but it has been stable as a rock since then. It has a superior wood pin block instead of modern plywood.
Brands I recommend, from production years 1939 to 1980 only, are Steinway, Sohmer, Baldwin, Hamilton by Baldwin, Wurlitzer, Everett, Mason & Hamlin, Chickering. <39" pianos are suitable only for the student in the first five years, after that they are too slow. But 36" Baldwin Acrosonics and a Mason & Hamlin I tried out had nice tones for pianos under $100.
I think the tone of the Yamaha consoles I have heard and played are inferior, and the middle pedal being a volume softener instead of a lower half sustain, I think is hor** ******. I need the lower half sustain for a piece I am rehearsing now.
I played on a 1970's Kawai once that sounded pretty good, had decent action, and was probably made in NC.
Especially on a Steinway, check inside that the middle hammer felts are not too short, and the hammers don't wiggle on the pivots. These pianos are often heavily worn by continual student use in schools. Check that no strings are broken, no parts look mouse eaten, the wood back is no cracked. Check that one note sounds good, although old neglected pianos that are way out of tune are often the best bargains. With two fingers alternating, hit one note repeatedly to see how fast the piano action is at restriking the same key. Superior pianos are just as fast as any concert grand you hear on records.
If you can get someone to play softly as possible to see if the action is consistent. I played a nineties production Wurlitzer at a student's house, and this was its failing. The old brand names of Wurlitzer Baldwin et al were sold in the eighties to global corporations that used the brand to import **** pianos from second world countries.
The 1970's Wurlitzer I played 12/15/13 at a former church I attended is still a superior piano, and a joy to play. I played a sixties Baldwin Acrosonic 39 at another church 12/7/13 and that piano is also a joy to play. Baldwin Acrosonics were about the loudest brightest console pianos I have ever played. It really filled the fellowship hall. If you prefer something softer buy a Hamilton by Baldwin, that was their small room line.
I played a Yamaha digital 88 key board 12/26/13 and while the $200 midi samples were extremely good, it took a $400 computer to run the sound generation. My friend's $400 sound system was not nearly up to the task of reproducing piano sound accurately. I paid $600 the pair just for some speakers accurate on piano, Peavey SP2-XT's. It was a $1500 Yamaha keyboard my friend said, but he didn't know the model #. It has heavier weighted keys on the bass than the treble. The keys were actually heavier to play than my Steinway or Sohmer.
Be aware if you buy a plastic piano, the rubber key contacts have a life limited both by repetitions, and the action of oxygen on the rubber. So far, many models of Yamaha, they are supporting with replacement rubber parts. But Yamaha has deleted key parts from inventory on their organ line. A wood piano, you can probably buy replacement parts for 100 more years.