Looking for a Digital Piano.

[dg2903]

I am a new Piano Student at my college, this is the first year i take Piano. I need a good DP for practice at home. I am willing to spend $1000 - $1500 for this. I am looking for one that has the feel, the touch and the sound as close to the real piano as possible, I don't need features like changing to a different sound, i just need a DP that does exactly what the grand piano does and allow me to plug in my headphone (and my ipad if possible so i can have more way to learn). And where can I get them? Thank you very much. <3

[faulty_damper]

You should be checking the Instruments forum.  Many topics of DPs have been asked.  If I were you, I'd spend 2x what you're willing to spend on a Kawai CA65.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?board=5.0

[quantum]

You may also wish to consider if you will be gigging with such instrument.  It would be a way to earn some extra cash while in school.  For that reason, you may want to include stage pianos in your list of possible instruments.

[loydb]

If you are going to gig, the Roland RD-x00 series has great action for a not bad price. Check them out. My 700sx is a little heavy, but doable.

[briansaddleback]

I am a new Piano Student at my college, this is the first year i take Piano. I need a good DP for practice at home. I am willing to spend $1000 - $1500 for this. I am looking for one that has the feel, the touch and the sound as close to the real piano as possible, I don't need features like changing to a different sound, i just need a DP that does exactly what the grand piano does and allow me to plug in my headphone (and my ipad if possible so i can have more way to learn). And where can I get them? Thank you very much. <3

I would go for the Yamaha P155. The action is the GH and one I prefer for practice. It is only a thousand dollars but if you go to Guitar center and open up a cc with them you can get an additional 15% off and put it on a no-interest plan for 12 months. Which is very advantageous for a student or anyone with a monthly budget.

[joplinfreak]

Yamaha P105 is what I have. It's no where near as professional as Kawai, but it gets the job done. It's smaller than most other digital pianos out there perfect for dorm room or for gigging. By all means if you have the money to spend on Kawai or a Roland get them, just my 2 cents.

[tanocsi]

If you play classical music there is only one software piano to consider that has the feel and sound you are looking for. VI Labs Ravenscroft 275 software piano. It is by far the best digital piano sound you can get. It was presented a month ago and costs 200 dollars. Here is a link where you can listen to demos: https://www.vilabsaudio.com/Ravenscroft-By-VI-Labs
You can compare it yourself with Ivory https://www.synthogy.com/products/americanconcertd.html or https://www.galaxy-instruments.com/vintage-d.html (two top of the line software pianos) just by listening to classical music demos of there virtual instruments. I think that if classical music sounds good on a digital piano, that piano is worth considering.
I am not an endorser or anything similar. I was looking for the same thing for 2-3 years now. And found out about Ravenscroft while watching NAMM 2014. This was the first digital piano ever to be presented side by side with the sampled pianos mother, so people could compare differences live between a digital software piano and the original Ravenscroft 275 grand https://www.ravenscroftpianos.com/, a luxurious instrument that costs around 280 thousand dollars.

Buy yourself a good midi controller keyboard with hammer action (pay attention to this detail about hammer action) like Kawai VPC1 https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VPC1/ or even something cheaper https://www.sweetwater.com/c518--88_Key_Controllers/low2high , an audio card that has MIDI connection like https://www.thomann.de/gb/focusrite_scarlett_2i4.htm , a computer and a pair of decent headphones from Audio-Technica, AKG, Sennheiser or Beyerdinamic https://www.thomann.de/gb/audio_technica_ath_m50_x.htm.

If you do the math it goes like this: 850 dollars a cheap MIDI keyboard with hammer action (AKAI), 200 for a good software piano, 250 for a decent soundcard with MIDI, and a MIDI cable. You probably have a computer with 4 gigs of RAM and a pair of headphones already.

I have tried a few digital pianos from Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, Nord. Even if they have good mechanics (hammer action), they don't sound good when you start playing classical music on any of them. Even more, they feel horrible from a player's perspective. Those instruments are made for pop music, or recreational use at home.

I have a Roland RD 700SX as midi controller keyboard, which has a good enough keyboard action, I use a Muse Receptor (computer and audio interface in one) https://www.museresearch.com/products/index.php, Ivory American D (this sounds good, but it does not feel good while playing classical music), and Ravenscroft that is by far the most important item. 

[tanocsi]

I forgot to mention the folowing: I am the happy owner of a real piano that is a joy to play. Some reviewers at Keyboard magazine always mention that a software piano could never feel the way a concert grand does. I would question this statement. Because here is VI Labs Ravenscroft.

[gyzzzmo]

My experience with digital piano's is that the price isnt actually not really that important. For most piano a higher price means more gigs. More important is to get a good brand and try out alot of them (with good headphones!!). I myself find the yamaha clavinova's the best simulators.

[hfmadopter]

I hate to tell ya guys but the OP appears to be a one time poster and not returned since.

As for how I feel about digital pianos ? It's been well documented over the many lines of text I've harassed everyone with ! In a nut shell, I favor Kawai's action. And Roland's upper end action ( I don't or didn't last I knew care for their lower end actions). I've tried many different digital pianos, I own an acoustic grand piano and that's just how I came down to feel, so I bought a Kawai when the time came.

Sound will be as good as the sound system you hook it up to. If virtual pianos checks all the boxes for you so be it, but it still has to go out through a sound system in the end

[gyzzzmo]

Sound will be as good as the sound system you hook it up to. If virtual pianos checks all the boxes for you so be it, but it still has to go out through a sound system in the end

True, but a digital piano a) costs only a very tiny amount of the price of a grand, and b) you can actually play it without having to bother the neighbours, wich is a pretty big advantage over the small difference between practising on a grand or a digital

[hfmadopter]

True, but a digital piano a) costs only a very tiny amount of the price of a grand, and b) you can actually play it without having to bother the neighbours, wich is a pretty big advantage over the small difference between practising on a grand or a digital

I don't think the difference is small at all, in fact it's big if you want the real sensation and presence of a grand piano in your room. From physical size, the materials it's made of to the actual and real nuances of sound vs simulated. No electrical wires, no speakers, no computer programs, just the real deal. Make no mistake about it, there is no comparison if one lusts for the real thing. Anything else is a settlement, you have settled for this or that be it upright piano or digital or what ever if that is the case.

In my case I own the grand piano already, I wanted a digital as well, mostly for the silent feature. I'm hooked on the digital for many different reasons than listed above regarding the acoustic grand piano. I play it 90% of the time and I love it, I can make really beautiful music through it but it is not a full size real grand piano. Nothing but a full size real grand piano is one. The difference is like praying to the one and only God vs praying to a god ( man finds many substitutes or one might say simulators).

[gyzzzmo]

I don't think the difference is small at all, in fact it's big if you want the real sensation and presence of a grand piano in your room. From physical size, the materials it's made of to the actual and real nuances of sound vs simulated. No electrical wires, no speakers, no computer programs, just the real deal. Make no mistake about it, there is no comparison if one lusts for the real thing. Anything else is a settlement, you have settled for this or that be it upright piano or digital or what ever if that is the case.

In my case I own the grand piano already, I wanted a digital as well, mostly for the silent feature. I'm hooked on the digital for many different reasons than listed above regarding the acoustic grand piano. I play it 90% of the time and I love it, I can make really beautiful music through it but it is not a full size real grand piano. Nothing but a full size real grand piano is one. The difference is like praying to the one and only God vs praying to a god ( man finds many substitutes or one might say simulators).

I have both digital and grand myself too, but i find myself playing on the digital most by far. That is (because i already stated) the disadvantage of the digital is much smaller than the advantages it has. If i would be living in a house with a concert-sized room and no neighbours? Yes, the digital would be gathering a lot of dust.

Btw i have often questioned myself the following: If Horrowitz would be giving a concert in carnegie on a Clavinova, would anybody in the public notice?

[hfmadopter]

Btw i have often questioned myself the following: If Horrowitz would be giving a concert in carnegie on a Clavinova, would anybody in the public notice?

Since he is a dead man then I certainly hope that people would notice, LOL !

I do not believe that even a concert pianist playing at a digital piano would command the same respect as someone playing at a grand piano on stage. You can go into any night club and see people playing digitals. It conquers up instant thought about yelling over the noise to have a conversation with the folks you came in with. If I paid good money to see a concert pianist I don't think I would expect him/her to be playing on a digital anything. A Steinway ? Yes. A Bosendorfer ? Yes. A Clavinova ? No. And I know how the4y can sound, still wouldn't expect that and would feel let down.