Casio privia px-150 bk

[ranniks]

Hey guys. So looking for a replacement for my acoustic piano. The acoustic is going away, but my passion for piano is not.

Is the casio privia px-150 any good? It has 128 polyphony and weighted keys.

[ranniks]

I've talked to my parents and the piano will probably be put in the living room downstairs! But I'll still be wanting a digital for quiet practise on my own. I'll use the acoustic just a few times a week I guess.

[hfmadopter]

Some day I need to get my hands on one of these but thus far have not. The reviews put its keys slightly above the entry level Yamaha P105 and that one I have played. I thought the P 105 to be quite decent considering its entry level status and price. It is more expandable than the PX150 since it has line out ports and I believe midi. If you ever want to gig with it or just add nice speakers at some point then that is a plus . Most reviews  put the P105 added instrument sounds pretty well above the Casio. But hey, they say the keys and piano sound is slightly above the Yamaha. Very slight variations though.

Additionally I wouldn't put much faith in the on board speakers sounding very great. I imagine you want to use headphones though which should sound really good on most any of todays later keyboards.

In the end I probably should just be quiet since I've never played  the piano you ask about!

Click on the Video tabs below at these links.

The Marketing Manager from Casio explains a little bit about the PX150:     https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/casio/privia/px150/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=txt&utm_campaign=cas-px150

Yamaha P105 with a Kraft Music Employee :    https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/yamaha/p105/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=txt&utm_campaign=yam-p105

Why Kawai ? Look at the action response and the tonal difference but I can tell you it doesn't happen without a lot of setup. I also know that you aren't asking about them :   https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/kawai/mp6/

[ranniks]

Some day I need to get my hands on one of these but thus far have not. The reviews put its keys slightly above the entry level Yamaha P105 and that one I have played. I thought the P 105 to be quite decent considering its entry level status and price. It is more expandable than the PX150 since it has line out ports and I believe midi. If you ever want to gig with it or just add nice speakers at some point then that is a plus . Most reviews  put the P105 added instrument sounds pretty well above the Casio. But hey, they say the keys and piano sound is slightly above the Yamaha. Very slight variations though.

Additionally I wouldn't put much faith in the on board speakers sounding very great. I imagine you want to use headphones though which should sound really good on most any of todays later keyboards.

In the end I probably should just be quiet since I've never played  the piano you ask about!

Click on the Video tabs below at these links.

The Marketing Manager from Casio explains a little bit about the PX150:     https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/casio/privia/px150/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=txt&utm_campaign=cas-px150

Yamaha P105 with a Kraft Music Employee :    https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/yamaha/p105/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=txt&utm_campaign=yam-p105

Why Kawai ? Look at the action response and the tonal difference but I can tell you it doesn't happen without a lot of setup. I also know that you aren't asking about them :   https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/digital-pianos/kawai/mp6/

Thank you for the information sir.

I was contemplating the P105 too, but I'm not so certain anymore. It's more expensive for one, and if the action of the casio px150 will be better, then the choice will be made swifter.

So you're saying I can't hook up the casio to stronger audio boxes but I can with the p105? Hmmm. I was hoping the 8 watt boxes would be enough. I'll be playing with headphones as you say, but I'd like to play without as well.

The funny thing is the acoustic in itself will have coste more than my acoustic. Take moving costes and the acoustic wins.

It will be positive to have an 88 key digital since my acoustic only has 85 keys.

That Kaway is too expensive for me. I think my upper price for a digital will be either 650 or 750. Polyphony and action are important. If possible I would like to get a digital between 500 and 600 dollars/euros (if they cost 600 dollars, they should cost 600 euros here in europe).

[hfmadopter]

You can hook the Casio up to external speakers. What I said is having the line out connections makes it easier ( less complicated).

I wasn't saying that you should consider the Kawai either, just there is a difference just as there would be with other higher end instruments as well.  Kawai really has no entry level. I posted that video of the Kawai more to just clarify that there is a difference. Actually their new MP7 is supposed to be fantastic !

All that said, Playing through headphones equalizes the sound end of things to some degree anyway. The action of the two pianos may be similar. The key texture is definitely different on the Casio than the Yamaha. The Casio is a tri sensor mechanism, the Yamaha two. In and of it's self that could mean something but it's more how the sensors are implemented that matters. As usual it comes down to you playing the instruments and picking the one that feels right to you. However, just as with an acoustic piano where you don't know it's potential till it's voiced and regulated ( you have been there and done that !), with digital until you go through the setup menu maybe 6 times you won't really know the digital piano either. I suggest playing them a few times each not turned on to get the actual mechanical feel of their keys. Nothing in th setup menus changes the mechanical action, just the sound response to that action.

[hfmadopter]

Something else ranniks, when you go to try out your options I suggest to try them all with good quality headphones. The on board speakers will make a sound obviously but the headphones will be more realistic.

[ranniks]

David, I might be able to spend more, my total budget 1000 dollars/euros.

https://www.bax-shop.nl/piano

Which one would you recommend at this stage? The p105 is very possible now. The p255 is way too expensive for me though. And remember 2 years ago about those yamaha ydp's? Those were 800 orso fo the 181 models, now they are selling 141 models for above 1000 dollars, what the heck happened? Perhaps new models with same numbering.

https://www.bax-shop.nl/stage-piano/korg-sp-170s-bk-digitale-piano/product-details.html

That korg has 120 polyfony. I've tried a similar model and I did enjoy the touch/action, but the sound could have been better. Like if you combined the sound of the yamaha with the korg's touch: perfect for me.

[ranniks]

https://www.bax-shop.nl/stage-piano/korg-sp280-bk-88-toetsen-stage-piano-zwart/product-details.html

This one seems good too. I think I tried a Korg sp250 once. Or another model with the 250/170 in it, but not the sp.

The Korg back then wasn't 'light' enough if that makes sense.

[ranniks]

So I went to the music store today.

I was not impressed with any of the pianos that I saw (I should have tested the casio too). The yamaha p35 and even the p255 was not doing it for me in the touch departement.

The korg sp280 touch and sound were not to my taste either.

There were 2 pianos that spoke to me:

yamaha ydp 162b

yamaha dgx 650b

Especially the last one. Only thing, one website says 64 polyfony, the other 128. In the store it said 128 polyfony, looked it up on another site 64 polyfony, official site says 128, but I'm not sure anymore.

Is the dgx 650b going to be a good choice? It has a great touch including the bells and whistles. Just the sound could be a bit louder.

[hfmadopter]

Especially the last one. Only thing, one website says 64 polyfony, the other 128. In the store it said 128 polyfony, looked it up on another site 64 polyfony, official site says 128, but I'm not sure anymore.

Is the dgx 650b going to be a good choice? It has a great touch including the bells and whistles. Just the sound could be a bit louder.

I believe the DGX upgrade from the 630 to the 650 included the polyphony change to 128.  It is considered an educational piano and you can just not use the super beginner features loaded into it. I am surprised you liked the keys on this one vs the P255 but then I have not played either piano. I have played both their predecessors though, the DGX630 and the P155. I would have hoped that Yamaha improved the keys from the P155 on the P255 but maybe not ! The P155 I did not like at all regarding it's action.

On the DGX 650 you can wire to a sound system through the second headphone jack, you can get all the volume you could ever ask for then, totally based according to the grade of system you wire to ! Of course that can be said for any of your choices just as well. I get the impression that the 650 has decent tone though. Actually the older 630 was not so bad in tone. I would think there would be enough volume up close for say in a dorm room. Adding external sound changes everything, with the right system you can rock the house walls if you wanted to.

I bought my keyboard with no speakers built in knowing I wouldn't be using them but would be using headphones or external sound. I have no use for the weak on board speakers built into keyboards. It had to have enough volume, depth and tone to reasonably keep up with my grand piano at least.

[ranniks]

I believe the DGX upgrade from the 630 to the 650 included the polyphony change to 128.  It is considered an educational piano and you can just not use the super beginner features loaded into it. I am surprised you liked the keys on this one vs the P255 but then I have not played either piano. I have played both their predecessors though, the DGX630 and the P155. I would have hoped that Yamaha improved the keys from the P155 on the P255 but maybe not ! The P155 I did not like at all regarding it's action.

On the DGX 650 you can wire to a sound system through the second headphone jack, you can get all the volume you could ever ask for then, totally based according to the grade of system you wire to ! Of course that can be said for any of your choices just as well. I get the impression that the 650 has decent tone though. Actually the older 630 was not so bad in tone. I would think there would be enough volume up close for say in a dorm room. Adding external sound changes everything, with the right system you can rock the house walls if you wanted to.

I bought my keyboard with no speakers built in knowing I wouldn't be using them but would be using headphones or external sound. I have no use for the weak on board speakers built into keyboards. It had to have enough volume, depth and tone to reasonably keep up with my grand piano at least.

Sir, I noticed little to no difference between the p155/p255. Or maybe I only touched the p255, can't remember. I was not impressed at all. The p35 had very cheap keys, the action itself might have been decent.

Surprisingly the ydp was very very good .

The dgx 650 felt closest to my acoustic, that's why I liked it. The keys were heavy enough. Really the only downside was the loudness of the audio. Oh and perhaps maybe the gradient between soft touch and hard touch. On the acoustic, if you play softly, you get many types of softness, same with if you play very hard (so press the keys very hard), but with the dgx 650 it felt more like 2 levels, soft and hard. I'm probably explaining it wrongly, but that's what I experienced.

I felt baffled that such a piano was on sale for only 755 dollars. I mean, the p255 costes almost double that and it's not really great in my opinion. I think you experienced the same. Your grand is also on the heavy side in regards to touch correct? If so, then maybe we were experiencing the same.

Funny sidestory: there was this girl, I would say aged 16-18 in the store with her little brother (or it seemed so). She complained about how heavy the touch of the digital pianos was compared to her keyboard. There was only 1 digital there that felt 'heavier' than my acoustic at home, and that's saying something because my acoustic is pretty heavy if I say so myself. The heavy digital was a roland. It wasn't turned on, but the keys were something akin to pushing quicksand away!

I really don't want to regret buying the dgx 650b......It has 88 keys, a lot of bells and whistles, 128 polyfony, good action, close in heavyness to my acoustic.

[ranniks]

Ahh yes, the pedal that came with the dgx 650b is not great. I can buy a better one right?

[hfmadopter]

Ahh yes, the pedal that came with the dgx 650b is not great. I can buy a better one right?

I think so but check with the store. Many digital pianos come with a switch rather than a variable pedal, it's either on or it's off. Hopefully that is upgradeable.

In terms of touch and the nuances of sound, don't judge it on that till you can get into the menu and change the curves if that piano has that feature. This is another thing to check on. I was not happy with my MP6 out of the box at all but it is one piano that can be tweaked till the cows come home. I can now play it softer than my grand, however these are digital pianos in the end and some nuances are just not going to happen. As it stands right now though, I am very happy with mine. I am going to chase after some better tweeters though.

[hfmadopter]

Surprisingly the ydp was very very good .

I think that one is out of your budget though.

My Kawai keys are heavier than my grands keys in the middle C area, the grand slightly heavier in the lower octaves and they are about equal in the upper range. However, the Kawai has slightly more rebound and all keys take more force to move below the let off than the grands keys. The grand feels almost to fall away after the let off in comparison. It's just something to get used to. They are not all that far off from each other, perfectly able to go between them in that respect. If there is a big difference it's that on the digital I'm shoving the pedal through the floor and on the grand I just lightly feather touch it. The Kawai digital pedal is quite good for a digital though, I do feather it too but sometimes I want more. Part of that is because I have the dynamics of the pedal turned down, it was too much at one point in time. Just about every dynamic you can name is set up on a scale of 1-10 on the MP6.

You could download a PDF of the manual to the DGX and see what is available to tweak on it. I think it's extensive if maybe in other ways but I have not looked. I did watch a Yamaha rep's video on it though.

[ranniks]

I think that one is out of your budget though.

My Kawai keys are heavier than my grands keys in the middle C area, the grand slightly heavier in the lower octaves and they are about equal in the upper range. However, the Kawai has slightly more rebound and all keys take more force to move below the let off than the grands keys. The grand feels almost to fall away after the let off in comparison. It's just something to get used to. They are not all that far off from each other, perfectly able to go between them in that respect. If there is a big difference it's that on the digital I'm shoving the pedal through the floor and on the grand I just lightly feather touch it. The Kawai digital pedal is quite good for a digital though, I do feather it too but sometimes I want more. Part of that is because I have the dynamics of the pedal turned down, it was too much at one point in time. Just about every dynamic you can name is set up on a scale of 1-10 on the MP6.

You could download a PDF of the manual to the DGX and see what is available to tweak on it. I think it's extensive if maybe in other ways but I have not looked. I did watch a Yamaha rep's video on it though.

Yes, out of my budget, and would not be a wise spending at this point. Sir, could you take a look at these?:

Different songs, but similar sort of. The p35b sounds just 10 times better. You can notice it too right? The tonality just seems complexer on the p35 than on the dgx 650. Am I missing something?

[ranniks]

dgx 640

same piece as with the p35b:

It just sounds less bright. I like bright with pieces like this.

[ranniks]

I've noticed something that's been bugging me at the story too about this piano (dgx 650). It's the pedal! Or maybe it's the system itself! Whenever I push the pedal in, I don't feel like it's resonating as much as with the other digitals, as if it's just on the minimum level of resonation (so the ability to keep a note played after you push it once).

[hfmadopter]

Yes, out of my budget, and would not be a wise spending at this point. Sir, could you take a look at these?:

Different songs, but similar sort of. The p35b sounds just 10 times better. You can notice it too right? The tonality just seems complexer on the p35 than on the dgx 650. Am I missing something?

Who knows how the pianos are set up ( with digital this is huge, it's not small, it's like night and day). Who knows which system the sound is run through, the second recording could be external speakers, aka a sound system. Again, makes a huge difference. One could be played through a virtual piano software, again huge difference when combined with the other things. And then there are in my digital anyway possibly 15 or 20 different pianos sounds they could be playing. Huge difference, I know in mine I use Mellow Grand a lot, which then is not Mellow Grand as it came out of the box, it's been tweaked to my liking for the last year or so. Same for my Concert Grand sound. i have a Jazz Grand I use a lot, all are different and that doesn't touch all the options in the thing.

The second posting of yours explains it all about internal speakers, I rest my case. More than that, the player is playing with a whole different touch and feel. The recording device also is not as good.

[larrys]

I fancy the next one up, the PX 350. Ive tried that one out in my local JG Windows store, its great. And it has a useful USB dongle storage facility. Just need the 400 quid upwards.

[hfmadopter]

I fancy the next one up, the PX 350. Ive tried that one out in my local JG Windows store, its great. And it has a useful USB dongle storage facility. Just need the 400 quid upwards.

Ya the 350 has a lot of features for the money, doesn't make it good but it has a lot of features for the money. Something of interest to me is the 17 track sequencer. Not sure what I would do with it since I never use more than three instruments anyway but it's there. I have not played this instrument, online sounds are thin sounding but probably not played through external sound systems or virtual pianos either.

How are the keys ( resistance weight, evenness from top to bottom of travel depressing a key) ?

[larrys]

Well the keys are weighted and heavy, like on  an acoustic. Had a nice feel, slightly textured to mimic ivory/ebony. Good quality.
Speakers are ok, certainly better than those on my Yamaha.
Its a heavy keyboard,  about 25 pounds for a slim keyboard.  But a piano aint meant to be portable.
It also has AIR which mimics the sound of the strings being damped. Gimmick maybe but on the whole they're bloody good keyboards!

[hfmadopter]

Speakers are ok, certainly better than those on my Yamaha.
Its a heavy keyboard,  about 25 pounds for a slim keyboard.  But a piano aint meant to be portable.

Obviously this piano has stage capability. 25lb is actually pretty light for a decent stage piano.

[vansh]

So I'm a little bit late to the party   but I bought the Casio PX-150 a couple of months ago. One thing that I liked about it that AFAIK isn't on the Yamaha is that you can change the brightness of the sound, if you prefer a brighter or mellower sound. This is a different setting than the touch sensitivity, which it also has. I liked this since the Yamaha IMO has too bright a sound (I prefer a mellow Steinway sound) so when I got the Casio I adjusted it to the mellower side. The one thing about its sound that I don't like is that I think the sound decays too rapidly, but my point of comparison with that is a Steinway grand, so it may not be entirely fair. But I definitely notice it when I play more "sonorous" works like Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor. Other than that though it was the best for me at my price range (~$500-600).

Touch-wise, the keys are definitely significantly heavier than other digital pianos that I tried, and they take a little bit of getting used to, since they're also somewhat different from an acoustic. The tri-sensor thing definitely works (you can re-press a key once it's about 40% of the way down), but whether or not it's useful depends on what you play. For something like the repeated notes in La Campanella, it probably comes in handy.

If I understand correctly, the Casio PX-150 and PX-350 are the same physical keyboard, but the PX-350 has more features. The actions should be identical though, so everything I said should apply to the PX-350, as well as the other Casio digital pianos in the same Privia line (-750 and -850). I'm not sure if the -780 comes from the same line or not.

[hfmadopter]

The one thing about its sound that I don't like is that I think the sound decays too rapidly

This is not untypical in many if not most digital pianos when comparing with acoustic. The difference between some lesser expensive options and the higher end though is that you can adjust decay in the higher end models, which after doing so brings you one step further towards that acoustic experience. In my Kawai MP6 there are four levels of note or key nuance that are controlled and adjustable externally under the tone control ( and much more deeper into the menus, not to mention actual tone changes and EQ settings), attack and decay are two important ones and I found the release setting to be important. I had my wife hit and hold various notes on my grand while I did the same on my MP6 and got these dialed right in. I then did the same with tone, dynamics and velocity in the mellow grand setting which was the closest to my grand in sound to begin with.. Then duplicated settings with the pedal as close as I could. The experience of playing the MP6 now is so much closer to my grand piano that I get lost in my thoughts and forget I'm on the digital when something comes through that doesn't sound like the grand. And the MP7 that just came out is said to be better. However, it's taken me a long time to get this piano to that level, lot's of tweaks and adjustments over the last year or so. Out of the box it played nothing like my grand. In fact it didn't play much like any piano. I think sometimes that people expect to take a new digital out of the box and have it play like an acoustic piano. That day has not come yet IMO.

I just added Adam Audio external speakers and removed the M-Audio I had been using. These are smoother and don't produce errant spikes in loudness or harshness that I could get sometimes with the M-Audio. I kept the M -audio 10" sub though, it's just turned way down low. I have crossover set at 150 hz and the Adam Audio run in flat mode which lets them sound bass down to 53 hz naturally. This combo gives a super rich and realistic piano sounding bass register.. I often play instrumentation in a mix and these added sounds are tremendously real through the Adam Audio monitors as well. A lot of these sounds were not convincing when played through the old monitors. Never ever thought I would like doing this stuff but I do now !

So keep tweaking on your PX 150 and if you can't get the decay you are looking for with on board controls then consider a virtual piano program. You should be able to dial it in then. The more and more you work with the digital piano the more you will come to understand what a powerful tool you have there. The possibilities are endless, between software and or sound modules and sound systems it's pretty nuts.

Edit: Additionally, don't ignore the reverb setting that your PX 150 has. Setting room reverb can make a large difference in the overall sound. Don't mistake reverb as something out the 60's guitar era. I found on the MP6 that more reverb in the default setup was better for a given piano ( namely Concert grand and Mellow grand).

I'm not sure if the PX150 does this but Modulation can be key in most any simulated live instrument sound such as piano or strings or even flute. Some Modulation makes the piano sounds more alive ( and the others too, just think of all those strings in modulating tonal vibration). I have modulation turned on but have it set very low. There is a point where you hit a threshold of too much, so I error on the side of conservative modulation. My wife noticed the difference right away when I activated modulation some months ago. She stated how beautiful the piano was sounding. I then told her I had turned on modulation. In the MP6 it's either on or it's off but on the face of the piano is the dial to dial it up or down. Sometimes the cats walk over it and move that wheel on me and I wonder what is wrong. I know to look there right away now. Or the wife dusting can hit it, it's a very free moving wheel designed to be moved easily during performance. I know the PX150 has no wheel but didn't know if there may be something in the menu to control modulation.