Best portable digital piano that is closest to playing acoustic

[chemblue]

Hope you are well and keeping safe.

I have a casio CDP 120 which up until now has assisted with my learning the piano as an adult. I have an acoustic second hand Steinway which is wonderful but I have an extremely busy job and have to practice late at night hence the casio. However, it is not realistic enough and then making it difficult to improve my acoustic playing when able. I need a new digital portable that when necessary I can take on holiday in the car.

I wasn't looking to buy a brand new one I would prefer to spend more money on second hand if you understand what I mean.

Look forward to your advice

Take care and blessings to you.

[j_tour]

I have a casio CDP 120 which up until now has assisted with my learning the piano as an adult.

I'm a little out of the loop on what's available currently, but if you can fill me on what's lacking with your current board, I might have some ideas.

It sounds like your unhappy with the core piano samples.  How about any effects, like reverb, if you use them?

Are you satisfied with the hammer action, generally?

And one other variable:  are you happy with the way the action "links together" with the sound?  It's a little hard to explain, but sometimes immediacy or just what can be vaguely called "the connection" is not to one's taste.

And, finally, amplification and speakers:  are you using onboard speakers, or is it possible that an upgrade to professional sound reinforcement might make you happier?

I think your idea of buying "more piano" for less on the used market is solid.  Not always possible to find great deals, since many pro keyboards tend to hold close to their original value (or the person selling the equipment thinks it should!).

Good luck:  I think you'll be able to find out what's missing for you in the Casio and narrow down your search considerably.

[nfp001]

I am classically trained and played on many grand and upright pianos and I can relate to exactly what you are dealing with because I was in the same boat. For quiet practice, I found that within an affordable price range there is basically the Kawai ES8, ES920, MP11, MP11SE, VPC1 (beware no external speakers so it needs a PC to run with MIDI) and the P515 (the portable version of the CLP-645 which was/is the mid-upper Clavinova range from Yamaha digital pianos. I chose the P515 because for me the feel was the best, there is some nice weight to it which I like, the note repetition capabilities are top notch, the NWX action is made out of quality wooden keys and ivory key tops, that are comfortable under the fingers, the basic CFX modeled sound by Yamaha to their concert grand piano is of really good quality especially with headphones on since it utilizes binaural sampling technology which enhances the realism (basically it replicate the player’s perspective sitting in front of a grand piano). I would definitely compare the action to a top of the line upright, maybe not as good as your Steinway grand because of the key length but sensibly close to it. The best 2k purchase for a quality instrument I have made.

Good luck !

NF

[randomgrace]

If you still need this, you can look at Kawai ES110 or YAMAHA P-125 B. I have the last one actually, but don't use it much. For portable solutions I mostly use my synth (Novation Bass II - you can check review here), because it doesn't need too much space. SO maybe you should look through these portable solutions?