I’m thinking about buying a dedicated digital piano. I went to Sam Ash to A/B the new Casio vs. the Yamaha. I was anxious to finally hear the new Casio Privia.

Yamaha replaced the 155 with the 255 $1,299) and it sounds darn good. The touch is almost like a real piano, sounds 99% like a piano from 20 feet away, nice looking design, internal speakers. But too heavy to be called a true portable!

Then I played the new Casio Privia PX5-s ($999). What a difference! It felt like a toy under my hands, sounds were thin (compared to the Yamaha), no internal speakers as in the Yamaha, the whole keyboard reminded me of the old Magnus organ from 30 or so years ago which was a “wonder“ at the time. The only plus was that “weight.” I could probably “bench press” a dozen of them stacked together!

In all fairness, I didn’t have time to EQ the Casio or set it up under ideal conditions, so I’m sure it could sound a lot better. But, I don’t think even then it’s going to be able to hold a candle to the Yamaha.

I was talking to another customer in the store who didn’t like the Casio. He said something I never gave much thought to. That all those who are raving about the Casio are mostly synthesizer players who are used to electronic sounds and are not true pianists (.....or.....they‘re using them as controllers). So to them, a Casio would sound good. To an acoustic pianist it falls far short of coming anywhere near a real piano.

I play both electronic keyboards and acoustic piano. I love the synthetic sounds (trumpets, brass, string orchestras, drums, etc) that you play on the synthesizer. But since I started playing serious piano, my ears have a hard time tolerating and accepting the “hollowness” of electronic sounds (compared to an acoustic piano).

Yet, everyone seems to be raving about the Casio! Are my missing something here?