Casio and Yamaha digital pianos

I was in Guitar Center last week trying out the Casio Privia's because they have a lot of them on display. From the 1st one I tried I liked the sound quality and the keyboard "feel" of each model Casio. With the weight at 25 lbs and the attractive pricing, I figured I'd buy one for a "knock-about" keyboard.

On the way out the door the Yamaha 115 caught my eye. Great sound, great touch, not that much heavier and on sale for $475. I spoke to the salesman. He said "why would you want to buy a Casio "toy piano" when the Yamaha is so much more professional.

That's where I got confused. Are my not hearing things correctly? I've heard others comment about the "toy Casio's." But I thought they both sounded really good......just a different "really good."

So......anyone have any of their own comments on the two brands? BTW I don't like that Casio PS5.....it sound like it's more for rock music.

Mark

Casio definately is not a toy piano, i can imagine however a salesman making such a remark because the profit margin on Yamaha instruments is bigger then on any of the other brands, thats a reason why all professional music salesmen will often try to sell you a yamaha..

Casio piano, ep , pads, synths and strings hold up to the cheaper yamaha models.. where Casio still is of the mark is with many of the other orchestral sounds, brass, winds and such often sail behind in quallity and are very very basic..

I really like the 88 keybed thats in the casio, best thing is, you still have grip when your fingers are sweating and moist.. it takes some getting used to the actuall feel, but after that its top.. also its a tripple sensor action... only the high end yamaha action found in their pro models i like even better then this casio action.. but then, that would require you to spend thousands of dollars on a cp4 or the like...

Alos take into account the Roland fp30 and the kawai es110 they also offer great action and top knotch piano sounds under €1000.. the fp90 and es8 are even furter ahead, but more expensive... but both come very very close to a real granpiano feel and have high end sounds on board..

What Bacus said. A few good choices are out there.
. I went all out and got the FP90. Wow! I'm loving it.
My second choice was the Casio 360. I have recently had a chance to play the FP 30 and while not on the same level as the 90 it's very nice.
Seems there's a few,choices in the under $1000 range that are nice. Then the big jump up to the TOTL units.
BTW the 90 is heavy but not as bad as I thought it would be to move. I'm going to get the Roland case for it and if I get lucky I can find the right job where I can just play and sing thru it's speakers and need no amp.

A common problem with Casio keybeds is excessive mechanical noise after a time. My friend addressed this by inserting a piece of felt cloth UNDER the keys. It was a bit of a pain, but quieted the noise. Now, he can record vocals while playing the Casio without hearing the noise bleed through his vocal mic.

My friend who has a doctorate in music and has won a Grammy for a big band album which he arranged, gigs with one of the Cassio Privias. Trust me, he is a bad ass musician and wouldn't play on a toy.

Also a lot of the sales people at GC don't know anything. I wouldn't trust them.

lets face it you get what you pay for...

In the last few years I had the Casio Privia PX-350 and then the PX-160. While the feel and response is definitely superior to Yamaha, I did find them kind of noisy too. Furthermore, after a little over a year of playing each, the keys got noisier. The Casios are great for self expression. I could really get my ya ya's out in a way that I couldn't with the cheap Yamahas.

I sold the PX-350 because of the noisy keys, and used the $$ to get the PX-160 which brand new wasn't so noisy. After a year, the PX-160 was noisy. Fortunately, the Casio had a 2 year warranty. They completely replaced the keys! The recently repaired PX-160 is now for sale on Craigslist because I too bought the Roland FP90 which plays like an absolute dream and sounds incredible.

The FP90 has great acoustic piano and EP's. I play mostly through headphones or through my Rokit monitors with a subwoofer. I play around with Pianoteq too.

I have heard that in the under $1000 range that the Kawai ES-110 has the best piano feel even though it only has two sensors. I have heard some negative comments from several people about the Roland FP30 that the keys don't come up quickly enough and that it's more fatiguing on the wrists.

From my playing experience and anecdotally, Yamaha is behind all competitors in the under $2000 range. Sad, but true.

If I were spending under $2000, I would go with the Roland FP-90 or the Kawai ES-8. Under $1000, I would get the Kawai ES-110. Under $500, get a Casio.

to make the list complete...

just above €2000 there are the Roland RD2000 which plays as fantastic as the FP90 but has so much more controll options and even better sounds.

And then there is the high end with Kurzweil Forte and Nord Stage.. which surprisingly cant keep up with the keyfeel of Roland and Kawai.

Also at the high end of the spectrum there are the 88 key workstation Kronos and the Montage, which both make excellent piano's with a better (but non weighted) hammer action (better then Nord and Kurzweil) but still inferior to the Rolands and Kawais.



But if you just want piano... with some ipad integration.... go FP90... it feels and sounds better then most upright piano'sin the under €5000 price range.

Going back to the OP, I think Casio still suffers from a 'stigma' it got many years ago when they WERE producing 'toy' pianos/keyboards ... they were inexpensive units, and they sounded it ... As they progressed, they made better and better units but the 'cheap Casio' stigma remained to some degree ... I know a KB player who was playing a Casio that sounded REALLY good ... he put duct tape over the Casio name because he didn't want people to think he was playing a 'toy' ...

The first digital piano I bought for my wife(over 10 years ago) was a Casio Privia. Since I was not a pianist, I brought along my daughter shoppping for a piano. They had everything from acoustic grand pianos to basic digital pianos.

She had just graduated from college with a music degree, which included piano studies.

She played Yamaha, Kwai, Casio and others. For the money, at the time, she was most impressed with the Privia.

A few years later, that Casio Privia digital piano went to my son for lessons for our grand daughters.

The last digital piano I bought was a Yamaha DGX 660 for another grand daughter. She's into dance and I thought the arranger functions might help.

I'm not too impressed anything arranger and Casio.

Another Caso 350 user here. Not a lot of heavy use but I didn't know if it was me or were the keys getting noisey. Still a great board for the price with lots of features. I was ready to got for the newer 360 with the touch screen and then I thought, "will I use all the extras on that 360 or do I just want a killer piano"
So I went for the Roland FP90 and its fantastic. I start playing and don't want to stop. I have it hooked up to my studio PA but lately I have just been using the onboard speakers which are more than enough. Out of the box it was good but after making a few minor adjustments in the Piano Designer section it really came alive.
The Roland 2000 uses the same keyed and Piano synthesis but gives you a bunch of live preformance options. The Kawai ES8 is also a contender but I couldn't find any serious discounts on one and I didn't need all the preformance options it had like the Roland 2000.
If you can play an FP90 do it and I'm sure you'll find the extra cost will be worth it.

The Roland RD2000 also has a more advanced effects section and a 2nd V-piano sound engine... compared to the FP90...

I've been so busy, I forgot to thank you guys for all this great information you posted here. You'll never hear remarks like this from a GC or SA salesperson! All they can recite is the price!

So I copied all this info you wrote, and pasted it into my "piano notes file."

I was going to buy that Casio for $500 as I thought it was bang for the buck. But reading here about the "clicks" that develop, I decided I'd better go back to the drawing board and re-think this whole thing out before I spend any money.

Bill ordered an FP90 and I thought I'd consider that.....until I saw the weight...51 lbs without the carrying case. Even though I wrestle alligators on the weekend to stay in shape, that 51 lbs would be a deal-breaker for me.

Mark

Good for you, Bill. A "professional pianist" can't be happy with anything less than a "professional piano!"

M

. Well, thats the trade off for a high end pianomkeybed and high end build in sound

I've heard great things about the Kawai ES110 - great piano sound + action. Only two sensors, so not ideal for fast repeated notes. I also read that you can use it with a $100 lithium battery power supply and play 8 hours without plugging in.

This would be my top pick among the light keyboards.

The Casio action is noisy, and gets noisier with time, but I have to give them credit, they extended the warranty 1 year when you register the keyboard at their website. And when I brought in the keyboard to repair the noisy keys - and it wasn't outrageously noisy and the keyboard played fine otherwise - Casio covered a replacement key bed for free.

I have a feeling that Casio might be replacing their Privia line this year. Hopefully, they will make some significant upgrades to their lineup.

Privia is a lone that continously gets updated, px560 and px360'are relatively new, as is the 160... only the stage model px5s is in need for an update.

Kawai es110 is also a good under €1000 choice..

Mark
Good luck in your shopping. For full time gigging the FP90 would be too heavy. After moving it around my studio a few times geting things organized I was surprized that it didn't feel that bad. I'm going to get the Roland case for it just because. Its such a pleasure to play I'm still dreaming of that Holy Grail job where I could just play the FP90 and sing some good music and not have to worry about moving every night.
Did a 60th BD party last night at the very upscale Sea Pines resort on Hilton Head. Heritage golf tournament will be there in a few weeks and their already setting up tents for it. Halfway through the job I wondered to myself "why did I even bother to bring the BK9 keyboard ?" All they requested was the typical "Uptown Funk" DJ dance stuff and Hip Hop club music. Two IPads and one JBL speaker was all I needed.
They were happy, I was paid and treated well, got an hour overtime, but left feeling like I'd rather be playing the Baby Grand in the downstairs lobby.
On well' subject for another thread.

Bill ... not to steal THIS thread, but have been in that building (just last year, in fact) and it IS beautiful ...
Also had the opportunity to play the course a number of years ago and shot 93 from the back tees, which was great for me ... Love watching the Heritage for that reason ... Hilton Head is a great place for a vacation ...


Meanwhile, back to the OP ...