Best Digital for touch and Sound

I have asked before but never got a definitive. I am looking for a midi digital 88 key piano. The touch is most critical, as close to a grand as possible with some weight so your hands get a work out. Sound of course is critical as well but my nod goes to touch overall then sound. Anyone with experience please advise and thank you in advance. Noticed the Kawai on Ebay, how's that stack up btw if you know.

If you go back through the threads on this newsgroup, you'll find my reviews of the Alesis QS-8. It's really the only electric piano that I've played, but it IS an 88-key digital piano with MIDI capability and weighted keys. I've been very pleased with it.

Cheers,

My favorites for best touch are the Kawai MP9500 (not MP9000 there is a difference) and the Roland KR-577 or Roland KR-1077 (same electronics and action, but different case).

On 9/2/02 3:59 PM, in article

I tried several brands and models (Yamaha, Roland, Technics, Kawai) and wound up with a Roland 1077 as having the touch that felt best to me, but the only way to tell what's right for you is to try them yourself. There are widely varying opinions on the subject, with passionate endorsements for each brand.

I've got a Yamaha Clavinova 860 and, having tried Rolands, I think the touch is really good. It's got a graded hammer effect so the high pitch keys feel lighter than the low ones and it also feels a bit heavier overall than the average acoustic piano, which gives a good workout. I find the touch close enough to my 5'11' Kawai. Very nice sound-wise, albeit there are better ones out there. Still much better, I think, than the average acoustic piano. Of course it has a MIDI output as well.

Seconded in every particular, When shopping for mine (must be three years ago, I think) I thought the Technics had marginally the best tone but the Clavinova 860 had the most satsifactory touch. The equivalent-price Rolands were right out of it; new models may be better. Out of curiosity I recently tried the new Kawais (not available locally at the relevant time); perhaps they weren't tweaked to best advantage, but I didn't like them at all - too light a touch, too resonant.

'Sterling Motors' should bear in mind that all these respectable makes offer wide variations in tone and touch, and the way they're set up in the shop may not be optimal for his ear or hands. Though I liked the 860 as it came (default settings) I've now changed the resonance effect and the temperament, and the volume/tone controls have to be set quite exactly - a half-notch either way on either of them and the sound is much worse.

Alan Jones

The Yamaha Grantouch series is the only digital piano that claims to incorporate an actual grand piano action, with the hammers replaced by optical sensors. A few people on this board own a Grantouch and appeared to find it the closest contender to an acoustic piano. A Yamaha tech I asked told me the Grantouch keyboard action can even be regulated, much like in a real grand piano. The two most common drawbacks mentioned: less than impressive sound and high cost (several US$K).

If you do a search of previous messages in this newsgroup with the keyword 'Grantouch', you should be able to read more about them from some owners.

Where does one go to try them all, 150 different music shops or does any big shop have them all in a row as it should be!

I don't know what Kawai changed, but they must have changed something for the better. I was considering an MP9000 very seriously, but kept having trouble with 'double strikes' on some keys. That is, sometimes when I hit the key once it would sound twice. On an acoustic piano this is often caused by the letoff occuring too close to the strings and/or backcheck problems. On the MP9000 I have no idea what caused it. It seemed to happen more often on very soft (ppp) and very loud (F or FF) notes, but not on average notes. Some of the units seemed to have no problem. Others had it in spades.

None of the MP9500's I've played seems to have this problem. YMMV.

On 9/4/02 10:33 AM, in article

My experience was that no dealer sold both Roland and Yamaha. Perhaps dealers have to sign up for one or the other, kind of a franchise deal. I did find places that had the lesser brands - Kawai, Technics and a host of smaller manufacturers. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and found everything I wanted to try within a 10-mile radius.

Mars Music in Orlando had in their keyboard showroom a Roland RD-600 next to a Yamaha P-200 the last time I was there. They also had other brands.