Top 5 Digital Pianos: Keys to Success

Figuring out the best digital piano to get can be overwhelming. It doesn't help that their model names are a litte... dry. Yamaha P-143? Casio PX-S1100? If the model numbers alone don't confuse you, each manufacturer has different digital piano lines, and it can be hard to cut through the marketing speak. Do you want one from the “entry-level console digital piano” line? Or should you get one from the “Compact and stylish digital pianos for a wide range of piano-playing abilities” line? Worse yet, with so many models, are you buying one that's already outdated??

Well, have no fear, we're here to help! We've got piano players on our team with a wide range of experience that came together to write this guide (one of the founders of this website has been playing piano for 20+ years!). We live and breathe music gear, and we love to do our research so we can save you some precious time.

Different people have different ideas of what the best digital piano is - if you're the piano player for a world-famous musician who is touring, "best" will mean something completely different than if you're a parent trying to buy one for your kid, or a hobbyist who just wants a sleek piano they can plug headphones into and practice quietly in their living room.

In this guide, we'll mostly be focusing on the beginner-to-intermediate level player looking for a great digital piano. Here's our criteria for considering the digital pianos that should be tested:

• Under $1000
• Above all, the piano sound needs to be great
• 88 keys, fully-weighted to best simulate an acoustic piano
• Widely available in online stores/retailers
• Mostly positive opinions from existing owners

Experienced players, don't worry, there's no reason these picks wouldn't work for you as well. First, let's talk a bit about digital pianos, and what you should look for when picking out the best one for you (i.e. what matters, and what doesn't).

Digital vs. Real Acoustic Pianos - What's the Difference?

Chances are you're reading this guide because you've decided to look for the best digital piano. Our goal is to make you a very informed buyer, so we think it's important that you understand the key differences between an acoustic piano and a digital one. Why? Digital pianos are mostly judged for how close they get to a real acoustic piano in terms of 1) sound and 2) feel of the keys.

Characteristics of acoustic pianos:

• Superior sound
• Superior action (keys are weighted as the hammers hit the strings)
• More expressive
• Heavy, bulky, unwieldy
• Expensive ($3000 is a typical starting price for an upright piano)
• Require maintenance by a specialist (can be expensive)

Characteristics of digital pianos:

• Less expensive than acoustic pianos (a good digital piano starts around $3-400)
• Lighter and much more portable, easy to pack and ship
• Can double as a MIDI controller (e.g. you can use it to control software synthesizers)
• Require no maintenance
• Good recreation of an acoustic piano sound (some better than others, obviously)
• Versatility and features (many tones/voices, built-in learning tools, layered sounds, split keyboard ranges, etc.)
• Headphones for quiet playing and practicing

What to Look for & How to Shop for a Digital Piano

Budget & Cost: Without a doubt, your budget and the price of a digital piano are often the most important factors. There is an absolutely overwhelming selection of digital pianos out there. Casio alone makes enough digital piano models to make your head spin. They do this of course to fit a large number of piano players' budgets. Whether you already have a budget in mind, or are trying to decide what to spend, as experienced piano players and gear-heads, we're here to help you get the most for your money. In this guide, we're focusing on the $400 to $800 budget range. We think this covers the beginner and intermediate player very well, as well as giving the advanced player some good options. We strongly feel that $350 or so is the entry level price to own a good-sounding digital piano from a reputable brand that you'll be proud to own and play.

Number of Keys: The number of keys on your piano determines how big the piano is, and also affects the price. Acoustic pianos have 88 keys, so 88 is considered “full size.” The next smallest option is 76 keys, and the smaller step after that is 61 keys. In this guide, we focus on digital pianos with 88 keys, since that's more like a proper piano. 61 and 76 keys can be limiting when you play certain songs, and as you get more serious about your piano playing we fear you would quickly outgrow anything smaller than full size.

Portability: Pianos, unlike guitars, tend not to be the most portable instrument. Acoustic pianos are certainly not portable, and are a nightmare to move around (imagine the team of people you need to lug a fragile, expensive, wooden acoustic piano up a flight of stairs). Digital pianos have the advantage of being more portable. Take a look at the weight, depth, width, and height of the digital piano you're buying to get a feel for how portable it is. Despite the minimum width taken up by having 88 keys, the variations in dimensions and weight might surprise you.

Key Weight aka “Action”: The key weight, or action, of a digital piano is incredibly important; arguably the second-most important factor after how the digital piano actually sounds. When we talk about a digital piano's “feel,” we're mostly referring to the action. When you press down on an acoustic piano key, you feel resistance and weight as the hammer moves closer to and strikes the piano's strings. A digital piano is just a computer, as you might have guessed, and thus has no hammers or strings. However, to be considered a great digital piano, it needs to replicate that weighted feel of a real piano. In general, the fancier and more expensive the digital piano is, the more emphasis is placed on the feel of the keyboard. Always look for digital pianos with “fully-weighted” keys (also known as “hammer action”). Cheap digital pianos, some synthesizers, and smaller sized keyboards might come with semi-weighted keys, or no weight at all. For a piano, we very much want to avoid these.

Polyphony: Polyphony is one of those “big words” in the music world that can confuse beginners. If you've played piano or keyboards/synths before, chances are you've at least heard of polyphony. Simply put, polyphony is the maximum number of notes that the digital piano can produce at one time. Remember, a digital piano is essentially a computer inside, and thus is limited by the amount of memory and other components within. You'll typically see digital pianos have 64 or 128 polyphony (32 or 192 are also not uncommon). Example: Let's say you're playing the piano, and step on the sustain pedal to sustain or hold the notes even after you've let go of the key. Because they are being sustained, old notes don't simply go away when you play new ones; they're still there in the background, fading away. Eventually, you'll have many tones playing at the same time (a few louder because you played them more recently, and many softer and decaying because you played them earlier and sustained them). If the polyphony of your keyboard is max. 64, and you reach 64 notes that are sounding at the same time, the older ones will suddenly drop off.
tl;dr: Polyphony is the number of notes that can be played at the same time. Modern digital pianos have 64, 128 or higher polyphony, and that is plenty!

Built-in Speakers: When you play your digital piano, it may have built-in speakers, but if it doesn't it won't make any sounds by itself unless you hook it up to speakers, or use headphones. Built-in speakers might not sound as good as whatever quality headphones or external speakers you have, but they have their advantages: 1) You get immediate gratification and can hear yourself play right away, 2) maybe you misplaced your headphones, or 3) you simply don't feel like turning your speakers on. Simply put, onboard speakers are handy to have. One of our readers pointed out that he is teaching his young kids to play on his digital piano, and it's easier to teach them to just turn the piano on and they can immediately hear themselves play, rather than having to teach them how to turn on an external speaker system. This is a great point, and we completely agree!

Brand: Brand tends to be a more important consideration when shopping for a digital piano than it does for other music gear. As you shop for one, you might be overwhelmed by the amount of brands - each with dozens of models - so it's good to know which brands have more experience with this instrument. With brands like Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Alesis, Kawai, and Korg, you're in good hands. These are all manufacturers that have a proven track record of creating very high quality music gear for many years. Yamaha and Kawai have many years of experience building quality acoustic pianos, which is expertise they can apply to their digital counterparts. That's not to say other brands don't - if you fall in love with a piano from another brand, as long as it's reliable and inspires you to play, that's all that really counts!

Let's Recap

Whew, that was a lot of stuff to cover - but hey, nobody said selecting the best digital piano was going to be easy! In case you have information overload - or if you just don't feel like reading the whole guide - here's the bottom line:

For the most part, if you stick with reputable brands that have been making digital pianos for years like Yamaha, Casio, Roland, etc. you're very likely looking at a decent choice. Just because it's not one of Equipboard's top picks doesn't mean it's trash! Technology has gotten to the point where these brands are making digital pianos with impressive sounding piano tones, and the feel of the keys is getting better and better. This makes price one of the biggest factors, especially if you're new to the hobby and aren't sure if it's something you (or your kids) will stick with.

Rest assured there's a healthy used market for digital pianos on sites like Reverb, so if you decide it's not the instrument for you, you should be able to sell it pretty easily. Here's a pro tip - hang on to the original box and packaging materials! It'll make it infinitely easier to pack and ship it.

That said, we hope this guide helps you choose the best digital piano for you, and that you enjoy it for years to come.

Not only do digital pianos take up less space than acoustic pianos, they can also look great in their own right and enhance the vibe of a room.