[w1zard]

I'm looking to buy a digital piano for around £1000, and don't have any idea which are considered the 'best' in this price range.

The two most important things to me are that the sound and the keyboard action are as close as possible to a real piano. It also needs to have pedals or pedal inputs.

It doesn't need to have any sounds other than piano, and I don't need sequencers, XLR outputs, etc. Just plain old piano! It will be fixed in the lounge, so doesn't need to be portable.

Can you point me in the direction of the 'best' models to look at in this price range please? Thanks!

[markymark]

Posts like this come up quite a lot.

Have a read through some of the other threads on which I have offered advice already:

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/viewtopic.php?t=5730

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/viewtopic.php?t=5672

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/viewtopic.php?t=5323

At risk of repeating myself, the Clavinova CLP range is worth checking. The CLP240 is mid-range and incorporates the GH3 hammer action keyboard and high quality piano sounds.

Unfortunately, the better the digital piano, the harder it is to find a piano that has just a piano sample. Although most people will agree that the piano sound is the most important, versatility has always been the biggest strength of the digital piano. See if this helps and check out some of the models mentioned here and in the threads I referred earlier.

[w1zard]

Many thanks for the reply and the information, you've confirmed my loose choice of the CLP240.

One thing I have noticed is that the Yamaha CLP series are due for a refresh in June - is this worth waiting for in your opinion? How old are the current models, and has technology (sound or key action) moved on enough to warrant waiting for the new range?

[markymark]

To be honest, I didn't know they were bringing out an upgrade so soon; although I probably shouldn't be completely surprised by that either. The CLP200 range was show-cased in UK around May 2005. I remember hearing a Yamaha district manager say that Yamaha tend to upgrade on two-yearly cycles and do a complete redesign on the fourth year.

The CLP200 range did make big strides in improving previous models, so much so that I'd say 2005 was the redesigned year. Now that is entirely my opinion and you'd need to check that with Yamaha directly to verify my secondhand info aswell!! The only significant improvements that newer models could enhance would be sound quality and the current hammer action/GH3 action keyboards they use - and these are all very good at present and I'd love to see how they could (or if they could) make a huge difference in these areas. I feel that the improvements have been too good in this range for a complete redesign to come in June.

If a new upgraded range is coming, you've waited this long, why not wait another couple of months and see what they're like? Downside is that all new models tend to be overpriced until they become more common. You could try out the CLP240 or higher speced 270 and 280 for comparison later with the new release. The older models will inevitably devalue should an improved range be released which could be worth checking out, should you not consider the new models to be siginificantly developed enough to warrant the extra money you'll be paying.

[markymark]

I've been doing a little bit of asking round... Apparently Yamaha is about to launch the new CLP300 series. There is word about 5 layer dynamic stereo-sampling piano sounds as opposed to the 3 layer sample on the current top of the range CLP280.

Apparently, the range hasn't been launched in USA yet, so I'd imagine that June could be slightly early for a UK launch.