Digital Piano for 0-700$

The Casio pianos with triple sensor, weighted keys are not bad. I don't own one but I helped a choir director pick out one. As a pianist, she was happy with the feel of the keys.
  -Perry-

Owning a Casio PX350 (big brother of the px150) and having tested an ES100, I was very, very happy I choosed the Casio. My personal opinion of course.

PTQ - Pianoteq.

Basics:

A "digital piano" has three essential parts:

. . . a keyboard (the white-and-black keys, and associated electronics sensors) that
. . .    generates MIDI (musical-instrument digital interface) messages;

. . . a "sound generator" that takes the MIDI messages ("note A5 on, velocity 65", etc) and
. . . turns them into electronic signals that (if you listened to them with a headphone) sound like a piano;

. . . an amplifier and loudspeaker(s) to actually "play" the sound into the room.

The Casio PX-150 has about the best keyboard mechanism you can buy for the amount of money you have to spend.  Its built-in sound generator isn't bad.  Its amp and speakers are too low-powered, and too small, to _really_ sound like a piano.   But _for its price_, it's a good choice.

. . . and it can send its MIDI keyboard signals to a computer,
. . . and it has "headphone" jacks to drive either headphones, or an external amp and speakers.

Pianoteq is a piece of software that runs on a PC, and performs the work of the "sound generator" part of a digital piano.

So it's possible to set up something like:

. . . You play the PX-150 keyboard,
. . . . . which sends MIDI messages to Pianoteq (running on a PC)
. . . . . . .   which sends electronic signals to an amp and speaker.

The advantage:

. . . Pianoteq sounds more like an "acoustic piano" than the PX-150 sound generator;

. . . the outboard amp and speakers sound more like an "acoustic piano" (in tonal range, and loudness)
. . .   than the PX-150's built-in loudspeakers.

Now, that setup will cost more than your $700 budget.  But you don't have to buy it all at once.

.      Charles

PS -- bias -- I own Pianoteq, and a PX-350 (the "big brother" to the PX-150, with the same keyboard mechanism and more features), and a substantial PA loudspeaker to play them through.

I have one! And I like the feel of the keyboard a lot (but I don't think it's the same as Numa Nero)... But, I think it's to easy to rech velocity 127, you can't change velocity curves on the 188+... I also have a problem with it regarding restarts... Sometimes it just restarts... And some time it get realy messed up and send the wrong midi-notes, so I ave a problem trusting it. And of course it's no built in sound...

I hope others have better experience of the 188+

I also own the PX-350. There was just another thread about this. You can find a review about the PX-350 in Keyboard magazine on the web. I highly recommend this. You probably have to spend $1500 to get board with a better feel and the triple sensor action.

You can get the PX-150 with a stand for a little less than $500
Then you can get Pianoteq stage version for around $125
Then you can get something like the Logitech Z2300 used for about $100. This puts out 200W. It's about the best you can do on a low budget, and it blows away the speakers that come with the PX-150 and PX-350.

That puts you at $725. Right around budget.

So here are the advantages of the Casio PX-150:

* Light weight
* Keys have ivory texture
* Triple sensor (all other keyboards in this price range have just two sensors per key
* High resolution MIDI. The PX-150 has over 14,000 possible velocity values instead of 127
* Scaled hammer action. The lower keys feel heavier than the upper keys
* The internal piano sound is not bad, and the electric piano sounds are pretty good.

I've tried out the PX150 so far but not the ES100. What's the difference between the two?