"We couldn't be happier..."
This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.
Feature:
Enough features to be useful (14 voices, for example) but not so many as to be intimidating to a non-techie person (that would be my wife). If you need a full synth keyboard, it will never pass for one. If you'd like a very enhanced piano, it's amazing. The ability to turn off either the right or left hand during playback is a great practice aid but we wish it had more than the nice selection of 50 built-in practice pieces. However, the addition of a $40 USB-MIDI cable has allowed us to download numerous free MIDI tracks to our laptop and play them through the keyboard. That does require some small degree of technical savvy but Yamaha makes available (free) a very well-written manual on connecting the keyboard to a PC.
Quality:
The quality is very good for its intended use which is as a stationary instrument in a living room or studio. It is not a road warrior. Its appearance is not bad but neither is it a fine piece of furniture like our baby grand was.
Value:
We were amazed at how inexpensive it was for the quality and function. If I had stock in a real piano company, I'd sell it.
Desirability:
Very well made and functional but not exactly sleek and sexy. Neither and eyesore nor eye candy.
Sound:
Due to space constraints,we replaced our Yamaha Baby Grand piano with this keyboard. My music teacher wife has gone from initially dubious to ecstatic. If you close your eyes, you cannot tell the sound isn't coming from our former grand. We were initially only interested in the piano function but have found the harpsichord, organ, and guitar sounds to be similarly realistic and very impressive. Well-done MIDI guitar tracks are virtually impossible to tell from the real thing.
Ease of Use:
If I can't use a piece of gear without cracking the instruction book, then it's not intuitive. Even my non-technical wife was putting it through its paces within minutes of its delivery and hadn't yet taken the shrink-wrap off the manual.
Support:
Downloaded the PC to Keyboard setup manual from the Yamaha website, otherwise have had no reason to deal directly with Yamaha.
Overall:
If this keyboard was burgled tomorrow, we would replace it with the exact make and model.
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