28 Oct Golden Keys Awards 2019 – 10 Best New Digital Pianos to Buy
By: Professor Tim
Top 10 Digital Pianos-Golden Keys Award
The 10 Best Digital Pianos for November & December Holiday Season 2019 and into early 2020 have been chosen by the expert musicians, pianists, and piano teachers at “Digital Piano Review Expert.” With the votes having finally come in, we have given a special “Golden Keys Award” to each of the 10 Best 88-key digital pianos in the world for November & December 2019 so that you will know which new digital pianos will give you the “Biggest Bang for the Buck” out of all models on the market today and available in the USA.
There really are so many different models from the top brands including Kawai, Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Korg, Samick, Kurzweil, Dexibell, and others and that when you add it all up the choices can be overwhelming in trying to make a good buying decision and spending your money wisely. With over 40 years of piano teaching, playing, digital piano experience having played thousands of digital pianos along with consulting with large schools, churches, recording studios, pros, teachers, and everyday people who want a great digital piano along with a team of highly skilled professional musicians, we did all this for you to take the “guesswork” out of your buying decision.
The excitement of these awards are finally here! The Top 10 Best Digital Pianos chosen to receive this prestigious “Golden Keys Award” are as follows:
Kawai CA48 Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Kawai CA48 Digital Piano – The Kawai CA48 at $2099 receives a “Golden Keys Award” not just because it’s an enjoyable digital piano to play overall, but because it has something no other digital piano has it its price range of about $2000 and that feature is its proprietary 12′ long all-wood white keys. In regular digital pianos you typically will have most white keys be all plastic in construction as well as those keys being 8″-9″ long at most.
In real acoustic pianos the keys are typically much longer especially in Grand Pianos where they are approx 15″ long. The longer the keys are, especially the white keys, the more balanced they become from front to back of the key as well as being more balanced left to right as you go up the keyboard. The amount of finger force you need to play towards the backs of the keys will be just about the same whereas in shorter keys the amount of force you need to play towards the backs of the keys is noticeably heavier because of the normally shorter keys in most digital pianos.
This is not a terrible thing at all and those pianos are still playable, but longer keys such as what’s in a real grand piano just make it better for the player and helps improve playing technique for the advancing piano student. The actual “visible” key that you see in pianos is 6″ long and that is true for all pianos. It’s what’s in back of the visible key that really counts as far as the actual length of the key. So for a 6″ white key the rest of the key that you cannot see behind the key cover is usually only about another 2 or 3 inches in a digital piano so the fulcrum and balance points are shorter.
With 12′ long all-wood white keys along with balanced shorter black keys, the key action movement on a Kawai CA48 is so real as compared to a real acoustic upright or grand piano that if you close your eyes while playing you may not be able to tell much of a difference at all. Kawai calls their proprietary key action “Grand Feel Compact” and it is super impressive and I can attest to that myself after playing it a number of times.
When you add in the very satisfying organic quality stereo grand piano sound with very good tonal dynamics and expression along with responsive pedaling going through a 4-speaker stereo internal 40 watt sound system, the combination of all these things puts this CA48 in a class by itself within its price range in our opinion. Pricing for the CA48 is $2099 for rosewood finish and $2199 satin black finish and it includes a matching padded bench and 5 year in home factory warranty.
Nothing that Yamaha, Roland, Korg, or Casio has comes close unless you spend quite a bit more money to get it. The CA48 has received our coveted “Golden Keys Award” and because of this we are able to offer you this special piano for quite a bit less money than Amazon or internet discount price for November & December 2019.
Casio PXS3000 Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award
Casio PXS3000 Digital Piano – The new Casio PXS3000 at $799 (furniture stand & tripe pedal unit optional) has received a “Golden Keys Award” because it has broken all of the previous limitations of portable digital pianos in its price range under $1000. In the past there would always be compromises a digital piano manufacturer would have to make to keep a new digital piano in a certain price range.
There would be noticeable limitations on the quality of the piano sound, key action quality and response, pedaling response and realism, size of the instrument, functions and features and realism of those features, and also trying to add new innovative technology and have all of it sound good through what would normally have to be a limited quality internal sound system. However, the new Casio PXS3000 has broken down all those “walls” and powered past all of its competition in the way it plays, the way it sounds, the features it has, the operation of those features, the internal sound system, and its size and design.
In other words, it is simply amazing. In fact, for its small size and subtle control panel. you would never know how good it is just by looking at it or holding it. You have to play it to believe it…especially for its low $799 price. In our opinion this model should be selling for at least $999 it’s so good…but for just $799 it really is a “no-brainer” as far as we are concerned. Then if you add the optional matching furniture stand and portable triple pedal to the piano then you have a complete instrument which can sit comfortably and reliably in almost any space.
The new stereo grand piano sound, new stereo instrument sounds, new improved fast action key-action, and much improved pedal piano sustain decay time and volume with all of these impressive and usable features just makes you want to own this thing…it’s that much fun to play. It also works on AA batteries for play without an external power source and has Bluetooth wireless streaming abilities through its powerful internal speaker system that allows you to do musical things you never thought possible in a small portable model like this, especially in this low price range.
Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Kawai have a lot of catching up to do to get close to this new model for the things that it does and the musicality that it offers. That is why the all new PXS3000 has received our “Golden Keys Award” for November & December 2019 and because of this we are able to offer you this special piano for quite a bit less money than Amazon or internet discount price.
Korg G1 Air Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Korg G1 Air Digital Piano – We gave the Korg G1 Air at $1799 a “Golden Keys Award” because it does something no other digital piano does in its price range…it has by far the biggest, fullest, most advanced internal speaker system in any digital piano under $2000 and that speaker system gives the stereo piano sound chip of the G1 Air an amazing, grand piano quality to it when you hear it through its 80 watt, 4 speaker, 4 amplifier sound omni-directional sound system.
The main speakers are housed in a separate rectangular acoustically tuned speaker box located under just under the piano with the speakers pointed towards the player. The other speakers are inside the piano towards the top and sending higher frequency sound coming up and out of the piano. The resulting sound is one that has a lot of full bass response and higher frequency clarity that gives you the definite impression you’re playing a piano that is much bigger than the actual compact size of the Korg G1 Air.
The G1 Air is also the only piano in its price range that has 3 distinct stereo grand piano sound samples recorded from a Steinway grand piano, Bosendorfer grand piano, and Yamaha grand piano whereas most digital pianos under $2000 have just one grand piano sample recorded piano sound. The quality of the instrumental sounds in the G1 along with other useful features makes this instrument great for people who mainly want to focus on having a great piano playing experience and not having to spend a lot of money getting that.
The G1 Air also offers Bluetooth wireless audio streaming so that you can play your favorite music from your external device wirelessly through the Korg G1 Air internal stereo speaker system and it sound great when you do that. With a elegant contemporary cabinet design available in 3 attractive colors black, rosewood, and white, useful features, and offering an impressive piano playing experience, the Korg G1 Air at just $1799 definitely deserves our “Golden Keys Award” especially for November & December of 2019.
Because of this we are able to offer you this special piano for less money than Amazon or internet discount price.
Yamaha CSP170 Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Yamaha CSP170 Digital Piano – The Yamaha CSP170 digital piano at $4699 received a “Golden Keys Award” from us because of its innovate interactive digital piano technology which provides a more personal educational music experience with built-in features not found in any other digital piano in any other brand. Yamaha, along with Apple, developed a new proprietary app called “Smart Pianist” which is what controls the entire piano and the way that it works. You download that app for free on your iPad and then connect your iPad to the CSP170 and all of the functions and features of the CSP170 are easily and intuitively controlled from the color touch screen of your iPad tablet.
Eventually the app will work for Android tablet users according to Yamaha, but for now it is only for use on iPad. The amount and types of touch screen features for the Yamaha CSP170 are simply amazing and allows you to do musical things that you just don’t expect and that are lots of musical fun to use. As far as the piano sound, key action, and pedaling of the CSP170 go, you can play it just as a piano, with and without the app.
When you power up the piano it defaults to its best stereo acoustic grand piano sound which is powered by a 300 watt 4 speaker, 4 amplifier internal sound system that gives this model a huge acoustic grand piano sound that most people will love and after our playing experience with it we agree that this piano is very difficult to beat, especially if you are into the latest user interface technology and like a lot of options in terms of features and functions in a digital piano.
With 700 instrument sounds, lots of accompaniments, many recording options, interactive digital sheet music displayed on your tablet so you can play along with it, and hundreds of popular songs in a huge music library residing in the Smart Pianist app, the CSP170 is really pretty awesome and we know many people agree with us. The Yamaha CSP170 comes in 2 cabinet finishes including matte black and polished ebony for another $600. Along with a matching bench and a 5 year Yamaha factory warranty, this new piano can serve a variety of people and musical needs whether you are wanting it for your home, church, school, studio, or somewhere else.
It looks great, sounds great, plays great, and in our opinion will keep you musically busy and happy for hours per day, the CSP170 at $4699 gets our “Golden Keys Award” for November & December of 2019, and because of this award we are able to offer you this special piano for quite a bit less money than Amazon or internet discount price.
Samick SG500 Digital Grand Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Samick SG500 Digital Grand Piano – The Samick SG500 4′ deep digital grand piano at $5299 has been given the prestigious “Golden Keys Award” because after hours of playing this model and comparing it against other popular digital grand pianos out there including the more expensive Yamaha & Roland digital grand pianos as well as against the much lower priced Suzuki and Artesia digital grand pianos, we definitely feel that the SG500 bridges the gap between reasonable price without being too expensive, high quality features and functions, aesthetically pleasing elegant baby grand piano cabinet, and excellent quality along with offering a satisfying piano playing experience for most digital grand piano shoppers.
The Samick Grand Piano company has been in business for about 60 years worldwide and is well known for producing high quality acoustic pianos as well as digital pianos. Their US warehouse is located in Nashville, Tennessee and they have been there for many years. There are a lot of people who are looking to buy a beautiful piece of furniture and love the way a baby grand pianos looks with its elegant finish, 2-position lid, and wood-tone inner soundboard area with brass trim.
There is no question that a baby grand piano cabinet can fill up a home with beauty and elegance but at the same time you want to know that this piano will play great, sound great, have lots of useful features, be reliable, and especially be affordable so it does not break the bank. After many hours of playing all the top models out there, Digital Piano Review Expert has given the Samick SG500 the “Golden Keys Award” because it does what no other digital piano can do in or near its price range…it delivers on its promises and will be something you can be proud to own and play.
With very good quality piano type key action, stereo acoustic piano sound, lots of excellent instrumental tones, recording functions along with “player piano song play” including Bluetooth wireless streaming of your device digital song library through the SG500 super big and powerful internal speaker system, there’s a lot to love about this piano. Actually the only problem we have seen with this model is being able to get one as they are typically back-ordered from the US factory warehouse because of their popularity and the fact that keeping up with production worldwide is difficult for them.
The Samick SG500 comes in 3 beautiful colors including polished ebony, polished snow white, and polished fire-engine red and include matching duet size benches and a 3 year factory warranty. The Samick SG500 at $5299 gets our “Golden Keys Award” for November & December of 2019, and because of this award we are able to offer you this special piano for quite a bit less money than Amazon, store, or internet discount price although we know that supplies are very tight right now because of this model’s popularity.
Casio AP650 Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Casio AP650 Celviano Home Digital Piano – The Casio AP650 digital piano at $1899 has received this special “Golden Keys Award” because it incorporates so many different and popular design and functionality elements into one digital piano under $2000 which no other brand or model of digital pianos has done. This model has a very attractive, well designed cabinet with front stabilizer support legs, a full back privacy panel so you cannot see through the piano, and a special top lid which can open at an angle to let out the sound of piano even further. The control panel has all of the feature and function buttons directly in front of you above the keys for easy access which few other digital pianos have.
Casio also has an LCD display screen centered in front of you so you can see at a glance what settings you have on and be able to see in that display screen any changes you have made when you press any button on the piano. The key action moves pretty fast, has simulated ivory and ebony feel textured key tops, and has good key action movement offering a nice amount of expression. This Casio AP650 has 250 instrument sounds which includes a 256-note piano sound chip recorded in stereo along with 360 interactive accompaniment styles and a full 16-track General MIDI song recorder and player for even more advanced recording and arranging of your songs.
It has the ability to record and play audio wav files and save them onto a USB flashdrive for convenient storage. This model also has a fairly powerful speaker system with 60 watts of power going through 4 speakers and 2 amplifiers so it gets plenty loud even in larger rooms. The cabinet is available in a satin textured black along with a very nice matching height-adjustable padded bench and a 5-year in-home factory warranty which makes this a unique digital piano because it offers so much at a very affordable price for many people looking not only for a good piano playing experience but also a lot of useful and fun “bells & whistles” that will keep you entertained for a long time along with providing educational benefits when using many of those very cool features.
This is why we give the prestigious “Golden Keys Award” to the impressive Casio AP650 digital piano for November & December 2019 and because of this award we’re able to offer you this exciting piano for a lot less money than Amazon, local store, or internet discount prices.
Yamaha NU1X Hybrid Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Yamaha NU1X “Hybrid” Digital Piano – The Yamaha NU1X “Hybrid” Upright Digital Piano at $6599 (for polished ebony) is part of the advanced series series of Yamaha AvantGrand digital pianos which includes this NU1X along with the N1X, N2, and N3X Hybrid Grand action versions. What makes the NU1X stand out from among the crowd and receive this major “Golden Keys Award” is the fact that it is the only digital piano under $8000 that actually has a complete “hybrid” acoustic upright piano key action which comes out of a real Yamaha acoustic upright piano and then is slightly modified to fit inside on the more compact NU1X along with having special technology “hammers” which are sensed by high speed optical sensors.
This translates the movement of those hammers and keys into “real-time” sound that calculates a sound reproduction with a huge expressive dynamic range of tone all initiated by hundreds of moving wooden key action parts to give the player finger control and response like no other digital upright piano out there. The Yamaha NU1X is produced for one primary reason…to be a piano offering a natural, organic playing experience not available in any other digital piano until you reach $9000 and at that point it’s the new Yamaha N1X hybrid digital piano with natural acoustic Grand Piano Key Action instead of an acoustic upright key action found in the NU1X.
The NU1X has 2 amazing sampled full stereo piano sounds combined with physical modeled resonances from the Yamaha & Bosendorfer concert grand pianos and these sounds are outstanding coming through the NU1X big internal stereo speaker system. For the first time you can get an actual acoustic piano playing experience with regard to a real key action from a digital piano that does not ever go out of tune, can be played privately with headphones, can have the master volume control adjusted for any volume and be able to play some other impressive instrument sounds like the baroque harpsichord, symphony strings, electric pianos, and church/pipe organs, and also be able to record your performance quickly and save it to a USB flashdrive.
Now try doing all of that on a regular acoustic piano for $6599…it cannot be done. That’s why the Yamaha NU1X has been given the Golden Keys Award…because it’s unique, special, and provides a hi quality piano playing experience like no other digital piano in this price range is able to do. This model is beautifully designed and comes in either a high polished ebony, or polished white cabinet finish for more money. Because of this award for November & December 2019 we’re able to help you purchase this exciting piano for a very special price but only while supplies last.
Kawai ES8 Digital Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Kawai ES8 slimline “portable” pro/home series digital piano – The Kawai ES8 pro/home series digital piano at $1649 price has just been given our “Golden Keys Award” because it does everything right when it comes to offering a very exciting piano playing experience in a lower price range that would be perfect for the home, church, school, studio, gigging musician, or just about any way and anywhere you want to play it. There are basically 3 top name compact pro series portable, self-contained with builtin speakers, digital pianos that are on the market right now between $1500 and $2000. Those pianos are the Kawai ES8 $1649, Roland FP90 $1899, and Yamaha P515 $1499.
Of those 3 models in our opinion only the Kawai ES8 has checked off all the boxes when it comes to a natural organic feeling key action, convincing piano sound, and good pedaling response. Based on our hours of playing experience on all three models, The Roland FP90 piano sound is much too artificial for us being somewhat fake depending on what notes, chords, and sustain is going on and the Yamaha P515 key action is much too heavy in comparison to most real acoustic grand pianos we have played and that heavy key action (too much down-weight force) can become fatiguing after awhile especially when playing lighter, softer musical passages in your song,
Although the interior of the Yamaha P515 white keys are wood, that does not make up for the heavy feeling this key action puts out when you play it and there is no way to physically adjust a physical key action in a digital piano like this. However, the Kawai ES8 key action is as “smooth as butter” in that it flows so effortlessly so you can play any kind of music and it’s always comfortable on your fingers, hands, and wrists, just like it should be. The piano sound is also impressive with beautiful tonal range and expression and lots of natural resonance to make you think that you’re playing a real high quality piano.
The pedaling response on this model is also impressive because it offers the best full size piano sustain pedal that we have seen on this type of instrument and it triggers half-damper variable sustain levels, just like you would get on a real acoustic piano. When you put all that together and hear it out of its big sounding 30 watt stereo 2 speaker internal sound system being evenly dispersed through the piano, you will likely agree with us that this Kawai ES8 definitely deserves this Golden Keys Award because it really shines in many ways. The ES8 also has many other impressive instrument sounds, recording features, serious pro features, fun musical accompaniments and styles, and it looks good too.
Generally you cannot judge a book by its cover and this is true for pianos as well. All three of these popular models that we just talked about look great on the outside and have some very interesting and compelling digital features. But most people just want to focus on the best, most realistic piano playing experience they can get within their budget, so if you are looking for a high quality compact portable digital piano that you can also make look like a piano with optional furniture stand and triple pedal lyre then we recommend the Kawai ES8 as being the perfect choice and that’s why it received this coveted Golden Keys Award for excellence.
This award extends through November & December 2019 and because of that we’re able to help you purchase this exciting piano for a very special lower price than Amazon or internet but only while supplies last at the manufacturer.
Korg B2 Digital Piano – “Golden Keys Award”
Korg B2 lightweight portable digital piano – Korg is a highly respected digital keyboard company from Japan and have been making digital pianos for home, professionals, studios, teachers, and other musicians for many years. The new Korg B2 digital piano at only $499 price just received the “Golden Keys Award” because basically…it simply “knocks our socks off!” Our team of experts who are comprised of highly qualified piano teachers, musicians, pianists, and others were blown away at how good this piano sounded when it came to just playing pure piano.
At $549 we see many digital pianos in this price range that are fine for this “entry level” price range but they are not something we would seriously play in terms of trying to get a real authentic, natural piano sound and key action reproduction. usually the digital pianos under $500 are fine for beginners because beginners typically don’t have experience playing real acoustic pianos and don’t know what a good piano sound and key action is like. As a long time piano teacher having taught thousands of students over the years I can tell you that beginning students usually don’t play entire songs for a long time, they don’t use the sustain pedal much or at all, and they don’t realize whether the piano they have is good or not.
But in the case of the new Korg B2, the new full, rich stereo piano sound is so expressive and sound so natural that it will give a piano student a head-start in understanding what a real piano can sound like and how having a great dynamic tonal range can be important for music in general.The B2 key action is also equally impressive in that it is not too heavy and not too light…it moves quickly, is quite responsive, and would be satisfying to play whether you’re a beginner or advanced player. Another interesting aspect of the B2 that really impressed us was the fact that the pedal sustain portion of this model was so good. usually when you sustain a note(s) with the sustain pedal, the duration of that sustained piano sound is usually fairly short on entry level digital pianos and the sound fades away quickly and sounds fake.
But with the B2 the sustained stereo piano sound was huge, full, and had an extra long duration time for the sustained tones so that the B2 has a lush, rich piano sound quality to it. Piano playing can be staccato with short, quick notes or can be legato with long sustaining notes and those long sustained notes, especially on a real grand piano is what makes the music sound beautiful and full and this is what the B2 does, makes your piano music sound beautiful even if you are only playing at a beginner level. The internal stereo speaker system in this model is a whopping 30 watts of power which is amazing considering that the audio power in every top name digital piano under $500 that I have played is approx 12 watts to 16 watts total power maximum.
This powerful 30 watt dynamic internal stereo speaker system not only brings out the volume in away you don’t expect, but the quality of that acoustic piano sound reproduction is amazing and very satisfying…in other words this model does not sound like a toy unlike all the other brands and models in this price range which do sound like toys in comparison. Add to that the fact that the Korg keyboard company, which is famous for its pro higher priced stage digital pianos, took their expensive stage piano sound technology and put it in the B2 so what you here is a piano sound normally associated with products that sell for a lot more money.
There are some other cool instrument sounds in this model as well which also sound great such as strings, vintage electric pianos, organs, etc, so you can have fun with those sounds as well. There are many other features in the B2 that I won’t talk about here and you can also purchase the Korg B2 as a combination package which includes a furniture style stand and a triple pedal unit that can be used just like the real piano pedals and all this extra stuff is just $100 more which makes the package price just $599…which in our opinion is a “steal” for what you’re getting.
Weighing in a just 25 lbs and selling for only $499 for piano only (stand, triple pedal, and bench optional), we think this model is very highly under-priced compared to its competition in terms of what it offers in the way of an upgraded piano playing experience, and because of all that and more this Korg B2 portable digital piano gets the prestigious “Golden Keys Award” for just blowing away anyone else in the “under $500 price range” for November & December 2019 when it comes to giving people, regardless of your playing ability, an inspiring time playing the piano.
Just so you know, this piano comes nowhere near in giving you the kind of natural acoustic piano playing experience the Kawai ES8 does because the Korg B2 is in the “minor leagues” compared to the Kawai ES8. But against anything else in a portable piano around $500, nothing close. We’re able to help you purchase this amazing low priced piano for a special lower price than Amazon or internet but only while supplies last at the manufacturer as this is a new model and supplies will likely sell quick for this time of year.
Roland GP609 Digital Grand Piano “Golden Keys Award”
Roland GP609 Digital Grand Piano – The Roland GP609 Digital Grand Piano (approx store discount price $10,000 to $11,000 (depending on region you live in the US) plus local tax and delivery charge) is only available exclusively through local Roland piano stores in the US and not for sale on the internet. This model gets the honor of receiving a “Golden Keys Award” because it is the only new 5′ deep full size Digital Baby Grand Piano on the market today, Kawai has a 5’3″ digital baby grand model but that one is being discontinued and generally sells for well over $15,000. Everyone else who makes a digital baby grand cabinet has their cabinet size at 4′ deep or less down to 3′, 2.5 feet in depth, etc.
The Roland GP609 looks very impressive, sounds huge and the key action, although not a grand piano key action, is still fairly responsive for most people and the only time you might want more out of the Roland PHA50 key action in this model is if you do have a lot of experience playing real acoustic grand pianos and that’s the kind of key action you really want. In that case if you want the look of a baby grand in a digital piano and want an actual grand piano key action, then your only choice is the new Yamaha AvantGrand N3X which sells at discount for around $17,000. The GP609 is for someone who wants the look of a full size baby grand which generally averages in depth at around 5 feet deep, and just under 5 feet wide and weighing in at 326 lbs.
The GP609 is definitely beautiful in design with polished ebony cabinet finish, and lots of nice curves and lines to it. So other than seeing a few flush mounted black speaker grills in side the piano mounted into the “wood soundboard,” when you close the slow-close fallboard lid of the piano, you would not immediately know its digital by looking at it. The functions and features of the Roland GP609 will keep anyone busy in terms of making music in a variety of ways and Roland also has a proprietary app called “Piano Partner 2” for tablets which allows you to interact from the piano with your tablet color touch screen to remotely control different aspects of the piano as well as this app triggering new and exciting interactive music accompaniment features along with reading digital sheet music in your tablet generated by the Piano Partner 2 app.
With the availability of hundreds of instrument sounds, some very nice piano tones, and hundreds of on-board recording and interactive features and functions using an intuitive control panel just above the keyboard, this Roland GP609 digital baby grand is a winner in this category and that’s why it gets out very special “Golden Keys Award.” Unfortunately we may not be able to help you get one of these pianos since they are in very short supply and there is likely a waiting list to get one…but you should nevertheless contact us about this and we can give you the latest updates.
Not everyone has $10,000 to spend on a piano like this and if you want a digital baby grand and don’t need it to be quite as big as this model, then there are other great options which are a bit smaller in size but also very impressive and dynamic in what they can do. Otherwise you don’t mind spending more money to get a “real grand piano key action” in a digital grand piano that is amazing, then the Yamaha N3X would be the one to go for, although as I said, that one is about $6000 to $7000 more than the Roland at discount pricing depending on where you live in the USA.
Lower price than Amazon or Internet
