Thanks Jack, love your videos and hearing you play! I've owned all 3; They all have great sounds, and good action (FP-30 at one end of the spectrum - heavy and a bit sluggish on the way back up, PX-S1100 super light and fast, P-125 somewhere in the middle; my favorite is the P-125 GHS; people rag on it because it's been around so long; there's a reason for that it's super solid, super dependable and great to play). I sold both the FP-30 and the PX-S1100 because their user interfaces (or lack thereof) both got super frustrating; function key combinations for settings are bad enough but for selecting voices? Never again. You can look at the P-125 and instantly know what your voices are and select new ones easily. And the P-125 has the audio interface built into the USB port which is a spectacular feature. Roland added it to the FP-30X, Casio still hasn't picked up on how useful that is. Note that the P-125A is the same as the P-125 BUT: has had this feature removed!!!!! Argh what a shame. Looking forward to the P-135 . . .
Of all those you've demonstrated (incredibly well I should say), I own the P125. I purchased it about a year ago because of a different video you all posted. I contend in it's price category it's the best of the lot. The tones are top notch, the reverb is excellent, the keybed feel is solid and the built in speakers are fine for small venues. I only wish access to things like the reverb were easier to locate, having to hold buttons and press keys in combo is a PITA. But otherwise, it's the best (to my ears).
So I own the Casio S100 very similar in action and piano tone to the 1100 shown here and the P121 which is the 73 note version of the P125 shown here. I use the Casio mainly as a midi controller for my laptop for which it functions brilliantly. Having a piano sound built in as a backup is very useful in case the laptop should fail. Overall it's a very playable key action and I enjoy it a lot. It also is soft enough to function playing other sounds like organ and synths without breaking your knuckles. I don't really care for the built in tones much but they are OK for backup purposes. I also think the speakers aren't very engaging. The Yamaha on the other hand has the loudest and fullest sounding speakers of pretty much any digital piano on the market and I use my P121 as a rehearsal keyboard with a musical theatre group and it's fab for that. The piano sounds and other built in sounds are also very useable for gigging. I also enjoy the key action on the Yamaha but it can be a bit more fatiguing and not great for note repeats. Occasional issues with mistriggering notes. The Roland I've used at rehearsals for another music theatre group and I honestly don't have many good things to say, it is heavy, the speakers aren't very good, the action feels cheap, the piano sound is brittle and lacking in warmth. Unfortunately I don't like this board and wouldn't buy one. But that's just my preference. I do use other Roland products and enjoy them much more (RD2000, FA series, synths etc) but not their budget pianos. Just my 2p on the matter. Basically none of them are perfect. If you're using a software piano then get the Casio. If you're wanting something loud for rehearsals and gigs maybe the yamaha.... And also consider the P121 73 note version for that. I would say you need to jump a price bracket before the Rolands get good enough to consider. And in the same sentence we haven't mentioned the Elephant in the room.... Kawai. Their ES series should definitely be in the same conversation
Every time Jack and Chris do these shoot outs, I religiously put my headphones on and try and decide which I prefer... it always changes depending on my mood 🙂. But really I just like to hear Jack play!
Let’s go YAMAHA next…and proceeds to show the Roland, lol, amazing what gets through editing. Nice pianos though, really tempted by one and then accompany it with a synth module.
Since the video is about the slightly better entry level digital pianos, I'll mention two others which have caught my eye: Alesis Prestige Elite and Gewa PP3. I'm not clear about whether the latter has a truly graded action (it is weighted) but listening online its Steinway Model D patch is very good. I like everything about the Prestige Elite. It is cheap, but it has a higher spec than almost anything under US $1000 and feels comfortable under my fingers. It's certainly the cheapest digital piano with a screen and a graded weighted action from a known manufacturer. It doesn't look very rugged, but we're talking about starter instruments, not forever instruments.
I have the Yamaha P-255 with the same CFiii patch as on this P-125, more or less. I think its bass notes are exquisite, but best of all is the soft treble which is never irritating. I think I even prefer it to the CFX patch on the P-515. Newer is not always better.
4:13 oops😁 Own the Yamaha p-121 which is identical apart from only 73 keys and has fantastic sound. Note that there is a p-125a now which doesn't have the built in audio interface but improved samples
Love these reviews, but i feel like while playing this expressive, every piano sounds great :D And that's not just a compliment, I think it's a true problem with these reviews. The difference in piano sound quality shows up much more when you play a bit more robotic, with less velocity difference like a lot of people in bands - keyboards with less velocity layers can sound plastic-y quickly. Love the thoughts on the differences tho.
I recently went to test out a bunch in this price range and came away very happy with a Korg D1. I was unimpressed with the keys in the Roland given the love it gets. The D1 has the RH3 keybed of Korg's flagship units and is better than anything else at this price point if you want realistic action, I think. I don't like the sounds on any of these, including the D1, but I've never seen a keyboard under £1000 that sounds decent. If you want realistic sound that doesn't break the bank, you might as well ignore what these have onboard and plug your preferred keyboard into a VST.
Yes, the Korg D1 is a good buy if you want the best action under US $1K. It's a bit thin on other features, but great value all the same. You can add a V3 expander for more sounds, or hook up to a computer & VST software, as you say. Without USB, it does require an audio interface or adaptor cable for connecting to a computer. Even so, I like that it has legacy MIDI ports.
@@Zoco101 Good points. It slotted well into my setup because I already had an audio interface and MIDI routing for other reasons but I might have been discouraged otherwise. I realized that it was also only sub-£500 for me because of a sale, so if it had been the only piece of kit I wanted and was not on sale, it probably wouldn't have seemed worth it. But for the right use case, it's great.
Great comparison Jack, when i was shopping for a digital piano i had similar findings to you. The casio has some pretty sleek design and a wide variety of non piano sounds built in, the Roland is a balance between modern technology and the classical feel/sound of a piano and the Yamaha is the closest analogue to an acoustic piano. I ended up going with a Yamaha p45 at the time because the piano sound and action was in my opinion far superior to the casio and slightly better than the Roland offerings in my price range.
The Roland sounds horribly brittle and fake as usual, and the keybed feels like mud. The Casio's interface looks cool but is a nightmare in practice. Piano sound is average. P125 is the best of the 3, but needs a major overhaul and layer controls.
Nice chatty presenter personality, and the Casio sounds great. I think I'd still go for the P-125/P-121a, or rather, the P-121. There are some inaccuracies in the review. According to my supplier, all three models have a duo/duet function. That is pretty standard now. So why all the fuss about the Roland duet function? The "posh Bluetooth speaker" statement is misleading and needs qualifying. The latest versions of these Roland & Yamaha models are FP-30X (not FP-30 as announced) and P-125a (not P-125 as announced). The Roland FP-30X is a big improvement on the earlier model IMO. As some other viewers are saying, the best buy is the 73-key P-121 - the one that dealers and reviewers keep dismissing. In all fairness, there is nothing to compare it to because no other manufacturer is making a portable digital piano with speakers & 73 weighted keys. Sometimes, 88 is too many. Congratulations Yamaha!
In my dreams, the manufacturers will realize there are still zillions of Beatles fans round the world that need an upright piano sound. And then there are people like me who don't care about the Beatles but still want to rock'n'roll. Ob-la-duh!
A conspicuous upright sound would be a nice addition, and since portable pianos do get used as stage pianos sometimes, a good mono patch or two would be clever. It's sad how our beautiful stereo sounds get reduced to a tinny noise through mono house PAs. Some stage pianos already have a few mono patches. Furthermore, with mono patches your R&L outputs become two independent mono line outputs. That can be very useful on stage.
I think Jack is partial to the sound of Yamaha acoustic pianos and keyboards. Not sure if I agree in 2022. The Yamaha is sounding a bit thin, in 2022 - lots of resed samples. I do not like the Roland piano sound. Big pity the Korg D1 was not included in this comparison. Big pity.
Probably because it's really a stage piano as opposed to portable, and reviewing more than three pianos at a time is hard going. But yes, it's a shame that the D1 gets overlooked. I'd like to try one with the V3 piano expander unit.
