REVIEW- Williams Overture & Benjamin Adams DP400 Digital Pianos - Stay Away

UPDATED REVIEW -April 2, 2013 - NOT RECOMMENDED - Playing on digital pianos that have a fairly realistic piano key action touch, dynamic response, & good piano tone is what every digital piano shopper is looking for. However, just because a digital piano has a good appearance and the "specs" seem to suggest that it will play properly, does not mean that it will. The Williams Overture (left pic) and the Benjamin Adams DP400 (below left pic) digital piano fall into that category and I would not recommend them because they have big deficiencies in the way they play and sound. I refer to these models as PSO's which mean "Piano Shaped Objects." They look fine, but otherwise the similarities to a real piano are few and far between. They have 88-black and white keys like acoustic pianos so they are similar in that way too and the keys even have a bit of weight to them and move up and down similar to a piano. In fact, at times, the piano sound on these two digital pianos could be mistaken for a piano depending on your skill level and music experience. But in reality, regular acoustic upright or grand piano are complex organic wood instruments (with a total of 230 piano strings in a typical acoustic piano) and are not easy to duplicate in the digital piano world. Different digital piano manufacturers try to do it and some get very close to an acoustic piano, but the Williams and Adams do not get close and I will explain why.

First of all, both Williams and Adams are not really piano manufacturers. They are created names by the Guitar Center retail music store (Williams) and the Sam Ash Music store retail company (Adams) and are actually made by unknown piano manufacturers in China. The names on these pianos sound American on purpose...to give the buyer the idea these instruments must be American in some way...but they are not... they are completely created and made in China. China is certainly not a bad place to make digital pianos as even a top brand like Yamaha makes many pianos in China. It's the actual materials, construction & qualified labor, and specific design that separates a good piano from a bad one regardless of where they are made. Beyond that, these "private label brands" typically make Guitar Center and their on-line subsidiaries as well as Sam Ash Music more profit than many other digital pianos they sell and that's likely a big motivator for them to carry and sell these pianos. That's because they own the "piano labels." As for the price, both of these pianos are advertised for $599. They both have 15 sounds and are both 64-note polyphonic. One of the glaring problems I found when playing these pianos is how inconsistent and uneven  the volume response was when playing the keys hard or softly (regardless of where you set the key touch sensitivity feature). Here's a quote (below) from a review by a person who bought a Williams Overture recently that sums up this key action volume response problem pretty well:  

"In manual it says you can adjust it (the key response volume), but honestly I didn't notice much of a difference after trying to adjust. The same thing with adjusting piano touch sensitivity. It says there are 3 levels, standard, soft, and hard but in reality they all feel pretty much the same (very soft like most of the digital pianos) and like i said earlier, volume jumps up and down."

This is the problem with the key action volume response (aka: Dynamics)...it jumps up and down when playing. When you press a key (especially multiple keys at the same time), the sound response is not graduated or smooth, not at all like a real piano or even the better digital pianos brands (Roland, Yamaha, Casio, Kawai). Both the Williams & Benjamin Adams pianos are identical in this way. In fact in my opinion, you would be better off purchasing a less expensive Yamaha or Casio 76 or 88 key semi-weighted digital pianos because those instruments behave much better in that area. An additional volume issue with the Williams Overture/Adams DP400 is that when you slowly press the key down, the piano sound is triggered even before the key goes all the way down and touches the bottom. This is not how acoustic pianos work. There should be no sound and volume at all when the key is pressed all the way down on a digital piano until you apply enough pressure for the key contact to trigger a minimum volume. In other words, the volume is triggered too early and unnaturally on these pianos when the key is pressed down and this can create bad playing habits or just throw off natural key volume expression. This issue is not found on Roland, Kawai, Casio, or Yamaha digital pianos.

When it comes to learning how to play piano, you need the right "tools" to create music in the proper way. It's like using a screwdriver or pliers to tighten something; if they didn't work correctly you might not get the desired result you want, or at least you'd have to compensate somehow to get the job done. The worst thing you can do for a piano student is to not give them the correct "musical tools" to work with. Your only doing potential harm to that student in their ability to play that piano correctly so they will sound good and enjoy the experience and be able to progress properly. Also, the keys have a unnatural (or heavy) upward resistance when trying to press the keys down lightly. It's a very odd sensation and makes playing not only unnatural, but difficult for beginners who have to compensate for this by playing and pressing the keys in a way that they should not have to. And when the keys come back up when playing normally, they are somewhat noisy in this way and distracting, much more so than other brands of digital pianos.

Another negative thing about these two pianos is that the damper/sustain pedal (that's the pedal on the right side of the 3 pedals - pictured left) is only "on and off" in it's operation. That's a negative thing if your a student trying to progress in their piano playing or if they're already a piano player. Damper/sustain pedals (like keys) on an acoustic piano also go up and down and the piano sustain also need to be smooth and graduated from small to large amounts..not just on & off. There is no acoustic piano I have ever played that has just on & off damper/sustain pedal. But unless you were looking for this when trying out these pianos or didn't know any better, you'd be stuck and you cannot change that. In the very beginning, using the pedal is not as important, and for very young small children, they cannot even reach it. But it won't be long until you need it and want it to function correctly, and your piano teacher (and eventually yourself) will be disappointed if your piano cannot function properly in that way.

These two pianos have a low price $599 internet price for a reason...in my opinion they have very low quality electronics put into a"nicer looking" cabinet although the cabinet structure and materials used to build it look cheap once you really examine the pianos up close as I have.
Understand that this is my opinion, but as a musician, composer, and piano teacher for many years I want to give the best advice I can, but in the end you will have to make your own decision. If you really think you can get something for nothing (a good digital "cabinet piano" for $599 or less), then buy it. However, there are so-called reviewers and consumers who write there own reviews who simply don't know what they are talking about concerning how a high quality digital piano should work or they have very low expectations... or these so-called "reviewers" are directing you to a web site to make a purchase so the "reviewer" will make a commission on their "referral." In the case of the Williams & Adams pianos, if your expectations are very low and you are easily satisfied with these models as I have described, then this may be good choice for you, although I would personally not recommend them at any price.

I would look for an alternative new digital piano in the low prices which could include the following: Yamaha P-105, Yamaha YDP135R, Yamaha YDP142, Casio Privia PX150, Casio Privia PX350, Casio Privia PX750 or Casio Celviano AP250. Also, I'd rather see someone purchase a slightly used Yamaha or Casio digital piano for less money than a new or used Williams Overture or Benjamin Adams DP400 pianos any day. Is there anything positive about these two pianos? Umm... they're a cheap price and look fine and have 128 (unimpressive) instrument sounds each, but that's about it. I wish I could be more positive about these Williams & Benjamin Adams digital pianos, but I can't. If you want a long term, satisfying experience playing a digital piano for under $1000, then do yourself a favor and look at a Yamaha, Casio, Roland & Kawai digital pianos (Roland & Kawai are well over $1000) because they are a much better option and are actual name brands with their own factories which use much better piano technology.

If you want more info on these pianos and lower prices than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864