REVIEW - Churches, Institutions, and Digital Pianos - Free Advice for the Best Piano Options

There are many churches & institutions all over the US (and the world) that have always felt it was necessary to have a regular acoustic upright or grand piano to get the most realistic piano tone and touch as well as satisfy the piano player and the listeners (audience). But more & more churches and institutions have found that this is just not true anymore. Technology for both piano sound & key action touch have become so advanced that many of the newest digital pianos can satisfy a lot of musical tastes, expectations, and experiences. Also acoustic pianos require quite a bit of regular maintenance in public settings like having proper air conditioning & humidity levels so the keys play properly and evenly, and the piano stays in tune longer. Acoustic pianos are and have always been costly to maintain in commercial or any type of public venue like a church building which can be a strain on time and budget.

 

I receive many calls from people throughout the country asking me for advice on what would be an appropriate digital piano for a church or institution. The answer to this is that there are many possibilities but it just depends on the building size, sound requirements, normal audience/congregation attendance, piano cabinet space available, and budget. But there is usually something good available in every case, even in lower price ranges. Digital pianos have no upkeep, require no tuning, no regular maintenance, have no special A/C or humidity needs, can be plugged into a sound system to enable the sound to get into all parts of the building, and allow for the use of headphones for private practice. Also, digital pianos can be easily transposed to any key for singing in a range that is more comfortable great for solos and audience singing, and a digital piano offers other high quality instruments that can be used in combination with the piano sound or alone.

I am a big fan of replacing many traditional acoustic upright & grand pianos in churches, schools, and other institutions with high quality digital pianos because not only are there all the advantages I mentioned above, but the key action movement and piano tone in some of the better digital piano models are so good, even a very accomplished pianist will be happy with the results. And if you need to practice a song in privacy before actual church or performance time, you just plug in a good set of headphones and no one hears what's being played. You can't do that on a regular acoustic piano.

When it comes to the physical size of a digital pianos, there are portable , semi-portable, and full size furniture cabinet digital pianos available from various manufacturers that all have there place in various settings. It just depends what works best for you. Some of the new portable pianos such as the new Kawai MP10 (above left pic) are so outstanding, you would be amazed and would having a difficult time believing you were NOT playing a big professional grand piano like a Kawai, Yamaha, or Steinway. How long will a digital piano last in a church which uses it frequently? Like any piano, it depends on the quality of the piano. There are some digital pianos I recommend that should last many, many years and some I do not recommend that may not last very long, just like acoustic pianos.


An example of a lower cost, professional quality portable digital grand piano is the new Kawai MP10 that I just mentioned above. This digital piano comes directly from the highly respected Kawai piano company which is famous for making premium quality concert grand pianos and even produces beautiful grand pianos for the Steinway piano company under the Boston name.  If you would like more info on this MP10 model, just click on the link below to read my review.

Kawai MP10 Piano Review

If you are in the continental US and would like more information on digital pianos including specific advice for your church or institution, please contact me directly as I would happy to provide you with free info and help you understand what's available and the discount price you should be paying.

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

REVIEW - Yamaha AvantGrand N1, N2, N3 Digital Pianos - Awesome but Pricey

UPDATED REVIEW -  Sept 1, 2012 - I've have played various professional brands of acoustic grand & upright pianos for a very long time including Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, Baldwin, Mason-Hamlin, Bosendorfer, and many others. And like other musicians I know, the drawbacks to playing large acoustic pianos in your home is that they are always loud and need regular tuning and maintenance. And with all of the handy computer music technology out there, it was always difficult (if not impossible) and expensive to connect to that technology from an acoustic piano and take advantage of what it can do.

Well now all of that has changed with the latest top of the line digital pianos from Yamaha called the AvantGrand series including the N3 4' deep baby grand (left pic - approx $14000-$15000 store discount price), N2 upright baby grand (lower left pic - approx $9500-$10,000 store discount price, and N1 upright baby grand (under N2 pic below left - approx $6500-$7000 discount selling price) all depending on the actual store in the US. These pianos all have the same excellent grand piano key action which is a full size wooden grand movement that exactly duplicates the movement and feel of a fine grand piano including the let-off/escapement feature, which not found in any other regular Yamaha digital piano. The action really is a joy to play giving you a great range of sensitivity throughout the dynamic range of tonal expression. All three pianos have smooth, lifelike pedaling and allowing the nuances needed for all kinds of music (although the piano keyboard does not physically move over like it would when using the una corda/soft pedal on a real acoustic grand, but it doesn't have to..it's a digital piano afterall). They all have the same sampled sound source (Spatial Acoustic Sampling), a large 256 note polyphony as well as 5 instrument sounds each incl the piano. Five sounds is obviously not a lot but then again, an acoustic piano only has 1 instrument sound, right?


The AvantGrand series is obviously not intended to be digital pianos with a vast array of built-in technology & features (it doesn't even have a USB computer output - just MIDI) let alone many extra instrument sounds, layering, splitting, drum patterns, etc. These digital instruments are made to be acoustic piano replications with cutting edge digital technology in beautiful (and very contemporary looking) polished ebony cabinets designed to replace the acoustic grand piano experience whether in an upright configuration or baby grand style configuration. Do they actually completely replace that acoustic grand experience for everyone?...no, because different people have different musical standards, tastes, and musical experiences. So for some, this piano will not do it, and for others it's more than they dreamed of having. It just depends. I will say that Yamaha's 256 note polyphony (polyphony is important when more notes and damper pedaling are used at the same time in a piece of music) is very high in today's digital piano standards, but ultimately not high enough in my opinion if your playing complex advanced music using lots of pedaling and fast moving music. That is a definite limitation and not one which can be modified or adjusted. In reality, these pianos should have a minimum of 512 note polyphony or higher because after all, even the new Yamaha Clavinova CLP440 which sells for about $3000 discount price has 256-note polyphony and the new Casio PX850 coming out in late October ($1099 internet price) has 256 note polyphony! You would think for the the much higher prices, the AvantGrands would have at least double that, but they don't and that's a disappointment. 


All three pianos have a digital transpose/modulation feature, 1-track recorder, and the upright style N2 has a concealed sliding drawer (left pic) that pulls out from under the piano keyboard to expose the instrument control buttons needed to change sounds and functions. This is a very nice way to hide the controls to make the piano look more natural. However the buttons are very small on the control drawer. The buttons on the N1 are exposed on the front side panel of the piano and the buttons unusually hard to push down although the N2 buttons are different and much easier to use. Why Yamaha chose to have two different sets of control buttons on the N1 & N2 doesn't make sense to me, especially with one set of buttons being so difficult to physically push down. But you'd only want to push the buttons when changing sounds, and in reality, the grand piano sound is the main reason why someone would buy one of the AvantGrand digital piano models...but still the N1 buttons are not so good.


As with many of the Clavinova CLP models, Yamaha only offers a basic red letter LED display on all three piano control panels which doesn't give much info. But hey, this piano doesn't do much either, except basically try to replace an acoustic grand and that's what these instruments are all about. The biggest major difference (although there are some others) among these pianos besides cabinet structure, is the on-board sound system. Each piano is different and the sound system was designed to give the player the spacial feeling of playing a real acoustic piano. We're talking about a lot of speakers, a lot of dedicated power amps, and about strategic placement of these speakers and power amps to give the player the sense of playing the real thing. And that has always been one of the main problems with digital pianos; spatially and environmentally that just don't emulate the organic nature of sound coming out of a good acoustic piano. However, Yamaha has done an excellent job with trying to solve this dilemma and it shows.

Overall the key action feels great to play (yes it is like playing a real grand piano) and the grand piano sound is great, but let's not lose sight of the fact that there is no standard for "greatness" when it comes to grand piano touch and tone in any good grand piano. Everyone has different expectations and experiences and so these pianos will either blow you away, or you will be slightly disappointed when comparing them to what you "think" a grand piano should feel and sound like. It's very subjective, but I happen to like these instruments a lot and they are a joy to play.

But here's the one major drawback to all of them in my opinion; this is the very 1st series of these "hybrid digital pianos" that Yamaha has created, and given what digital technology is these days and how fast it's moving, the N1, N2, & N3 selling prices are really quite high as is typical with new digital/hybrid piano technology in attractive furniture style cabinets. It's my educated guess that in the "not too distant future" these pianos will likely be worth much less because of digital technology advancements. It won't may not be so much in the grand action, but in the overall quality of sound, increased polyphony, and added digital features. However, you cannot really say that about a great acoustic baby or full grand piano like a Kawai, Yamaha, Steinway, Mason-Hamlin, or Boston, etc. Even used versions of those pianos, which can be less money than these new AvantGrands, are safer bets and will always be wonderful instruments if well taken care of. There are no speakers, amplifiers, or control panels to go bad in acoustic pianos so when you consider spending this much money, just know that Plazma TV's used to big the big thing and were big bucks but that's not the case any more. Yes I know you cannot "play a TV" but you get the point. I wouldn't be surprised if an iPad could be inserted in and interfaced with one of these pianos in the future along with other great things to make the playing experience even better  which will leave these particular AvantGrands in the digital dust. But until that day comes, this is what we have.

 

If you're using a good set of headphones in the AvantGrand pianos, which is great to do, then all of the spacial speaker placement and cabinet resonation are not relevant and do not work at that point, and then what you have remaining is the 256-note polyphony sampled sound which is very good based on what's out there right now, but not anywhere close to the sound of the piano playing through its own external sound system. Therefore, if you'll be using headphones a lot, then you're not taking big advantage of the very upgraded built-in speaker system Yamaha has developed for these models such as the one in the N2 (above left pic). So my advice is to think real long and hard before you spend the big bucks that these models are demanding right now (even at discount prices). If you have the extra disposable income and the price doesn't bother you and you love the piano and have played it enough to be sure, then buy one because you'll enjoy the grand piano experience in a beautiful cabinet without the hassle of having to tune it and worrying about keeping the volume down when there are others in the home doing things (sleeping, watching TV, etc).

 

I hope that in the future Yamaha will improve the user controls and interface display along with having more quality instruments with layering and splitting instead of the too few instrument sounds with limited or no ability to interact with the piano sound. Also adding a USB plug & playcore MIDI compliant computer output is essential in my opinion to interact with the latest notation and composition computer software. And that's just at minimum standards as far as I'm concerned. For me, I always look ahead when it comes to spending the really big bucks and these pianos are by far the most expensive (even at discount prices) of the top digital brands when it comes to furniture cabinet digital grand pianos that play just 5 sounds and have few other functions. The grand piano key action is great on the AvantGrands no doubt, but so are key actions on good acoustic grand pianos too although you still gotta tune and maintain those things and you can't use headphones. Oh well, you can't have everything can you?:)

I would recommend you also consider the new Kawai MP10 portable grand piano (pic left - stand optional) with wooden grand key action motion (pic below left) including let-off/escapement and delicate to aggressive touch control very near that of the AvantGrand in my opinion. The grand piano tone is superb with 192-note polyphony (not much less than the Yamaha) and stereo imaging with ivory feel keys and balanced, graduated key action that comes from Kawai's acoustic concert grand pianos and allows for the nuances and beauty that players look for. The Kawai MP10 has 27 of the most asked for beautiful instrument tones and it can layer and play up to three instruments at one time including acoustic grand, string symphony, and concert choir as an example with individual editing controls. It can also record any performance as an MP3 or WAV file and instantly save it direct to a USB flash drive. In my opinion, this Kawai MP10 portable digital grand piano combined with a superb sound system allowing the full range of tone that comes close in many ways to the AvantGrand, would be priced at about $3000-$3500. This is obviously far less than an AvantGrand and may give you what you need without breaking the bank. The MP10 does not come in a luxurious polished ebony furniture cabinet (Kawai also has a furniture cabinet model called the CA93), but the music that pours out of it at this price, is pretty awesome. I get many inquiries from people around the world on this Kawai digital piano and people who have purchased one love it. If you want to know more about the Kawai MP10, go to my detailed blog review link here: Kawai MP10 Digital Piano Review.

Kawai also has a new cabinet model digital piano coming out called a CA95 with wooden keys, escapement/let-off mechanism, triple sensor key control, ivory feel keys, and a wood acoustic piano type soundboard. It's worth checking out because it's thousands less than a N1.

To sum up my experience with the AvantGrands, I really do enjoy playing them and if you have the disposable income and like what they do and how they look, then buy one!

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

REVIEW - Korg Kronos Digital Piano Workstation - Sounds Great & Lots of Fun to Use

Korg has been making some very impressive pro keyboards and digital piano workstations for many years. These instruments are played by pro musicians worldwide on stage, in studio, at home, and many other places. Korg has been a leader in producing some pretty awesome keyboard technology over the years (all of which I have played) including their famous M1, Trinity, Triton, OASYS, and other models, and now they have come out with the new Kronos. This instrument comes in a 61-key ($2999) lightweight synth type action, and 73 key ($3499 internet price) & 88 key ($3799 internet price) piano type weighted key action. There are no built-in speakers as this is a stage piano and the speakers, stand, and other accessories are optional and an extra cost.

I have played the 88-key version of the Kronos as that is what interests me the most when it comes to pianos. The first thing that I noticed about this piano when playing it, was that Korg is using the same key action (RH3) as found in their lower priced 88-key stage pianos including the SV1 ($2199 internet price) and the SP250 ($699 internet price). Unless Korg has made some changes to their key action since coming out with the their low priced SP250 piano at $699 many years ago, it's curious why they have not made advancements in their piano key action for the new Kronos? Although the Korg RH3 key action is very good, it is not what an acoustic grand piano feels like, although it does a pretty good job simulating an nice upright piano key action. It plays nicely, evenly, and quickly and this is particularly good if the player is going to be regularly using the extensive library of sounds on this model including electric pianos, synths, jazz organs, strings, guitars, horns, percussion, and other instruments that need a quick, fast key reaction time.

When it comes to a digital piano (and the Kronos is much more than that), my first thought is that the piano key action needs to be great, especially in an instrument that sells near $4000 that has very convincing grand piano sounds, which the Kronos 88 does including very realistic reproductions of German and Japanese acoustic grand pianos. So if you're wanting a grand piano playing experience when it comes to accurate organic acoustic piano key action, this piano would not be it. However with that said, the rest of the piano is very exciting. The 8" color touch screen is super cool and fun to use and allows multitasking of sounds and events in various ways. However, the control panel and interface display is flat and and the display screen is flush in the top and not slightly slanted which would have been a better way to see and use the controls when sitting at the keyboard. Perhaps Korg thought a flush flat panel would be better and safer for for transport? But a flat panel is not near as good for performance when sitting down (in my opinion). Maybe Korg thinks most people will be standing up when playing!?  The touch screen does not work like an iPad where you can take your fingers and stretch or move the info on the display, but it wasn't designed for that. The Kronos has a solid state hard drive where many of the piano sounds reside (in unlooped form - very cool) and the tone generation is from multiple sources including sampling as well as PCM generated tones and Physical & Analog modeling, which is simply a different and effective way of coming up with very realistic instrument tones. The best way to judge sound quality is to listen to a Korg Kronos for yourself, and at the end of the day, that's all that really counts. As I have talked about in other blog reviews, it's not the descriptive terminology that a company uses to describe their product (and Korg uses plenty), but it's what actually comes out of the instrument for tone, touch, and features.

The Kronos has the ability to record and play instruments over 16 MIDI tracks & 16 separate audio tracks which is a great features when it comes to creating, recording, and playing back your music or music that you have imported from other sources. The Kronos has very convincing backing tracks for live performance, phrase creation, arpeggiator, CD burner & playback features (needs to be used in conjunction with external USB CD drive), and 1000's of exciting sounds in every way you can imagine and is also highly upgradable with additional factory sounds and features that can be installed later. You can write and compose film scores, entire musical productions, or just play the Kronos as a live acoustic piano, electric piano, jazz organ, or anything else you like. Ultimately, this instrument is (what I call) a CREATION STATION with everything you would need make incredible music for studio or performance...and that's what it's all about. If you want to create and play music with the 1000's of available quality instruments (all of which can be edited in a number of ways on the touch screen) and features with smooth transition movements from one tone to the next without delay or dropout, then this new Kronos piano workstation (a workstation is an all-in-one way to create music) with it's beautiful large color interactive touch display screen is a winner and I would recommend it over anything that Roland & Yamaha has in their line of piano workstation keyboards. Speaking of other brands, although the Roland workstation piano (Fantom G8) has a beautiful 8.5" color display screen (not a touch screen but it is tilted - good idea) and a more realistic key action movement than the Korg, the piano action is noisy and thumpy (in my opinion) when playing the keys, especially when playing hard. Basically the Roland key action bottoms out and hits the bottom hard making a lot of thumping noise compared to the Korg and the Yamaha which are noticeably quieter. Roland has an issue with this action noise (thumping) in other models as well.

As far as aesthetics (looks ) go, the Korg Kronos 88 key version is very sleek and attractive except for the fact that the side panels on the ends of the keyboards are a shiny black plastic which in my opinion, looks very cheap and picks up fingerprints and smudges like crazy (and probably dust as well) and can easily be seen. Not a good decision to do that as far as I'm concerned given the rest of the piano is so attractive. They should have used another material. But hey, it's only money and for $3799, this Kronos has great unlooped grand piano sounds (resident on the internal SSD hard drive for more realistic sound) and all the other features you could want including a more than sufficient amount of polyphony. This new production digital piano workstation will keep you busy for a lifetime (depending on how old you are:).

However, if you are really wanting to get the BEST grand piano reproduction as far as a lower priced digital piano that combines excellent grand piano key touch with beautiful grand piano tone, then I would recommend you also consider the Kawai MP10 digital concert grand piano. This is an instrument that hits a big home run with it's amazing full wooden key action and center pivot grand piano key action with let-off control, new synthetic ivory keytops, and and beautiful piano sound that is unmatched for it's lower price of $2499. It's affordable and is also a great piano midi controller as well so that you can use it to control external computer instruments & workstation controls and midi sound modules as well being able to create separate independent zones on the keyboard itself. Please go to the link below to read my blog review on the MP10.

Kawai MP10 Piano Review

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

REVIEW - Korg SP170S Digital Piano - Improved model is good but still needs better Key Action Sensitivity

UPDATED REVIEW - October 28, 2012 - Good, but not great - I have reviewed the previous Korg SP170 (not the S version) in the past and wasn't very happy with it. However, the Korg company does make some great pro keyboards and other pro music gear and has for years, so I do like many music products from this company and have personally played and used them.

Korg has made some nice improvements in this new updated version of the SP170 which is called the SP170S ($499 internet discount price - optional stand additional cost). First of all, Korg finally realized their mistake (which I had pointed out earlier in a previous blog) in the original SP170 with regard to Korg not having a control panel with knobs and/or buttons for that model. What were they thinking!!?? Anyway, they put a power on/off button on the front top of the piano along with a basic control panel which includes a button to quickly access all 10 instrument sounds (which are very nice by the way) as well as a default button to automatically reset the instrument to the best piano sound on the instrument (there are 2 acoustic piano sounds with only the main one being acceptable to me). They also put the volume control knob on the front control panel instead of on back of the piano as they did on the previous model. I give credit to Korg for learning from their obvious mistakes in the recent past.

The keyboard action on this model is surprisingly quiet and sturdy and moves well except for one thing; in my opinion the response of the piano notes/keys while playing normally is not so good when wanting to play lighter or softer passages. When you are trying to play a piece that requires a good response from the notes while playing easily and/or quickly, the notes do not react as they would on an acoustic upright or grand piano. This may not be something the average person would notice right away until you play a song where you would need to play more quickly or quietly with less finger pressure while playing normally as you would on an acoustic piano. In that way the key action feels somewhat mushy with strange note reaction time. There is an editing control for key touch sensitivity but this does not help when wanting to get better control over the sound (any instrument sound) during normal play. When you play normally, the physical action and response time and sensitivity should work well no matter what. In this instrument is does not and that's too bad. The stereo piano tone is good and convincing as an acoustic piano for many people, but the smoothness in the tonality dynamics from soft touch to hard touch when playing the piano could be better, but for $499 it's acceptable.

The physical buttons and knob on the instrument feel sturdy and well built and the on-board speaker system sounds good in this price range and is an improvement over the older SP170 model. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that this piano supports half damper play using the included single sustain pedal. So sustain is not just on/off as it is in some other low priced models, but it has a "half-damper" feature which duplicates what acoustic pianos really do when it comes to proper pedaling with the damper pedal. There is plenty of polyphony with 120 maximum notes (60 in stereo) and the design of this instrument is decent but also plastic looking in my opinion as compared to the new Yamaha & Casio. It's lightweight at just about 27lbs so it's easy to carry for most people. It has some sound editing features as well as key transpose which is a good thing, but it does not have a high speed USB computer/iPad connection output, only regular MIDI output. That's a big disappointment to me because so many people are connecting their digital pianos to iPad & computers for an interactive playing and learning experience and having a "Core Compliant" USB Midi connection is what you need to do it right and the SP170S does not have it.

Overall, it's a good instrument (especially with it's large amount of polyphony memory) but it's still not quite there because of the key action which is somewhat plasticky feeling (and looking) and a bit noisy when playing the keys. Also the piano response sensitivity, especially when playing with a lighter and/or quicker finger touch as many people do, is a bit mushy (Yamaha & Casio are better at this). I played on the SP170S many times and still can't get over the deficiency in the way the keys feel as well as the key action when playing normally, so personally even though all the other features on this piano are nice and the price is somewhat low, I would instead recommend you also look at the new Casio PX150 ($599US internet price) or the Yamaha new P105 ($599US internet price. They are definitely worth the extra $100 to get a much better playing and practice experience along with having the new high speed USB MIDI output. When you consider that spending an extra $100 is less than $3 per month over a three year period, it's a small price to pay for a much better piano if you intend to keep it for any length of time.

Korg is gradually coming close to 'getting it right' when it comes to a low price digital piano, but they're still not there yet with this one in my opinion. This is Korg's only newer 88-key digital piano under $1000 and I don't know of any other alternatives in the Korg brand. The SP170S also has an option furniture style stand at an extra cost as well as a white version of the piano for the same price as the black version. Korg does not offer an option 3-pedal setup for the piano (which is a good thing to have) but Casio & Yamaha do. You might also want to consider the new portable Casio Privia PX350 ($799US internet price) which not only offers a much more realistic piano playing experience, but also offers a vast array of built-in educational learning features which are very cool and quite useful (which I recommend). Take a look at all of these piano review on my blog if you wish to learn more about it.

Yamaha P105 Review
Casio PX150 & PX350 Review

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

REVIEW - Yamaha YDP161 & YDP181 Digital Pianos - Nice, except for the Key Action

UPDATED REVIEW - February 10, 2013 - RECOMMENDED - The Yamaha YDP161 is now discontinued and the new 2013 model Yamaha YDP162 has taken its place for the same internet price of $1499. The new YDP162 has some nice upgrades and you can read about this new model on my blog review here: Yamaha YDP162 Review.

The Yamaha piano company makes great pianos, no doubt about that, and they've been doing it for many years. I personally own a Yamaha acoustic piano and have played professionally on many Yamaha acoustic & digital pianos as well as their pro keyboards, synths, and organs. My kids even play a Yamaha flute & clarinet. So it will come as no surprise that I like Yamaha musical instruments. I have followed their digital pianos for years and they have always had a very respected reputation for good quality instruments.

Previous YDP161 and YDP181 review: Yamaha builds a line of furniture style cabinet digital pianos called the Arius, and they sell for under $2000. They have five Arius models in the US but this review is on the YDP161 ($1499 internet price, left pic) & YDP181 ($1699 internet price, below left pic). These models are nearing the 3-year old mark and are essentially these pianos are about the same in most ways with a few upgraded exceptions in the YDP181 such as slightly bigger speakers, 4 more instrument tones, a USB flash drive input for storage of recorded standard MIDI songs on the piano as well as playback of recorded piano songs from the flashdrive. Also, the YDP181 has a control panel across the front with a LED display which makes it much easier to navigate the various features on the piano. The YDP161 is more difficult to navigate the various features including the instrument sounds so I much prefer the YDP181 control panel for that reason as well as the other differences. The YDP181 is overall a basic digital piano when it comes to what it offers and it is my best guess this model will be discontinued soon for a newer version. My opinion is based on the fact that the lower priced Yamaha YDP141 and YDP161 just had major updates for 2013 (and are now called the YDP142 and YDP162) and the YDP181 did not have any upgrades for 2013. So in some ways the new lower priced models are better than the higher priced YDP181.

Both pianos have the same piano sound sampling with 3 dynamic levels, both have midi connectors but no USB (they should have had USB output connectors for connection to iPad and  computers, but they don't), same amount of polyphony (128 notes which is good), same upgraded quieter & heavier GH key action, same audio power rating of 40 watts total with two speakers, same layer functions along with reverb and basic 2-track standard MIDI recording, and same cabinet and pedals with (half-pedal) progressive sustain. Tone quality is better on the 181 because of the larger speakers (although the power is the same on both) and the overall touch movement is good with one exception on both instruments: the key touch when pressing keys down on the piano is somewhat stiff, in my opinion.

Here's what I mean; when you first apply pressure to the key and try to press very easily and softly as is required in many piano pieces as well as being important for younger beginner students, the GH action in both pianos reacts a bit stiff or overly resistant as compared with good acoustic pianos that I have played. There is an upward resistance to each key that requires a bigger amount of finger pressure to get the key to move downward. In other words, the key does not move as easily when playing lightly or softly especially when playing light legato or staccato style music and also when younger students with minimal finger strength try to press on the keys.

However I do like them overall and they do have a good piano tone with some other nice features. The key action itself is solid and has a quiet movement so that is good, but I just don't happen to like the playing experience on these models as well as I do other brands and other Yamaha models. Physical key touch is the most important thing in selecting a digital piano followed by the actual piano sound having a smooth dynamic range when playing the keys, which both Yamaha's do have. After that, then having a good speaker system and smooth pedal action with half-damper control. 

So that's my opinion for what it's worth, and although I am a big fan of Yamaha musical equipment, I would look at other options besides the YDP161 & 181 which would give you a bigger bang for the buck. One other thing, a good, experienced piano player can play almost any piano with almost any key action because excellent piano players know how to compensate for various types of key action movements and weight so it may not be as much of an issue for that kind of a player. Overall, the Yamaha YDP161 & YDP181 digital pianos are solidly built instruments, reliable, and sound good, although I would submit they are somewhat overpriced for the features you are getting as compared to the other good brands in their price range. In fact, a new 2013 Casio Privia digital piano has just come out for substantially less money than the Yamaha's I reviewed here and is a better piano in almost every way. See my info below as I believe it will help you make an informed buying decision.

Casio Privia PX850

UPDATE: The Casio digital piano company has released a brand new 2013 model digital piano called the PX850 for just $1099 internet price. If I wasn't such a good musician and piano teacher and knew what I was talking about (if I do say so myself:) I would not have thought this new Casio piano could be as good as it is for such a low price, but in most ways is better than the Yamaha YDP161 and YDP181 (and the new YDP162)...and it's a lot less money. Yes I know some people feel low price and a brand name like Casio cannot possibly equate to a high quality digital piano that comes close to competing with something like a Yamaha, but you would be wrong if you believe that. Do yourself a favor and read my recent review of this new Casio (which I have played) and you'll likely be very impressed with what you read and see..and my recommendations don't come easily. Casio PX850 Review

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