REVIEW - Casio PX780 Digital Piano - A "Best Buy" for a LOW PRICE - New 2013 model

UPDATED FULL REVIEW - March 29, 2013 - Casio PX780 Privia furniture cabinet Digital Piano - A Best Buy - I don't often make super bold statements about specific new digital pianos because there are many great piano brands who produce some fine digital pianos in a variety of price ranges including Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, Casio, Kurzweil, Korg, Samick, and many others. However, once in a great while a digital piano manufacturer comes out with what I call a "grand slam winner" which means that the piano has great new digital technology, realistic key action & acoustic piano sound in a relatively nice furniture cabinet at a very low price. Normally, good digital pianos with lots of useful features don't come "cheap" and are typically $2000 on up before you get these "better" pianos. However based on all my experience, most American families want a new digital piano that will last them well into the future for around $1500 or less, and the lower the price the better. I hear that all the time and although there are some fine pianos in that price range, none of them seem do or have it all, so then you need to spend around $2000 or much more more to get it all.

Casio PX780

The Casio piano company has just come out with a new digital piano called the Privia PX780 (left pic - available in black only) for just $999US internet that now a huge competitor of every digital piano under $2000 with only a couple of exceptions in that higher price range. I have recently seen and played this piano and was very impressed by what it sounded like and how good it looked and played for its low price. For $999US, you generally don't expect to get much as compared with pianos at twice the price or higher, but this piano is an exception to that rule.

Yamaha CVP601

Of the better brands, Yamaha is the only company that has a digital cabinet piano in this lower price range (YDP135R - $999 internet price) and it pales by comparison to the new Casio PX780 in my opinion. You have to go up to the new Yamaha CVP601 digital piano to get something better than the Casio PX780 (in my opinion) in the Yamaha brand with regard to functions, sound, and cabinet, and the CVP601 (left pic) discount selling price is well above $3000 and probably closer to $4000. Even at that price the Yamaha CVP601 has only 10 more watts of audio power going through 2 speakers as opposed to four speakers in the Casio, and they both have 128 notes of polyphony piano memory. If you should have the extra disposable income then going up to that new Yamaha would be a good choice.  Just for the record, I am not married to the Casio company nor do I work for them nor do I think the make the very best digital pianos as Kawai, Yamaha, & Roland make better ones in higher price ranges. However for $999, this new PX780 piano is pretty amazing and that price is very affordable for most families.

The Casio company has its worldwide headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (left pic) and has been producing digital pianos for over 30 years. They also produce keyboards, pro synthesizers, as well as being famous for calculators, advanced digital cameras, sports & consumer watches, advanced digital technology for communication devices, and some very impressive new digital computer technology. Casio produces their own computer chips and proprietary micro technology and is able to do it at a fraction of the cost of some of it's biggest competitors. That is why Casio tends to have lower prices. Some people equate lower prices with lower quality but in my opinion these new Casio digital pianos are quite impressive. Beyond that, Casio has a new 3-year parts & labor warranty (with on-line registration) which shows they are serious about giving consumers product protection and have confidence in their new pianos. Most warranties on digital pianos under $1000 have no more more than 1-year labor or maybe 2 at the most, so 3 years is outstanding in my opinion.

The following list of features are just some of the things this piano has and can do:

• Very realistic key action with new & improved graduated weighted hammer style movement. (really feels like a real acoustic piano)
• 3-sensor (Casio calls it Tri-Sensor) dynamic response key action (above left pic) for more piano sound range and expression (Yamaha does not have this on their Arius series under $2000 although they do have it on their Clavinova series over $2000). 3-key sensors per key make a big difference in "musical color" of sound and your ability to express your music. If you want further info on this, please ask me.
• A fairly quiet key-bed with little noise as compared to other brands.
•  Ivory & ebony key tops for smooth finger movement.
• 128-note polyphony with piano resonance & longer piano sustain decay times to produce noticeably realistic piano sound along with enough polyphony for sound layering and using accompaniment & MIDI recording features.
• Big piano sound through a 4-speaker 40 watt (total) stereo sound system.
• 3-pedal soft/sostenuto/sustain pedal system with variable "half pedal" sustain function for proper pedaling response.
• USB class compliant core MIDI high speed direct connection to iPad or laptop computer to utilize some outstanding piano education & notation apps now available for tablets.
• 360 drum rhythm patterns for timing and rhythm training (most digital pianos under $2500 offer 0-100 rhythm patterns).
• 250 very nice instruments for use with song creation, arranging, composing, and playing just for fun (most digital pianos under $2000 offer approx 10-25 instrument.
• wav file audio recording so you can make live recordings of your playing (useful in converting to MP3 files for MP3 players or to attach to emails for sending to friends and relatives).
• Plugging a microphone into the piano to record live vocals while you're singing & playing at the same time or separately and then saving it all to a USB flashdrive in a .wav audio file!
  
• General MIDI 16 track instrument playback for use with Alfred, Faber, and other piano teaching methods. For important info about General MIDI lesson song accompaniments & lesson practice,
  
  Go to the following link: General MIDI & digital pianos
• General MIDI 16-track instrument recording for song creation, arranging, composing, etc.
• Arranger style chord system with 360 music styles for full accompaniment on your left hand. This allows for integration of a live band or orchestral backup while playing "chord style" using a variety of music accompaniments in the piano including Jazz, Classical, Latin, Country, Rock, Oldies, Waltz, Big Band, Blues, Folk, Contemporary, World Music from other countries, and many other music genres. This feature helps with allowing you to integrate rhythmic music styles into your playing to make your playing music even more enjoyable.
• LCD user display screen directly in front of you for easy to read control panel information.
• 86 "Jam Session" chord progression loops for learning song improv. This unique feature allows the player to learn how to "jam and improvise" with built in chord progressions with 86 recognizable "song loops" that make learning to play "by ear" fun and enjoyable. Ear training is a great way to play piano and helps with understanding music.
• Layering & splitting any two sounds anywhere on the keyboard.
• Duet "4-hand play" for two people playing on the piano simultaneously.
• Grand piano "stretch tuning" function to give a more realistic grand piano sound based on the way piano tuners tune grand pianos.
• Transpose and modulate to any key up & down half-steps while playing the piano.
• Variable reverb, brightness, key sensitivity, octave shift, song & accompaniment volume.
• Panel control button lock to protect your settings for inadvertent button pressing along with auto power shut off function.
• Connectivity: Stereo 1/4" audio outputs, stereo audio inputs to run your iPad or computer volume back through the piano, MIDI in & out ports to connect with MIDI sound modules, other keyboards, and other MIDI devices, Dual 1/4" headphone jacks.
• Console type furniture cabinet with full control button panel and sliding key cover for panel and keyboard protection.

Casio PX780 with closed cover

Yamaha, Roland, Kawai, Kurzweil, and the others certainly have some fine pianos as I've mentioned earlier and Casio even has new pianos selling for about $2000. But for the selling price of $999, it hard to argue with this model. I will say that one of the advantages of some of the more expensive pianos at or over $2000 is their better internal speaker-audio systems. As you spend a lot more money you tend to get better speaker systems in the piano with bigger speakers and/or more power.


However because the PX780 has stereo audio outputs, you can easily connect an external speaker system to the PX780 and for somewhere between $200-$400 for the extra sound system/monitors (which are small and easy to move) you would would literally have a better and fuller sound than many of the digital pianos that sell for well over $3000. In fact I have personally done this and the results are truly amazing. It sounds as if you are playing a big grand piano when you connect a good external speaker system. If you use a good pair of headphones and you like to do that, then the sound is equally as good that way.

So when you boil it all down and look at what the Casio PX780 has to offer as compared to other pianos for the same price on up to over twice its price, this new Casio piano is "The BOMB" in the modern vernacular:). By the way, if you choose not to use all the extra on-board features, if you just play the piano sound by itself, you have a selection of 10 different acoustic piano sounds and can play just about any kind of music with them. So just playing traditional piano on the PX780 is quite enjoyable and if that's all it did it would still be a great buy compared to other brands & models in this price range.

As far as any drawbacks or downsides to the PX780, the only ones I can see is the cabinet itself in that some people may want a cabinet that looks even more like a piano with some cabinet color options such as the Yamaha CVP601 or other brands in the higher price range. Also, the PX780 does not come with a bench like some other pianos do. However, good piano benches are relatively inexpensive and easily purchased on the internet or at local stores and I can give you recommendations on those benches if that helps you. As the old saying goes, sometimes you can't have everything, but for $999 internet discount price, it's hard to complain.

Casio PX780

The problem now is trying to get one, so my recommendation is to order one right away so you can get one before they get sold out of their initial US shipment. Also, I do recommend you research other brands & models before you make your final buying decision because making music is what this is all about along with having fun doing it:). There are few things better than that! Be sure you contact me before you purchase anything anywhere.


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