Roland CPF-140 - REVIEW | Digital Piano 2022 | Is it Good?

UPDATED REVIEW - April 1, 2022 - Roland CPF-140 Digital Piano at Costco - The Roland CPF-140 digital piano in matte black ($1399 Costco regular discount price) is a compact model sold only through the Costco web site (here in the US). You would need to add your local state sales tax if you are a Costco member) and the piano includes some free accessories along with a matching bench. I have played this 140 model and do like its compact smaller cabinet along with some of the cool features that it has. 

The Roland company has been around for a long time and is fairly well known by musicians but not as well known by the average non-musician person. It's also important to note that the CPF-140 is a 7 year old model so it is not new and has been around for quite awhile. It has been replaced by a Roland F701 for the mainstream Roland piano dealers which you can find on-line. That certainly does not make the older model a bad choice as compared to the newer model, but it does not have all the latest new piano playing technology.  

Costco has been offering a variety of digital pianos on their web site for many years and this model. What makes this piano unique is a number of things such as its compact size and it has the some fun digital piano technology including wav file audio playback, interactive accompaniment backing tracks, and some good connectivity including Bluetooth MIDI wireless that allows the user to connect to some of the functions of the piano from their iPad touch screen without connecting a cable. However connecting a cable can be a good thing to get a more secure connection and that can still be done. The bench that comes with this Costco package is a good one although the free headphones are lower quality. 

Nevertheless, all of these things make the Roland CPF-140 a fairly nice instrument to purchase for beginner through intermediate piano players and anyone in-between. But there are some important things to know about this piano and how it compares to other brands and models along with some things we did not like about it which we talk about below. 

The Roland CPF-140/F-140R may be a good choice for those people looking for a small compact profile, low priced digital piano, although there are definitely some noticeable shortcomings on the CPF-140 such as the key action being somewhat noisy and stiff, and the acoustic piano sound being noticeably brassy and metallic at times. However, this model does have good pedaling realism and lots of cool built-in bells & whistles" with a large library of additional instrument sounds. Digital pianos like the  Korg LP-380U ($1249) or Casio PX-870 $(1199) offer a richer grand piano tone and a more realistic piano playing experience.

 

The other things that I don't like about the Roland CPF140 is its somewhat underpowered speaker system at just 24 watts as compared to other digital pianos in this price range that are at 40 watts of power or more. At just 24 watts watts of power the sound tend to be tinnier, brassier, and not near as full and rich as the pianos with 40 watts of power. So with just 24 watts of power going through 2 speakers it definitely could have been better in our opinion and for the money you can do better and that extra amplifier power and speaker system quality will pay off in the long term and you will notice a big difference in how your music comes out. So we recommend you do not "short-change" yourself in this area. As you go up in price range the speaker systems get even better and that's one of the things people like about the higher price digital pianos. But even in the price range of the CPF140 we think there are more powerful alternatives to look at.

Another downside to this model is we also noticed the piano sounds somewhat out of tune or "sharp" depending on what you are playing because the CPF-140 uses a permanent tuning method called "stretch tuning" which makes the notes on the upper octaves sharper and the notes on the lower octaves flatter in tuning. This method is used to help even out the tonal frequencies and try to make the piano tonality fuller and more resonate, but if this tuning method is not done right then the piano can sound "sharp" to the ears and distracting to your playing. 

Some people can easily hear this issue and other people don't hear it depending on your piano playing and listening experience. It is definitely something that I can hear when I play a variety of music on the Roland pianos in this price range and below, and all of the Roland models have this issue under $1499 whereas the other top brands such as Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, and Korg don't seem to have this issue and I have listened to and played all of them. So you may want to be careful concerning this issue.

The CPF-140 has 128-note piano polyphone power which is fine although some newer digital pianos have a bit more piano processing power at 256-note polyphony. 128-note polyphony is certainly acceptable and will be good for most piano players but we recommend more polyphony if possible or more layers of the sampled piano sound.

When it comes to practicing your music, having a 2-track digital recorder in the piano is much more helpful than just a 1-track because a 2-track will allow you to practice the left and right hand parts of the song independently which is a better way of learning. The Roland CPF140 can only do a 1-track recording for your practice which means you have to play the right and left hand parts at the same time and listen back at the same time. This 1-track recorder is not near as useful as a 2-track recorder so we recommend to get a digital piano with at least a 2-track recorder playback system to practice your music which will help you to become a better player.

The Roland CPF-140 is a good digital piano over all with the exception of the downsides I previously mentioned. But because of its older age it has definitely been surpassed by a number of other newer top name digital pianos out there in its price range, in our opinion. Occasionally, Costco has a $100 or $200 rebate on their digital pianos which definitely brings down the cost and that is a good thing. But even if this piano did have a rebate off the regular discount price, you would still likely have to add sales tax on top of that price and you would still be competing with newer digital pianos that offer more for the money such as the popular Cassio Privia PX-870 at $1199 internet discount price, and the PX-870 offers a noticeably more authentic piano playing experience. 

The Korg LP-380U at $1249 price is another very popular digital piano right now because of its upgraded piano key action, big 44 watt speaker system with a separate acoustic speaker box, and compact contemporary cabinet that comes in 4 cabinet colors. Korg is a well known pro music products manufacturer and this model is actually made in Japan. It is also "customizable" in that you can connect an iPad (any iPad) and use the new Korg USB "audio streaming" technology to add hundreds of new piano & instrument sounds from special iPad apps along with drum rhythms, piano education technology, and much more all driven by your iPad. The Korg LP-380U has a much more realistic key action which comes from their $4000 digital pianos and this model is pretty amazing given what it can do. We can also help you get it for less money than internet or amazon internet price incl free shipping, no tax, brand new. Take a look at my Korg LP-380 review at the following link: Korg LP-380U review

So just because Costco is offering digital pianos does not necessarily make them the best choice for the money or the right piano for you. We do like the Roland company and they have always offered reliable product. But to me, it is really all about getting the best and most realistic piano playing experience possible in your price range and we believe this is what the focus should be.

Casio PX-870

If you want to get closer to $1000 incl free shipping and no tax, you should definitely consider the popular Casio PX-870 (as I mentioned earlier) which has a current internet/Amazon price of $1199. The Casio PX-870 has 40 watts of stereo power going through 4 separate speakers as compared to the Roland with 24 watts of power and 2 small speakers. The piano sound technology in this Casio model is very impressive using a 256-note stereo piano polyphony sound chip and the piano weighted key action response and pedaling is very good. There are many cool features in this model including a 2-track recorder & playback system and a proprietary Casio app called Casio Music Space which introduces additional features while playing the PX-870 which is much better than the app for the Roland. 

Casio also has a limited time rebate available at $100 off the internet discount price of $1199 which makes the final price $1099, no tax, free shipping, brand new with a factory 3-year parts & labor warranty. The Roland piano has only 2 years of labor warranty. We recommend the newer Casio PX-870 over the older Roland CFP140 for a number of reasons and can help you get this unadvertised rebate as well. Please read my review of this Casio model. If you want one you'll need to order before they get sold out because of various product shortages these days. Casio PX-870 Review

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.